Module

G12-EAPP-MELC 6
6
Week
CRITICAL APPROACHES IN WRITING A CRITIQUE
4
I What I Need to Know?

.Learning Competency 6:
Uses appropriate critical writing a critique such as formalism, feminism, etc.

At the end of the module, you should be able to:

1. define critique;
2. identify the various approaches writing a critique;
3. criticize the texts using the different approaches of criticism; and
4. apply the appropriate critical approaches in writing your critique.

D What I Know?

Activity 1: SAY SOMETHING

Directions: Take a look at this picture and give at least five (5) points that
you see in the picture. Write your answers in your notebook

Process Questions: Write your answers in

your notebook.

1. How did you find the picture?

2. By looking at the picture, are you thinking
about the beautiful nature?
3. What about the location?
4. Did it cross to your mind who is responsible
of taking care of the nature?
5. What about the feeling of the lady jumping
onto the water?
6. Did you ask yourself if you would want to do
the same?
7. What about the reasons why God has
created this nature for us?
8. Have you not wondered how God created the
beautiful world?

All these questions will be answered critically by using different approaches.

This activity leads you to learn how to write criticism.
 D What is It?

What is critique?

A critique is a careful analysis of an argument to determine what is said, how

well the points are made, what assumptions underlie the argument, what issues are
overlooked, and what implications are drawn from such observations. It is a systematic,
yet personal response and evaluation of what you read.

It is a genre of academic writing that briefly summarizes and critically evaluates

a work or concept.

Critiques can be used to carefully analyze a variety of works such as:

• Creative works – novels, exhibits, film, images, poetry
• Research – monographs, journal articles, systematic reviews, theories
• Media – news reports, feature articles

Like an essay, a critique uses a formal, academic writing style and has a clear
structure, that is, an introduction, body and conclusion. However, the body of a critique
includes a summary of the work and a detailed evaluation. The purpose of an
evaluation is to gauge the usefulness or impact of a work in a particular field.

Why do we write critiques?

Writing a critique on a work helps us to develop:

• A knowledge of the work’s subject area or related works.
• An understanding of the work’s purpose, intended audience, development of
argument, structure of evidence or creative style.
• A recognition of the strengths and weaknesses of the work.

How to write a critique

Before you start writing, it is important to have a thorough understanding of the

work that will be critiqued.

• Study the work under discussion.

• Make notes on key parts of the work.
• Develop an understanding of the main argument or purpose being expressed in the
work.
• Consider how the work relates to a broader issue or context.

Read about the critical approaches. You can highlight some important ideas.
You can use these in expressing your views.

The following are the different approaches in writing a critique:

1. Formalist: This approach regards literature as “a unique form of understanding the

work are contained within the work itself. Of particular interest to the formalist critic
are the elements of form—style, structure, tone, imagery, etc.— that are found
within the text. A primary goal for formalist critics is to determine how such
elements work together with the text’s content to shape its effects upon readers.
.
Questions to be Asked for Formalistic Approach

A. How is the work’s structure unified?

B. How do various elements of the work reinforce its meaning?
C. What recurring patterns (repeated or related words, images, etc.) can you find?
D. What is the effect of these patterns or motifs?
E. How does repetition reinforce the theme(s)?
F. How does the writer’s diction reveal or reflect the work’s meaning?
G. What is the effect of the plot, and what parts specifically produce that effect?
H. What figures of speech are used? (metaphors, similes, etc.)
I. Note the writer’s use of paradox, irony, symbol, plot, characterization, and style of
narration.
J. What effects are produced? Do any of these relate to one another or to the theme?
K. Is there a relationship between the beginning and the end of the story?
L. What tone and mood are created at various parts of the work?
M. How does the author create tone and mood? What relationship is there between
tone and mood and the effect of the story?
N. How do the various elements interact to create a unified whole?

2. Gender Criticism: This approach “examines how sexual identity influences the
creation and reception of literary works.” Originally an offshoot of feminist movements,
gender criticism today includes a number of approaches, including the so-called
“masculinist” approach recently advocated by poet Robert Bly. The bulk of gender
criticism, however, is feminist and takes as a central precept that the patriarchal
attitudes that have dominated western thought have resulted, consciously or
unconsciously, in literature “full of unexamined ‘male-produced’ assumptions.”
1. Feminist criticism attempts to correct this imbalance by analyzing and combatting
such attitudes—by questioning, for example, why none of the characters in
Shakespeare’s play Othello ever challenge the right of a husband to murder a wife
accused of adultery. Other goals of feminist critics include “analyzing how sexual
identity influences the reader of a text” and “examining how the images of men and
women in imaginative literature reflect or reject the social forces that have historically
kept the sexes from achieving total equality.”

