Critical Analysis of Selected Essay

Assignment Description

Write a critical analysis of  Stegemann’s “Learning Disabilities in Canada,” Miyagawa’s “A Sorry State,” Dysart-Gale’s “Social Justice and Social Determinants of Health,” or Shade’s “Missing in Action: Gender in Canada’s Digital Economy Agenda.” Your analysis should consider how the essay’s features of structure, argumentation, and/or rhetoric work to present and support its thesis.  You are to identify and evaluate the effectiveness of the types of evidence brought to bear in support of the author’s central thesis, and/or the rhetorical strategies used to present them.  Ensure that your critique comments on the essay itself as a piece of writing and reasoning, its language, structure, organization and the types of support it brings forward in support of the thesis.  You are not offering your own view on the topic or subject area your primary text has brought forward for discussion; rather you are commenting on the essay as a piece of writing  you have undertaken to analyze. 

Remember:

1. Your essay needs a clear thesis in which you announce your evaluation of the essay you are considering.  

2. You need to consider the types of evidence the original article brings forward.  

3. You need to identify points of strength and weakness in the structure, evidence, and reasoning of the original argument.   

4. You need to identify and comment on the effectiveness of the rhetorical strategies employed in the essay

5. Write in the third person.  

6. Write in the present tense.

7. Proofread your essay to ensure its freedom from errors in grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure.

8. Choose words carefully.  You need to take responsibility for the words you choose in presenting your critical response, for the consequences that both their denotative and connotative meanings have in your essay.

9. Your document must conform to MLA guidelines, both in terms of its format and its documentation style.