Critical Review Assignment Instructions prepare two brief review essays, each of

Critical Review Assignment Instructions
prepare two brief review essays, each of them about 750 words (about three standard typescript pages) in length.
The purpose of this assignment is to build your critical reading and writing skills by requiring
you to isolate key ideas and arguments in scholarly essays and articles.
analysis will integrate
answers to the following questions:
1) “What is the major argument, or thesis, of each assigned text?”; and
2) “Taken together, what do these texts contribute to a reader’s understanding of the topics
and themes they address?”
Try not to approach this as a summary, an opinion piece, a personal reflection, or a research
essay based on limited sources. A useful way to think about this is that your topic is the
readings themselves, not their shared topic.
Don’t be fooled by the words “critical review”: task is neither to assess the merits of the
assigned readings nor to find something to criticize. Until you have read widely, you aren’t in
much of a position to do either, and you pretty much have to go on faith that the assigned items
have scholarly integrity and merit.