Writing a Critical Review

Purpose of a Critical Review

The critical review is a writing task that asks you to summarise and evaluate a text. The critical review can
be of a book, a chapter, or a journal article. Writing the critical review usually requires you to read the
selected text in detail and to also read other related texts so that you can present a fair and reasonable
evaluation of the selected text.
What is meant by critical?
At university, to be critical does not mean to criticise in a negative manner. Rather it requires you to
question the information and opinions in a text and present your evaluation or judgment of the text. To do
this well, you should attempt to understand the topic from different perspectives (i.e. read related texts)
and in relation to the theories, approaches and frameworks in your course.
What is meant by evaluation or judgement?
Here you decide the strengths and weaknesses of a text. This is usually based on specific criteria.
Evaluating requires an understanding of not just the content of the text, but also an understanding of a
texts purpose, the intended audience and why it is structured the way it is.
What is meant by analysis?
Analysing requires separating the content and concepts of a text into their main components and then
understanding how these interrelate, connect and possibly influence each other.
Structure of a Critical Review
Critical reviews, both short (one page) and long (four pages), usually have a similar structure. Check your
assignment instructions for formatting and structural specifications. Headings are usually optional for
longer reviews and can be helpful for the reader.
Introduction
The length of an introduction is usually one paragraph for a journal article review and two or three
paragraphs for a longer book review. Include a few opening sentences that announce the author(s) and
the title, and briefly explain the topic of the text. Present the aim of the text and summarise the main
finding or key argument. Conclude the introduction with a brief statement of your evaluation of the text.
This can be a positive or negative evaluation or, as is usually the case, a mixed response.
Summary
Present a summary of the key points along with a limited number of examples. You can also briefly
explain the authors purpose/intentions throughout the text and you may briefly describe how the text is
organised. The summary should only make up about a third of the critical review.
Critique
The critique should be a balanced discussion and evaluation of the strengths, weakness and notable
features of the text. Remember to base your discussion on specific criteria. Good reviews also include
other sources to support your evaluation (remember to reference).
You can choose how to sequence your critique. Here are some examples to get you started:
Most important to least important conclusions you make about the text.
If your critique is more positive than negative, then present the negative points first and the
positive last.
If your critique is more negative than positive, then present the positive points first and the
negative last.
If there are both strengths and weakness for each criterion you use, you need to decide overall
what your judgment is. For example, you may want to comment on a key idea in the text and
have both positive and negative comments. You could begin by stating what is good about the
idea and then concede and explain how it is limited in some way. While this example shows a
mixed evaluation, overall you are probably being more negative than positive.
In long reviews, you can address each criteria you choose in a paragraph, including both negative
and positive points. For very short critical reviews (one page or less) where your comments will
be briefer, include a paragraph of positive aspects and another of negative.
You can also include recommendations for how the text can be improved in terms of ideas,
research approach; theories or frameworks used can also be included in the critique section.
Conclusion
This is usually a very short paragraph.
Restate your overall opinion of the text.
Briefly present recommendations.
If necessary some further qualification or explanation of your judgment can be included. This can
help your critique sound fair and reasonable.
References
If you have used other sources in you review you should also include a list of references at the end of the
review.
Source: http://www.lc.unsw.edu.au/onlib/critrev.html
Exercise 7 Reading Text : A TOUCH OF MODERN ISRAEL: The CAT
Read the short story about a political prisoner uses magic to escape execution. Be able to give the
meaning of difficult words and to write a critical review of the selection.


