How to Write a Critical Analysis Essay: Analyzing the Weaknesses in Townsend's Argument

Understanding the Essay Outline

I want you to write critical analysis essay for me. I sent an essay draft to my teacher earlier and he sent me instructions and comments so that i can improve my final essay. I have pasted his email below which might be useful for you to write an essay. Let's start with your first paragraph. If you check out the essay outline (available on the course website, under Readings & Assignments -> Assignments -> Final essay guidelines & reading -> final essay guidelines, outline, and rubric.docx -- page 3 of this file) you'll see what is required of this paragraph, as well as how to structure what follows. Your first paragraph really needs only 2 sentences: first, the author's argument ("Townsend argues that ______________ "); then, the second sentence, which should be your thesis. This is where you need to show me the first evidence of critical analysis in the essay. The reason why I assigned this article was because there are some serious weaknesses in how the author supports her claims. In other words, I think she makes several claims and comparisons that are based on inadequate evidence -- evidence, that is, that does not necessarily provide logical support for her claims. Your task is to identify those weaknesses, places where the logic of the argument breaks down. Your thesis should indicate the main areas of weakness in the author's argument, in a form something like this: The author’s argument is unconvincing because ________________________). In the body of the essay, you need to establish a clearer sense of what the author’s claims are, and what the evidence is for them. This is important for creating the foundation for critical analysis. I say this because I think you have identified some material here as claims in a way that leads to confusion. For example, most of what happens on the first page of the article is plot summary of the movie. I would characterize most of this material not as claims or evidence, but as the author defining her terms, i.e. explaining what she means when she refers to “Thanosâ€Ã‚ and his methods. So, for example, Thanos's plan to annihilate half the population isn't a claim of Townsend's, it's just what happens in the story of the movie. It’s really on the second page of the article that Townsend starts to present her claims, and this is where you need to engage your critical thinking. Many of the claims Townsend makes involve comparing what Thanos does in the movie to other people's ideas. Are those comparisons fair? Here I think you’ve overlooked several of her most important claims. When the author says Thanos “sounds worryingly like some environmentalists,â€Ã‚ is that a fact, or a claim? If it’s a claim, what evidence does she provide for it? Is the evidence sufficient to support such a claim? (You mention the comparison with Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" -- check out my comments at the end of the article for some more information about that essay to see if the comparison between Swift and Thanos is actually legitimate.) When she says that "real change looks like" ... "compromise, innovation, negotiation, and teamwork,â€Ã‚ is that a fact, or a claim? What does she mean by “real changeâ€Ã‚ here? What evidence does she provide? It’s in those paragraphs that, I think, the key to criticizing her reasoning resides.

THE TASK:

Write a critical analysis essay that provides a summary of the article, and then a critical analysis of the quality and persuasiveness of its argumentation.

Begin your essay with an introductory paragraph. It should have just two sentences. The first will identify the author’s argument; the second will be your thesis statement, identifying the main ways that, in your judgment, the author’s argument is unpersuasive.

There is a greater expectation of analytic structure on this assignment than on the previous critical analysis; see page 3 of this file for more details about that.

A detailed inventory of the elements you need to include in your paper is included on the next page.