Critical Analysis

• Introduction. Your introduction should state your thesis (what you will attempt to show about the article you have selected, i.e., whether it is a good argument, bad argument, etc.). Make sure your introduction formally introduces the topic; i.e., it should state the name of the article and the author's name. Your introduction should be a paragraph or, at most, two paragraphs.

• Background. You should describe the article in summary fashion. Make sure that you describe the article's thesis (what the author is trying to prove). The summary should also describe the main arguments the author uses to support his thesis, particularly those that will serve as the evidence for your argument, so that the reader has the appropriate background to understand your argument. The summary should be no more than 2-3 pages and can be less. If you are going to include particular details from the article in your analysis (and you should), you should describe them in this section and then just reference them in the analysis section.

• Analysis. This section of your essay should present your arguments that support your conclusion that the article presents a good, bad, or mediocre argument. For example, are there particular premises that are not very plausible? Which are they and why are they not plausible? Are there gaps in the author's reasoning? What are they and why are they a problem?

You should rely on the article itself for the evidence supporting your arguments about particular parts of the article. This is not a research project. If you decide to read about the subject of the article in order to clarify your thinking, you may, but the evidence for your argument should be from the article itself, not external sources, because it is the author's arguments you are evaluating. Indeed, the page limit is sufficiently low that you will not be able to present any research you could do adequately.

• Conclusion.

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