THE CAT

By Zygmunt Frankel
Published in "The European"
He lay on the bunk in his cell, smoking a cigarette. The day had been hot, but now, with the
dusk falling, a pleasant breeze had sprung up and was coming in from the courtyard, along the corridor,
and into his cell. The old prison was very much like the ones in cowboy movies. The door of his cell, as
well as the one at the end of the corridor were steel frames with iron bars less than twenty centimetres
apart; too close for even the thinnest man to squeeze through, but ample for a cat. One could see through
the bars, talk with the guards and the prisoners in the other cells, and be disturbed by someone snoring at
night, and the barred doors made the prison airy.
It was much better than the foreign prisons he had read about, with solid doors, peepholes,
and electric bulbs burning the whole night long. Although the local revolution modelled itself on the
Russian one to some extent, it did not have the means to imitate Lubyanka. The revolution was also
milder in other respects. A political prisoner usually had done something against the regime, be it only
grumbling in public. The interrogations were mostly carried out without torture. Although no public or
journalists were admitted to the more serious political trials, the prisoner had the right to defend himself,
and, in case of a death sentence - these, unfortunately, were rather common and mostly undeserved - the
condemned man had the right to appeal to the President, although in most cases it only delayed the
execution by a few days.
The prisoner finished his cigarette, put it out in an empty sardine tin which served him
as ashtray, sat on his bed, and looked at the door again. The spaces between the bars were fine, even
for the largest cat to pass through, and the door at the end of the corridor was the same. In the small
rectangular cobbled courtyard where they took their daily walks and where they shot condemned
prisoners at dawn, a couple of skinny young trees, hardly more than saplings, grew by the wall on the
right, a few of the thin branches reaching the top of the wall; nothing to support a man, but good enough
for a cat. It was not the wall where they shot people; that one was opposite it, at right angle to the door.
On days following an execution, of which they had heard every word and shot through the barred doors,
walking in a circle during their daily exercise, they would look furtively for traces of blood on the
cobblestones or bullet marks on the wall, but there weren't any; the courtyard would be thoroughly hosed
down as soon as the body was taken away, and the holes in the wall plastered over and whitewashed.
The prisoner, himself a likely candidate for an execution, thought calmly that an old mattress or two
propped against the wall would spare them the need for constant repairs, but in a backward country one
could not expect a revolution to bring instant efficiency.
His decision to change into a cat rather than some other small creature in case an escape
became necessary due to a death sentence or a long prison term was reached after considerable
reflection. A mouse or a rat would run too great a risk in a town with a lot of cats, and even if it got out of
the town safely, the distance to the border - some twenty kilometres - might be too much for it, and the
danger still there: wild cats, foxes, coyotes, snakes, hawks by day and owls by night. As a cat, he would
only need a couple of days to reach and cross the border and change back into man, and it was just as
well. The Indian witch-doctor had warned him that if it took too long, the animal body would start taking
over the human mind; he would find it increasingly difficult and finally impossible to change back, and
spend the rest of his life as an animal with an animal's mind. When he died, his body would also remain
that of an animal, which would not be the case if he died shortly after the metamorphosis.
It would be fastest and easiest to cross the border as a bird, preferably of prey so as to be safe of
predators; but, apart from the fact that farmers sometimes shot at birds of prey, he wasn't sure about
flying. On both previous occasions, the first under the witch-doctor's guidance and, after his return from
the expedition, on his own, he changed into mammals, a monkey and a fox. This time, with so much at
stake, he didn't want to introduce new and unknown factors.
A dog would not be able to get over the wall, and might be shot on suspicion of hydrophobia. A
cat was best.
Behind the wall with the two trees was a large garden which he knew well. It surrounded the now
confiscated villa of his friend the judge who had placed most of his money in a Swiss bank before
escaping to Miami when the revolution broke out. The judge had had problems with old regime as well by
always trying to be just and fair, but he knew it wouldn't help him with the new one. The judge had tried to
talk him into leaving together, keeping a seat for him on the little chartered plane until the last moment,
but he decided to stay, see what would happen, and even offer his services to the revolution if it turned
out well. It showed signs of doing so for a while and then degenerated into a dictatorship backed by
terror, and he had just about decided to follow his friend the judge into exile when he was arrested. They
did not have anything against him as an anthropologist but he had also been a friend of the judge and
that was enough nowadays. But there were fascinating things to be still discovered in anthropology and
primitive magic, and he already knew enough not to let himself be shot in the prime of life.
Something the witch-doctor once told him stirred uneasily in his memory. It was right after his
