How Do I Critique an Editorial?
The main purposes of writing an critique are to:
Describe the main ideas and what the author wants to express
Analyze each important and interesting point to develop an explanation of the article’s main points
Interpret the author’s intentions of persuasive appeals, reasoning methods, and use of evidence.
Summarize and evaluate the value of the article’s persuasiveness, stating whether the author’s use of evidence and appeals persuaded you or not, with supporting evidence through the SAA model.
SAA Model:
Summarize -In a fair, unbiased way explain what the most important thing you learned from this piece. Use pull quotes to help showcase important “take away” messages from the article to help summarize the piece of writing.
Analyze- the claims or assertions is the author making. Questions to consider…
Name each of the claims/assertions the author is making
What evidence does the author use to support these claims?
Does the author do a good job of convincing you that these claims and evidence are accurate? Why or why not?
Does the writer omit some parts of the evidence or argument? How does this manipulate to argument?
Does the writer fairly and accurately represent all major viewpoints regarding the issue?
Assess – Interpret the author’s intention. Questions to consider…
What is the point of this article?
What is the author trying to convince the audience?
Is the author, article as a whole, or evidence used biased in any way?
How does this help or hurt the author’s ability to persuade?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of the argument?
Do you agree or disagree with the article and/or author? Why or why not?
Tips to writing an Editorial Critique:
Read the article for the first time to understand its main ideas. If you are unsure whether you understand it clearly, reread it.
Once you feel you understand what the article is talking about, read the article again and make notes as you go. If you find any interesting sentences or paragraphs that you think should be discussed, you should quote them as evidence to support your discussion.
Although called a ‘critique’, an editorial critique does not only give critical and negative feedback on an article. A good critique should include both positive praise and negative criticism for a particular work.
Use direct quotations or paraphrases of the author’s work and cite where the article this was found where appropriate to avoid accusations of plagiarism.
Grading Criteria:
Editorial Critiques should be typed, double spaced in 12-point Times New Roman font with 1 inch margins surrounding the document. The editorial should range from 500 – 1,000 words in length (2-4 pages) and include a works cited at the end of the document with references listed in either APA or MLA format.
Reminder that students can get Free Microsoft 365 (Microsoft Word, Publisher and PowerPoint) Download
✏️ How To: Cite Sources
Students will be graded based on their ability to follow the SAA model in an effective manner, answering all “questions to consider” in detail, providing insight and interpretation of the argumentative process used by the author – connecting concepts and key terms used within our class lectures to help explain and described these aspects.