Feminist Criticism examines images of women and concepts of the feminine

in myth and literature; uses the psychological, archetypal, and sociological
approaches; often focuses on female characters who have been neglected in previous
criticism. Feminist critics attempt to correct or supplement what they regard as a
predominantly male-dominated critical perspective.

Questions to be asked for Feministic Approach

A. How are women’s lives portrayed in the work?

B. Is the form and content of the work influenced by the writer’s gender?
C. How do male and female characters relate to one another? Are these
 relationships sources of conflict? Are these conflicts resolved?
D. Does the work challenge or affirm traditional views of women?
E. How do the images of women in the story reflect patriarchal social forces that have
impeded women’s efforts to achieve full equality with men?
F. What marital expectations are imposed on the characters? What effect do these
expectations have?
G. What behavioral expectations are imposed on the characters? What effect do
these expectations have?
H. If a female character were male, how would the story be different (and vice versa)?
I. How does the marital status of a character affect her decisions or happiness?

4. Historical: This approach “seeks to understand a literary work by investigating the

social, cultural, and intellectual context that produced it—a context that necessarily
includes the artist’s biography and milieu.” A key goal for historical critics is to
understand the effect of a literary work upon its original readers.

Questions to be Asked for Formalistic Approach

A. How does it reflect the time in which it was written?

B. How accurately does the story depict the time in which it is set?
C. What literary or historical influences helped to shape the form and content of the
work?
D. How does the story reflect the attitudes and beliefs of the time in which it was written
or set? (Consider beliefs and attitudes related to race, religion, politics, gender,
society, philosophy, etc.)
E. What other literary works may have influenced the writer?
F. What historical events or movements might have influenced this writer?
G. How would characters and events in this story have been viewed by the writer’s
contemporaries?
H. Does the story reveal or contradict the prevailing values of the time in which it was
written? Does it provide an opposing view of the period’s prevailing values?
I. How important is it the historical context (the work’s and the reader’s) to interpreting
the work?

5. Reader-Response Criticism: This approach takes as a fundamental tenet that

“literature” exists not as an artifact upon a printed page but as a transaction between the
physical text and the mind of a reader. It attempts “to describe what happens in the reader’s
mind while interpreting a text” and reflects that reading, like writing, is a creative process.

6. Structuralism focused on how human behavior is determined by social, cultural and

psychological structures. It tended to offer a single unified approach to human life that would
embrace all disciplines. The essence of structuralism is the belief that “things cannot be
understood in isolation, they have to be seen in the context of larger structures which contain
them. For example, the structuralist analysis of Donne’s poem, Good Morrow, demands more
focus on the relevant genre, the concept of courtly love, rather than on the close reading of
the formal elements of the text.

7. Sociological focuses on man’s relationship to others in society, politics, religion, and

business.
 Questions to be asked for Sociological Approach
A. What is the relationship between the characters and their society?
B. Does the story address societal issues, such as race, gender, and class?
C. How do social forces shape the power relationships between groups or classes
of people in the story? Who has the power, and who doesn’t? Why?
D. How does the story reflect the Great American Dream?
E. How does the story reflect urban, rural, or suburban values?
F. What does the work say about economic or social power? Who has it and who
doesn’t? Any Marxist leanings evident?
G. Does the story address issues of economic exploitation? What role does
money play?
H. How do economic conditions determine the direction of the characters’ lives?
I. Does the work challenge or affirm the social order it depicts?
J. Can the protagonist’s struggle be seen as symbolic of a larger class struggle?
K. How does the microcosm (small world) of the story reflect the macrocosm (large
world) of the society in which it was composed?
L. Do any of the characters correspond to types of government, such as a
dictatorship, democracy, communism, socialism, fascism, etc.? What attitudes
toward these political structures/systems are expressed in the work?

Now, you have learned the basic principles of writing criticisms. Let’s apply our
skill by doing these activities.

E What’s More?

ACTIVITY 2
Directions: Summarize what you have read by completing the table with what you
understood. Write your answers in your notebook.