first, successful, change into a monkey and back. He was bubbling with enthusiasm about the
possibilities, and the old witch-doctor, his face lined and wise, listened to him quietly and then said:
"Well, not quite. The possibilities are indeed great but not unlimited; no magic can change one's destiny
beyond a certain extent. A warrior who is to be killed in battle will not escape his fate by changing into an
animal; he will still be killed by an arrow, and the hunter might even turn out to be the same man who was
supposed to kill him in battle." But the prisoner dismissed the unease without much difficulty. He was a
Westerner, and destiny to him was not all that rigid; one could shape it to a much greater extent than the
primitive fatalistic tribes imagined.
There were steps in the corridor and the sergeant, accompanied by a soldier with a rifle,
stopped by his door and unlocked it.
"The captain wants to see you in his office," he said.
"Is it the sentence already?" the prisoner thought as he walked between the two soldiers. It was quite
possible. His interrogation ended almost two weeks before, and the military courts worked fast.
The captain got up from behind his desk when the prisoner was brought in. There was another
man there, a civilian in a sober grey suit, standing, with his hands behind his back, a little to one side of
the captain's desk. He looked like an official visitor, probably of a high rank.
The captain took from the desk a document with a large seal and several signatures and
began to read it aloud. It was the death sentence. The prisoner has been found guilty of cooperation with
the old reactionary regime, of anti-revolutionary propaganda, and of failing to prevent the escape of one
of the oppressors of the people (his friend the judge). He had three days in which to submit an appeal to
the President of the Republic if he so wished.
He signed a statement that the sentence has been announced to him and that he understood it.
He said that yes, he would like to avail himself of the opportunity to appeal to the President, in the hope
that the President's generosity and kindness would make him reduce the sentence. By all means, the
captain said kindly; he would have paper and pen delivered to his cell that very evening.
Back in his cell, the prisoner began to prepare for the metamorphosis. It was mainly mental. He had to
bring himself - this would take two or three days - into the state of absolute belief that at the end of that
period he would change into a cat. Very few people could do it, and it was only after he had been with the
tribe for some weeks that the witch-doctor began to suspect that this white man who came from a
different world to learn their customs might be one of them. The physical part of the preparation was easy
- actually easier in prison than outside. It consisted mainly of eating very little, practically fasting towards
the end, and of not doing anything to distract the mind from its task. The final part - the silent incantations,
the spells, the names of gods - were merely means to finally plunge the mind so deeply into the
conviction that the body followed suit.
When the block of writing paper, the fountain pen, a candle, and an extra packet of cigarettes
were brought to him with his supper, he thanked the guard and asked whether he could have just plain
bread, preferably dry, and weak tea, or even just water, for the next couple of days, explaining that his
stomach was upset and that diet was the best thing for it. The guard asked whether he would like to see
the doctor. No, he said, it was nothing; he's always had a nervous, sensitive stomach, and today, what
with the death sentence, it was quite entitled to act up a little. But the whole thing was a misunderstanding
and he was confident that the President, who was a just and wise ruler, would put it right as soon as he
has read his appeal.
He finished the appeal the same evening, leaving the couple of corrected drafts in the writing
block to show how hard he had worked on it, and gave the final copy, together with the writing block, the
pen, and the remainder of the candle to the sergeant, who promised to give the petition to the captain first
thing in the morning. He estimated that he now had at least four days at his disposal - two for the letter to
reach the president and two more for the rejection to arrive - and four days were more than enough.
He went to bed early and before falling asleep lay there for a long time with his eyes closed
imagining himself as a cat: passing through the iron bars, climbing a tree, crossing the garden, travelling
through fields and woods, perhaps catching a bird or a mouse if hungry, and drinking from streams. When
he finally fell asleep he managed to get a lot of this into his dreams as well. In the morning he was
already feeling light-headed, in a sort of trance, already beginning to feel and think like a cat. A couple of
times he even stretched and yawned like one. It was a familiar feeling. His second metamorphosis had
been easier than the first - the witch-doctor told him that one improved with practice - and he felt that this
one was going to be a success too.
On the third night he was ready. He had slept through most of the afternoon and awoke at dusk
feeling fresh and strong. The prison was slowly settling for the night. Someone was snoring lightly in one
of the cells. The guard on duty was seated behind the table at the end of the corridor, reading a paper
and smoking a cigarette. He sat sideways to the corridor, glancing at it only from time to time. Even if he
noticed a cat slinking along the corridor towards the courtyard door he might wonder what it was looking
for, but it was extremely unlikely that he would fire at it, and if he did, even less likely that he would hit it.
