A critique is a type of academic writing which involves a critical evaluation of a concept or literary work. It is more than pointing out mistakes in the literary work under study. It involves conducting a systematic critical review and evaluation of the concepts discussed in the original scholarly document. Writing a critique also involves writing a fair and free-from-bias description of the strengths and weaknesses of the original document.
However, it has been seen that many students are making common mistakes in critique writing, knowingly or unknowingly. Therefore, in today’s post, we will discuss common mistakes to avoid when writing a critique. Hence, let’s get started with the topic straight away.
Mistakes to avoid when writing a critique
A critique is also a form of scholarly writing where you perform a critical analysis of a scholarly document. Writing a critique is not easy because you need to have extraordinary analytical and writing skills. However, if you do not have good analytical skills, do not worry. By reading this article, you will have the knowledge of mistakes to avoid for writing a good critique. Hence, a brief description of all the common mistakes to avoid is as follows:
1. Writing before reading
The first mistake that many students make is that they start writing a critique without reading the whole original document. This leads them to serious problems because they have not yet developed a complete understanding of the topic to be critiqued. Also, when they start critiquing the source document without reading it, there is a high chance of missing some important information which really needs to be critiqued. Thus, writing before reading is the first and most common mistake that students make.
2. Being too descriptive
The process of critiquing a scholarly document requires a critical eye, not a descriptive eye. It wants its analyser to run a critical eye and highlight the shortcomings of the research and report them. If there are no shortcomings, it is fine. But being too descriptive in writing a critique is not the way to go. You must not try to explain each and every point and give the reasons why you think that it does not fit into the research context. Thus, being too descriptive is the second mistake you must avoid making.
3. Not determining the evaluation criteria
Before writing a critique, it is mandatory that you have criteria based on which you are going to evaluate the original document. If this is an assignment from your teacher, he will send you rubrics to follow when writing this. However, if you are critiquing the work on your own, you may need to develop evaluation criteria of your own. But, most students do not pay attention to it and start critiquing the paper without evaluation criteria. Without criteria, know that you are directionless and directionless people reach nowhere. Hence, not determining the evaluation criteria is the 3rd mistake to avoid.
4. Not conducting proper research
Just reading the source document is not enough to write a critique. If you want to write a perfect critique, you must also conduct proper research on the topic under evaluation, and this is exactly where the problems start happening. Many students make the mistake of writing a critique without searching on the internet. This results in poorly analysed work which has no head and foot. However, if you are poor at research, contact assignment writing services online. They will help you a lot in this step.
5. Presenting the solutions
Another common mistake that students like you make in the critique is that they present a solution to the shortcomings of the study. This is an absolutely wrong thing to do and can make your critique writing unsuccessful. As the critique writer, it is not your job to give solutions. Your job is only to evaluate the document and present your view. It does not matter whether it is negative or positive; just present it.
6. Giving ungrounded statements
A critique is about giving counter statements to the concept or idea you are studying. It is also about supporting those statements with concrete shreds of evidence, and this is exactly where students make mistakes. They give ungrounded statements, which means they give statements about the original text which are not supported by evidence and fact. Hence, giving ungrounded and evidenceless statements is another mistake to avoid.
Conclusion
Critique writing is all about analysing and evaluating concepts and ideas discussed in a scholarly document. There is no room for mistakes in a critique. Still, students make many common mistakes like offering solutions, not concluding the critique, giving ungrounded statements etc. Know that mistakes in writing a critique can ruin all your efforts. Therefore, make sure that you avoid all the mistakes mentioned above in this post.
