Essay Writing: Approaching a Critical Analysis

Critical Analysis

What is a critical analysis?

• It's an activity whereby an object of thought is broken down into smaller objects of thought in pursuit of increasing understanding of the object as a whole, and as an object with constituent parts.

In the context of an essay, an analysis is something we do to a certain topic. This makes an analysis integral to all essays – as it requires us to think deeply about something, and write about our findings.

The critical aspect of an analysis is especially relevant to essay writing. Put simply, it asks you to criticise the analysis. To criticise in this context does not require you to identify only the negative, it asks you to form judgements about the analysis that has been undertaken.

In this way, it can be understood as a self-reflective practise, where you look for what might be good or bad about the analysis of a particular topic.

Let’s use an example: Here’s an article from Generative AI. Below I’ll list some of the preliminary thinking that goes into answering a question on this essay.

overarching thesis. Start each paragraph with a topic sentence that introduces the point fo-llowed by supporting details such as facts, research, or examples. It’s important to explain how these details relate to the main argument, ensuring clarity and logical progression. Developing robust arguments helps establish credibility, making your essay more persuasive and compelling to readers.

Editing and Proofreading

The final stage of the essay writing process is editing and proofreading. This step is often overlooked but is essential for producing a polished, professional piece of writing. After completing the first draft, take the time to review your essay for any grammatical errors, awkward phrasing, or unclear arguments. Pay attention to sentence structure and the overall flow of the essay. Reading your work aloud can help you identify areas that need improvement. Additionally, check for consistency in formatting, citation style, and overall presentation. Proofreading ensures that your essay is not only free of mistakes but also refined and cohesive.

Conclusion

In conclusion, essay writing is a skill that requires careful planning, logical argument development, and thorough editing. By organizing your thoughts and structuring your essay well, you set a solid foundation. Strong arguments backed by credible evidence form the core of your writing, while editing ensures that your work is polished and professional. With these strategies, essay writing can become an enjoyable and rewarding process, helping you communicate your ideas effectively and persuasively

Let’s imagine that the following is the question we have been tasked with:

Critically analyse this essay in relation to its explanatory value in helping students write an essay.

When you critically analyse something, you always need an orientation towards which your critical analysis is directed. In this case, the analysis is “explanatory value in helping students write an essay”. In this case, the question commands you to analyse the essay with a specific orientation, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t have questions directing you towards a more general orientation.

For example, if the question was – “Critically analyse this essay in relation to its explanatory value” 

You would be tasked with a much more general analysis, and arguably a much more difficult one.

This is because the more general a question, the more potential content there is to cover. Not least, the more assumptions you have to make to identify the characteristics of clear and relevant content.  

Luckily, in this case, we have a specific orientation – so let’s continue.

The main thing we need to do to write this essay well is to understand the question. More specifically, we need to understand the meaning of the question’s subject. In this case, it's the noun phrase: explanatory value in helping students write an essay.

So improve our understanding of the subject, we need to ask some questions about the meaning of the words. Here’s my thought process:

What is the appropriate understanding of value in this context?

We want to ask a question like this because we’re interested in being as relevant as possible to the question.

So - how do you understand value? Is it a financial term? Does it just mean good? Or is it something more?

Further still, in this context, how do understand the value of helping? What are the qualities of that sort of value? How do we measure it?

And as if there wasn’t already enough, how about the explanatory aspect? What makes something hold explanatory value? How is this different from other values?

Now – this sort of investigation into the words in the sentence is really useful, not least because it helps you be certain of what the question isn’t asking, and of what things might not be relevant.

After carrying out this investigation, it seems obvious that the following is an appropriate reinterpretation of the subject in this question.

How well does this essay explain to students how to write an essay?

So, we have our orientation. Sometimes, you’ll find that your understanding of the question changes drastically, and other times, you’ll just find you have reached a simpler interpretation of the question.

In this case we have the latter, but this is great, as it helps produce more relevant content and argumentation.

This marks the end of the preliminary thinking that underpins carrying out a critical analysis.

In the next part, I will show you how this looks in practice. Thanks for reading, and stay sharp