The prisoner undressed except for his underwear and, once under the blanket, removed his vest and
underpants as well. The blanket was coarse and not very clean, and it was a little chilly to lie there naked,
but he did not want to have to disengage himself from the underwear afterwards.
The prison was silent now, with the snores from a cell at the end of the corridor barely audible.
He pulled the blanket over his head and closed his eyes. In the double darkness, of the cell
and the blanket, silent incantations began to flow. To their rhythm, his mind gradually reduced everything
to the world of a small, four-legged animal. Time was passing but he didn't know how much. He became
dizzy for a while, with strange but well-remembered sensations passing through his body. Then the flow
of incantations and trance gradually slowed down, stopped, settled. His skin did not feel the coarseness
of the blanket any more. He was also warmer. He moved his limbs cautiously. His claws bit into the
blanket and he retracted them.
He crawled slowly towards the edge of the blanket, peered out, and listened. The prison was
dark and quiet. The cell now loomed large and tall, and the bed was high above the floor. He could see
much better in the dark than he did before. He listened a little longer, then jumped down and hid under
the bed. He noticed the colour of his fur: it was grey, with dark stripes, and a light, almost white belly.
The bars of the cell would now let him through without any difficulty. He peered into the
corridor. The guard, in profile, was nodding over his paper.
Silently, he passed through the bars of the door, glided along the corridor, passed between bars again,
turned right, out of sight, and crouched under the wall. There was a full moon shining onto the deserted
courtyard. His sight was very keen. He moved along the wall and climbed the first of the two trees. A
branch took him right to the top of the wall. He looked at the garden on the other side of the wall for a
while. It was as he remembered it except that it was rather neglected. He wondered whether anyone lived
in the villa now - perhaps one of the new officials - or whether it was still unoccupied. He jumped into the
garden.
Now the most difficult part was behind him. He moved among some trees, then began to cross a large
moonlit stretch of the lawn towards some bushes at the back of the garden where there was a low easily
passable slat fence, behind which the countryside was practically beginning.
He did not see the large tall shape of the dog detach itself from the shadow of the villa;
noticed it only after it had covered half the distance between them, loping fast and silently, trying to cut
him off from the fence. He hissed and took off. The dog chasing him was a large hound, obviously trained
not to growl or bark while attending to business. Their paths were converging. He saw that he might have
difficulty reaching the fence before the dog caught up with him, but any change of direction might waste
precious moments. If the worst came to the worst he could turn around and counterattack, using his teeth,
claws, screech, and spittle to confuse the dog and reach the fence.
With a dozen yards still to go, he heard the shuffle of the dog's feet right behind him and felt its breath on
his neck. He leaped and, turning around in mid-air, gave the most frightening screech he was capable of,
and struck. His claws ripped one side of the dog's face just as the dog hit him with one shoulder, with all
its weight and speed behind the impact. The cat rolled over, regaining his footing almost at once, but for
one brief moment the scruff of his neck became exposed and he felt the teeth go in. The he was flying
through the air being shaken left and right while the teeth were going in deeper. Then, very clearly, he felt
his neck snap.
The captain stood in his office, but facing the desk this time, without his pistol, and between
two soldiers. The official who had been present at the reading of the prisoner's sentence sat behind the
desk.
"I am sorry to see that the psychiatrist's report pronounces you perfectly sane, captain," he said.
"We were very satisfied with your work to date, and saw a good career for you in the service of the
revolution. It is all the more sad having to tell you that your situation looks hopeless. If there are two
things that the president hates more than anything else it is people taking the law into their own hands
and sadism. The prisoner's naked body was found in the garden of your villa. The wounds in the neck
were inflicted with some pointed though not particularly sharp tool like a pick or a pitchfork. Your dog can't
be blamed for it because the size of the wounds is such that an animal with teeth large enough to inflict
them would have to be larger than the victim, and we don't have any lions or tigers around here. The only
logical explanation is that you took the prisoner from his cell at night and murdered him in your garden by
repeatedly stabbing him in the neck and then breaking it."
"But the guard on duty that night..."
"Is also under arrest. He either participated, or had fallen asleep, or you drugged him or bribed
him or talked him into keeping quiet; we shall find out which. In the meantime the president is disgusted
with the whole thing and unless you can come up with some really convincing proof of your innocence, I
wouldn't like to be in your shoes, captain."
Source: http://www.zygmuntfrankel.com/zf108.html
Activity 28 Writing a Critical Review: THROUGH MY LENS
Write a critical review of the short story The Cat. Make sure to apply your knowledge in the
previous lesson and the review guide provided in the earlier part of this lesson. Follow the
format of the review

