okay this is the third video on how to write an essay in each previous video we focused on a specific kind of essay and the first video is how to write a personal observation essay in the second video how to do a reader response essay in this video we’re gonna focus on how to write a critical analysis essay so let’s get started and all the previous videos I started by defining what that type of essay is no just because I’m using these terms critical analysis or critical analyses doesn’t mean it can’t be used a different way or it might mean something different but this is a kind of writing it might have a different name to explain the same thing basically this is an essay that uses a process of criticism to analyze something this is extremely common when it comes to an essay I’m calling it critical analyses specifically what I’m talking about this I’m talking about the the author of an essay is looking at something else that someone else has produced and is using criticized criticism to analyze it right you can find that and probably just about any kind of essay but we’re talking about one writing about something else in this case probably a written text okay so how do you actually write this kind of essay well I’m gonna point out four things one you’re gonna use a process of analysis just like I’ve said you are going to develop a thesis statement you’re gonna identify evidence to support that thesis and then you’re going to go through and write your argument no three of those steps should sound really familiar because there’s their what you do with just about any essay right so we’ll talk about it in the context of the critical analysis essay a lot of this is gonna sound like review because it is so let’s get started alright so when you’re writing a critical analysis essay you need to use a process to help you to go about criticizing the work whether it’s a movie it’s a poem it’s a short story it’s another essay a speech whatever it is you’re analyzing you using a process will help you to go through the steps to be effective to be logical and efficient and thorough right okay so you need to look at what the author’s claims are look at how or she presents those claims and go through all the different rhetorical strategies the methods that they use and then look at them for how effective they are I talked about this in the previous video on how to analyze an argument you can look back on that and that’ll help you to go through this process that I’m talking about having done that then you need to come to a reasoned decision yourself after you’ve done the work you’ve taken notes you’ve read critically you’ve analyzed the argument you come to a conclusion okay this is what I think about that great you need to be able to identify what your thesis statement is because you’re going to be presenting your thoughts to someone else and you need to be effective and efficient when you do it so you need to be able to identify a thesis after you’ve come to a conclusion you need to be able to take that thesis write it as a concise sentence that articulates your own claim about the source when you’ve done that then you like previous reader you’re making a promise that you need to keep and everything you say from that point on needs to justify that thesis that you’ve made so if you’re saying so-and-so’s essay is flawed because blah yetee and yeah then you need to be able to explain blog out again yeah to prove your point right or if you say it’s it’s you know what it’s a persuasive argument but it forgets this then you point that out or if you’re saying it’s a great argument because this whatever right you can analyze something critically without agreeing with it 100% or disagreeing with it 100% there could be a gray area you just need to be clear where you stand and be able to explain your point clearly and effectively so once you’ve done that you need to be able to identify the evidence that you’re going to use to support your thesis so what quotes summaries paraphrases from the text or maybe another source can you bring in to justify the point that you’re trying to make then you need to make sure that you’re using an effective process whether the other author did or didn’t that’s irrelevant because you can always be effective yourself right so because you’re trying to come at this from a place of authority you need to use a strong thorough effective process you are less persuasive when you just seem like you’re pointing out negative things but you’re not doing it in an organized way or if you’re not justifying it or using examples to back it up you just seem like you’re whiny and like why I don’t like this because no one’s gonna listen to you right but if you can say I do not agree with this or this is not effective because and you explain it it’s really hard to argue you can say you know we can agree to disagree I don’t agree with your interpretation but you cannot say someone didn’t think through it or they didn’t defend it if they did make sense so once you’ve done that you’ve you’ve thought about it critically you’ve come up with your argument you’ve found evidence to support it then you need to use everything you’ve come up with to defend it right so if you’ve written an outline to organize your thoughts do that if you’ve brought another sources great bring those in you need to just follow through and make sure as you write that you are trying to defend your thesis that you know what it is and that everything you say helps to prove that point while still being logical and avoiding logical fallacies yourself we need to be aware of when we what we promise and be able to deliver on those promises don’t make an argument that you cannot justify or that you cannot support or prove if you can’t then just be careful with your words make sure that you can follow through with whatever it is that you’re saying and remember you don’t have to say everything there could be said because each essay has to have a beginning and an end and it cannot talk about everything possible in the universe you have to narrow it down so it’s very simple in your thesis statement you you can follow it up with the sentence which is called a statement of methodology not important for now but basically where you explain what you will talk about what you won’t talk about so you stay focused and just make sure you don’t talk about anything else talk about what it what your point is and don’t get off-track just because you come up with a great sentence doesn’t mean ask to stay if it doesn’t help to prove your point that being said your point should be reasoned and it should be correct and accurate I in this class I’m not gonna make you argue a point that you don’t agree with though when you think about something rhetorically you understand that the argument and the person are not the same someone can say something that they don’t agree with or line wouldn’t be possible right and even though so hood believes it doesn’t make it true so we have to understand that someone’s thoughts and who they are are not the same and the same goes for you be able to look at things for what they are and not just for who’s saying them like we talked about in the previous video and make an effective clear efficient argument if you do that and you make sure that there’s no mistakes that’s all I can ask or any other teacher can really ask for so think about these steps as you go about writing your seized and if you have any questions ask me in the form below thank you for watching