• It must focus on the question
• It must give a clear, structured reply.
• The focus should be made clear in the and maintained throughout the essay.
• The structure will be shown by a clear and accurate outline in the introduction of the order in which you wrote about the issues.

See what the Marking Guide says about essays that are competent.
 

Just as 'argument', in relation to academic writing like essays, does not mean a squabble, so 'critical' does not mean attacking.

Something is critical if it is characterised by careful analysis: as a sound critical estimate of the problem. Critical implies an attempt at objective judgment, so as to determine both merits and faults.

But there is a deeper meaning to it than this. Following Kant: criticism is questioning what we know in order to discover the truth. It is contrasted with dogmatism, which just lays down what is true, and with scepticism which just denies that we can know anything.

A tutor who told his students to "Criticise everything that moves" did not mean they should be nasty or negative about everything - He meant that instead of just accepting what you are told, you should ask why, and try to find the answers.

For example, why did Rousseau think that women should not be involved in politics?

The answer to this would involve understanding

• what he thought reason is,
• how he thought reason differs between men and women
• why he thought it differs, and
• how he thinks this relates to the family and to politics.

If, in an essay on Rousseau, you explained those links, you would have written a critical rather than a descriptive essay. The reader would be able to see why Rousseau thought that women should not be involved in politics. As a result the writer and the reader would be able to evaluate Rousseau's argument, rather than just say whether they agree or disagree with his conclusion.

o See what the Marking Guide says about essays that are critical.

o Click here for discussion about what a critical essay is.
 

Criticise:

In an essay title, criticise probably means you should give your judgement about the merit of theories or opinions or about the truth of facts, and back your judgement by a discussion of the evidence. See critical

Describe:

To describe is to write down. It means that we use words to convey what something or someone is like. A description of a book should leave you with a good idea of what the book contains. A description is distinct from an evaluation, which would tell you the reviewer's opinion of the book. That is, an evaluation will tell you the points about the book that the reviewer found good, and those that he or she thought bad.

When essays are called descriptive, it usually means just descriptive; without argument, interpretation or evaluation.

The results of a questionnaire survey are descriptive. They provide a statistical picture of the subject surveyed. We want questionnaire results to be descriptive, but in an essay we want more. We want the student's explanation of the facts.

Essays are descriptive and uncritical when they present facts and ideas with little argument or interpretation. Theory, argument and critical evaluation are related. An essay that shows the theory behind the facts is critical, not descriptive. Without an analysis of theory it is not possible to evaluate a person's views. If a critical essay carefully provides the textual evidence for the argument it makes, it is called well supported, not descriptive.

See what the Marking Guide says about essays that are just descriptive.
 

When writing an essay, you may think it a good idea to start with an explanation (or definition) of the terms used in the title. If you do this, I suggest you look for the explanations (or definitions) in the books that the essay relates to.

Sometimes we think that there must be "real" meanings to words, or meanings that everyone agrees on, and that by starting from there, writing the essay will be simpler. One way students try to do this is by giving definitions from dictionaries.

It is common sense to use dictionaries to understand words. But, do not treat their definitions as a secular form of dogma. Dictionaries try to give agreed meanings to words, but academic life is about competing meanings. It is about questioning meanings. We even argue about whether real meanings exist. Plato believed we could find the real meaning to the concepts contained in words by using our reason. Hobbes thought that the meaning of words has to be imposed on us by authorities.

Sometimes a dictionary will show you that competing meanings exist (see idea).

However, a dictionary's meanings may not be the same as the ones your essay should relate to. To avoid this problem, use dictionaries as an aid, for your own benefit, but discuss, in the essay, the meanings that you find in the books that the essay relates to.

Usually your imagination and explanatory skills will be needed to discover and explain (interpret) what you think the book/s are saying about the topic.

Discursive means rambling or wandering from point to point, and off the point. A discursive essay is, therefore, not focused, as an essay should be.

See what the Marking Guide says about essays that are discursive.

Explain and Explanation:
 

To explain is to make plain, to make clear or intelligible. Explanations are important in academic writing and in science.

As an essay term, explain is similar to interpret. An example of an essay title with explain in it is:

Explain what Rousseau meant by the general will

In an essay, providing explanations helps to change a descriptive essay into a critical one. (See the example of Rousseau under critical).

Evaluate:

Evaluate means give a value to something. In an essay title, this has a similar meaning to criticise. The title may be asking you to evaluate a range of things in relation to one another. It can also mean look at the arguments for and against one thing, and come to a reasoned judgement in your conclusion. In both cases, you are being asked for your personal opinion, but you must back this up with fact, examples and explanation.

In a Punch and Judy show, Punch may say one thing and Judy contradict him. Punch then hits Judy who hits him back. Punch hits harder, Judy drops dead, the policeman arrests Punch, the judge sentences him and the hangman kills him. Punch and Judy are both dead. When people disagree they can resolve their differences by a "Punch up", with the possibility only of defeat or victory, or they can evaluate one another's arguments. When Judy contradicts Punch he could ask her for her reasons. He could then mentally weigh her arguments against his own by setting out, as fairly as he can, the logic of her argument. That is an evaluation. It makes boring puppet shows, but interesting essays. An essay is evaluative, or critical, even if it just sets out the logic of the argument made in the primary text. The student may explain her own opinion on the argument, but this is not essential.

A focus is the point at which several rays of light meet. An essay that is focused also comes into a point. Contrast focus with diffused. A room light is diffused because it has to light everything in the room. A theatre spotlight focuses on the actors. An encyclopedia article is diffused because it has to tell the reader as much as possible about the subject. An academic essay should focus on specific points. Essays set for students usually indicate the points to concentrate on in the title. So, to check whether your essay is focused, first check that the issues in the title are all clearly dealt with in the essay.

Click here for guidance on analysing a title, and an example.

See what the Marking Guide says about essays that are focused and those that are sharply focused.

Interpret:

Words like interpret and interpretation come from the French for explaining or translating. If someone says that

"We initially accumulate knowledge in the form of simple interpretations of our surroundings."

it implies that we do more than just observe our surroundings. In order to understand them, we have to explain them to ourselves.

We may see a carrot as something red and pointed, as the root of a plant, as something we can eat, as a symbol for sex or even as a baby space rocket.

Each of these interpretations contains some of our own imagination, as well as our observations, although some of them contain more imagination than others.

If you are asked to interpret a a book, extract or other piece of writing, you need to bring out its meaning. Interpret is similar to explain.

Interpretation: To interpret an author you need to put something of yourself into the interpretation. One person's interpretation of what Wollstonecraft means by reason, for example, will probably not be the same as another's. It is therefore necessary to show how your interpretation fits in with what Wollstonecraft (or whoever) said. As part of the answer, you can (and probably should) say what you think about the issues the author raises. Before doing this, however, you should fully explain to your reader what those issues are.

Critical interpretation is a phrase tutors find easy to use but difficult to explain.

Being critical

• may mean that you have said what you think about the issues the author raises.

   

• It should not mean (or just mean) that you have made an attack on the author or that you have listed the author's faults.

   

• It may mean that, as part of your full explanation of the author, you have asked questions about the adequacy of some aspects of the theory.

   

• It may mean that you have drawn out implications from the theory. It could mean, for example, that in discussing what Wollstonecraft means by reason you have examined the implications for gender relations today.

The critical aspect of your critical interpretation should add to the reader's understanding of the author rather than detracting from or praising the author.