A Critical Review Format

THROUGH MY LENS


Introduction
____________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________


Summary
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________


Critique
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________


Conclusion
____________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________


Reference/s




COMPLEX AND COMPOUND-COMPLEX SENTENCES
IN COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN

Communication is a process beginning with a sender who encodes the message
and passes it through some channel to the receiver who decodes the message.
Communication is fruitful if and only if the messages sent by the sender are interpreted
with same meaning by the receiver. Communication breakdowns often occur in school
and in our personal relationships, for various reasons. And the effects of failed
communication can be very damaging. Information overload can be one of the reasons
for this problem. And using complex and compound-complex sentences can help fix the
problem.

Complex sentences combine one dependent and one independent clause through the use of
subordinating conjunctions such as because, though, as, while, if, etc these are also known as
dependent adverb clauses. Here are two complex sentences as examples to review. Notice how
the two sentences are similar in meaning to the two compound sentences.

Though it's not available, I'd like to read the book.
Janet is going to a meeting after she has visited her grandparents.

Remember that the dependent clause can be placed at the beginning or the end of the
sentence. When placing the dependent clause at the beginning of the sentence, use a comma.

Compound complex sentences are sentences that contain two independent clauses and one
or more dependent clauses.

I would like to read the book which was written by John Handy, but it's not available.
Jane is going to a meeting after she has visited her grandparents who live in Boston.

Source : http://esl.about.com/od/writingadvanced/a/Compound-Complex-Sentence-
Worksheet.htm


Activity 30 FROM SIMPLE TO COMPLEX
Use subordinating conjunctions (though, if, when, because, etc.) to connect the sentences into
one complex sentence.

Complex Sentence Worksheet

Name ___________________________ Date _________ Score _______

1. Henry needs to learn English. I will teach him.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________

2. I really enjoyed the concert. The music was too
loud._____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________

3. I prefer to watch TV by streaming over the internet. It allows me to watch what I want when I want.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________

4. The car was extremely expensive. Bob didn't have much money. He bought the car.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________

5. Sometimes it happens that we have a lot of rain. I put the chairs on the patio in the garage when we have rain.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________



Name:___________________________ Date:_________________






Activity 31 Repairing Communication Breakdown
Combine the sentences to make one compound complex sentence.

Compound Complex Sentence Worksheet


Name ___________________ Date ___________ Score _________

1. Susan teaches the kids who live in the neighborhood. They meet in the evenings after
she comes home from work.
______________________________________________________________________
__________________________________

2. Anthony told us about the assembly of the products. Unfortunately, he didn't tell us about
where they were made.
______________________________________________________________________
__________________________________

3. The doctor wants to prescribe physically therapy, and he asked me to see a specialist.
He recommended Dr. Smith.
______________________________________________________________________
__________________________________

4. The eagles attract many tourists. They live in the local mountain range. Unfortunately,
the politicians still refuse to protect them.
______________________________________________________________________
__________________________________

5. I don't like the food. The staff prepares the food. I also do not like their unfriendly
attitude.
______________________________________________________________________
__________________________________