APPROACHES IN
LITERARY WHAT IT IS HOW IT IS DONE
CRITICISM (DEFINITION) (TECHNIQUE IN WRITING)
Example: This approach regards A primary goal for formalist
literature as “a unique form critics is to determine how
Formalism of human knowledge that elements of form (style,
needs to be examined on structure, tone, imagery,
its own terms.” etc.) work together with the
text’s content to shape its
effects upon readers.
 You have just been given several approaches in literary criticism that you can
use when you make your own review or critique. You can use this in the following
activities. Just remember to apply which is easy for you to do and follow the
techniques in using it.

ACTIVITY 3. READ CRITICALLY

Activities 1-3 gave you ideas about the manner and approaches to use in
expressing views. Let us learn more about this skill by reading a text which is an
excerpt of the homily of the Catholic Archbishop of Manila, Jaime Cardinal Sin. But
before you read it, let us define these words first.

Directions: Get the meaning of these words from any dictionary so that you can
understand what you are reading better: Write your answer in your notebook.
WORDS MEANINGS FROM DICTIONARY
Cynic
Demoralize
Destabilize
Anarchic
Unrelentingly
Chronic disease
Callous
Predominant
Transcend
Authentic
Vigorously

Ang Bayan Muna Bago ang Sarili

(Excerpts from the Homily of Jaime Cardinal Sin
at the mass celebrating the 5th death anniversary of Ninoy Aquino)
(1) Five years later, we might ask ourselves; has Ninoy’s dream been fulfilled? Have
we succeeded in building a new nation, by “transcending our petty selves,” by setting
aside our differences by working together in a spirit of true self-giving, loving our
country first, above our own interest? Bayan muna, bago and sarili. It is a question we
must ask ourselves, as we remember Ninoy’s gift.

(2) It has been said that the truest motto of our people is “K.K.K”. No, not Katipunan,
shaping unity out of our diversity. How we wish that were our authentic name! But
rather:
Kanya-Kanya’ng Katwiran,
Kanya-Kanya’ng Kagustuhan,
Kanya-Kanya’ng Kabig (or worse)
Kanya-Kanya’ng Kurakot...
or whatever else each one “specializes” in!

(3) Cynics among us say that K.K.K is the definition of our national character, the
predominant strain in our national culture. It’s what we are when we are “most natural”,
most ourselves. “Bayan muna, Bago and Sarili” is an abstract, non- operative ideal,
good for speeches, good for posters, goo for classroom rhetoric but not for real, not
for real life. For real is K.K.K.

(4) Kanya-Kanyang Katwiran, Kanya-Kanyang kagustuhan. We all remember the

three monkeys; See no Evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. Sometimes one wonders, if it
has become a national pastime, to see and hear and speak nothing, but evil against
our fellow-citizens. Talk can be a great service in a free nation: Talk is space for free
discussion, for intelligent debate, the exchange of information and perception, the
clash of views.

(5) Ninoy himself said: “We must criticize in order to be free, because we are free
only when we criticized.” We may not, at our own peril, forget that. But we must remind
ourselves that criticism is not an end in itself; it is not the absolute. It is meant to help
us to become free, but if it becomes the all-encompassing output of our days, a way
of life... so it takes up most of our energy, most of our time, when we begin to take
delight in tearing down, demoralizing, destabilizing; when we are at each other’s
throats all day long, then we really are engaged in self-destruction, and the destruction
of hope, the creation of despair, especially among the poor who continue to suffer in
our midst.

(6) There is a Latin saying: “Unicuique suum, non praevalebunt.” “Every man for
himself: That’s the formula for disaster.” When Ninoy spoke of “the quest for that
elusive national unity which is imperative for the nation’s survival”-he said “survival”.
He meant “survival”. How can we survive, as a nation and as a people, if we have
made the name of our national game as anarchic free-for-all in a “basket of crabs?”

(7) K.K.K also means, we are told, Kanya Kanyang Kabig, Kanya- Kanyang
Kurakot. Surely I don’t need to dwell on this theme this morning. For weeks, the
papers, radios, TV, have shouted nothing else. It is the talk of the marketplace. I
myself have spoken, often enough, of the 40 big thieves left behind in our midst, and
many many smaller ones which might include . . . even ourselves? Who among us
did not re- echo the sentiments and the work of the beloved Chino Roces when he
asked for a renewed moral order in government and society? It is a problem which
must be addressed, and addressed vigorously and unrelentingly.
(8) I am sure this will be increasingly done by our president, by consistent personal
example she has set a pattern for others to follow. I know she is bent on pursuing the
battle against corruption with ever more forceful and energetic action. But we know, we
know that she and those around her cannot do this all by themselves. As citizens, we
must go “into an action mode ourselves.” The task cannot be done without us.

(9) We must begin, rather, where we can begin, with ourselves we must ask: What
can we do about it? What in our own heart, in our own attitudes, in our own practices,
must be changed? What sacrifices must we ourselves do to make a positive contribution
of deeds, to put under control this chronic illness in our society, and in our culture?

(10) If all we do is talk and talk, and throw dirt at each other-forgetting to mind the ship
and its engines, and steer it in mine-filled waters-why, we will still be taking and
quarrelling when our ship goes down into the sea!

(11) If everyone in this church this morning, in Ninoy’s memory, pledge before the Lord
that for one year, “Bayan Muna, Bago ang Sarili”, would really be made an operative
guideline, could it not mark at least a beginning? If for one year, just to get going, we
would make the principle govern our deeds, our conduct in society, would that not be
smart already? How can we “dream the impossible dream” and promise to follow the
stars” if we have become too calloused to do even this?

Answer the questions given: Write your answers in your notebook.

1. What critical approach did he use? Explain why you think that is the approach.

2. Do you agree with the author or not? Why or why not?

What you have read is an example of how one expresses opinions using one
approach in criticism. This can be a good model for you to study and follow.
E What can I Engage In?

ACTIVITY 4
Directions: Read the poem “Adam”, by Hugh Cook critically. Criticize it using
formalistic and feministic approaches. Write your answers on your notebook.

ADAM
by Hugh Cook

“Eden is boring.
Nothing explodes.
There are no trains to fall off the tracks.
And Adam finds himself
With something missing.
Comic books? Broadband? Balsamic vinegar?
Pachinko? Razor blades? Plasma TV?
He's aware of an itch
And scratching
Has yet to be invented.
He eyes the fruit,
The One Forbidden Thing.
"Not yet," says the serpent,
Who's seen the script.
But Adam is engineered for impatience:
Quests, missions, objectives,
Grails unholy or otherwise.
"Out!" says the angel.
And Adam shrugs,
Loses the core,
Strides to the open gate.
Something on two legs
Is running after him.

Cook, Hugh - Adam. 2003

A What I have Learned?

ACTIVITY 5: PONDER TIME

Directions: Complete the paragraph with the necessary words or sentences that best
describe what you have learned, realized and wish to know more. Write your paragraph
in your notebook. Follow the format below.

I understand that _____________________________________________.

I realize that ________________________________________________.
I wish to know more about _____________________________________.
A What I can Do?

ACTIVITY 6
Directions: Read or silently sing this song entitled “Bahay” by Gary Granada.
Make your criticism by completing the graphic organizer in the next page. Write
your answers in your notebook.
Bahay
by: Gary Granada

Isang araw ako'y nadalaw sa bahay tambakan

Labinglimang mag-anak ang duo'y nagsiksikan
Nagtitiis sa munting barung-barong na sira-sira
Habang doon sa isang mansyon halos walang nakatira
Sa init ng tabla't karton sila doo'y nakakulong
Sa lilim ng yerong kalawang at mga sirang gulong
Pinagtagpi-tagping basurang pinatungan ng bato
Hindi ko maintindihan bakit ang tawag sa ganito
Ay bahay

Sinulat ko ang nakita ng aking mga mata

Ang kanilang kalagayan ginawan ko ng kanta
Iginuhit at isinalarawan ang naramdaman
At sinangguni ko sa mga taong marami ang alam

Isang bantog na senador ang unang nilapitan ko

At dalubhasang propesor ng malaking kolehiyo
Ang pinagpala sa mundo, ang dyaryo at ang pulpito
Lahat sila'y nagkasundo na ang tawag sa ganito
Ay bahay

Maghapo't magdamag silang kakayod, kakahig

Pagdaka'y tutukang nakaupo lang sa sahig
Sa papag na gutay-gutay, pipiliting hihimlay
Di hamak na mainam pa ang pahingahan ng mga patay

Baka naman isang araw kayo doon ay maligaw

Mahipo n'yo at marinig at maamoy at matanaw
Hindi ako nangungutya, kayo na rin ang magpasya
Sa palagay ninyo kaya, ito sa mata ng Maylikha
Ay bahay
Source: Musixmatch
13