WRITING A

REACTION PAPER,
REVIEW AND
CRITIQUE
A reaction paper, a review, a critique are
specialized forms of writing in which a
reviewer or reader evaluates any of the
following:
• a scholarly work
• a work of art
• designs
• graphic designs
Reaction Paper: This is your
personal response to a text or
presentation, sharing how it
made you feel and what you
thought about it.
Critique: This is a detailed
analysis that evaluates the
strengths and weaknesses of the
text or presentation, often
looking at its effectiveness and
structure.
Reviewers: do not simply rely on
mere opinions; rather, they use
both proofs and logical reasoning
to substantiate their comments.
They process ideas and theories,
revisit and extend ideas in a
specific field of study, and present
an analytical response to a book
or article.
Reaction papers, reviews and
critiques usually range in length
from 250 to 750 words. They are
not simply summaries but are
critical assessments, analyses, or
evaluation of different works.
As advanced forms of writing,
they involved your skills in
critical thinking and recognizing
arguments. However, you should
not connect the word critique to
cynicism and pessimism.
 CRITICAL
APPROACHES
IN WRITING A
CRITIQUE
1. Formalism
• Claims that literary works contain
intrinsic properties and treats each work
as a distinct work of art.
• Posits that the key to understanding a
text is through the text itself; the
historical context, the author or any other
external contexts are not necessary in
interpreting the meaning.
1. Formalism
Common aspects looked into in formalism:
• Author's techniques in resolving
contradictions within the work.
• Central passage that sums up the entirety of
the work
• Contribution of parts and the work as a
whole to its aesthetic quality
• Contribution of rhymes and rhythms to the
meaning or effect of the work
1. Formalism
Common aspects looked into in formalism:
• Relationship of the form and the content
• Use of imagery to develop the symbols used
in the work
• Interconnectedness of various parts of the
work
• Paradox, ambiguity, and irony in the work
• Unity in the work
2. Feminist Criticism or Feminism
• Focuses on how literature presents
women as subjects of socio-political,
psychological, and economic oppression
reveals how aspects of our culture are
patriarchal, i.e., how our culture views
men as superior and women as inferior.
2. Feminist Criticism or Feminism
Common aspects looked into when using feminism:
• How culture determines gender
• How gender equality is presented in the text
• How gender issues are presented in the literary
works and other aspects of human production and
daily life
• How women are socially, politically, psychologically,
and economically oppressed by patriarchy
• How patriarchal ideology is an overpowering
presence
3. Reader-Response Criticism
• Concerned with the reviewer's reaction
as an audience of a work.
• Claims that the readers role cannot be
separated from the understanding of the
work; a text does not have meaning until
the reader reads it and interprets it
3. Reader-Response Criticism
• Readers are therefore not passive and
distant, but are active consumers of the
material presented to them.
3. Reader-Response Criticism
Common aspects looked into when using
Reader - Response Criticism:
• Interaction between the reader and the
text in creating meaning
• The impact of readers' delivery of
sounds and visuals on enhancing and
changing meaning.
4. Marxist Criticism
• Concerned with differences between
economic classes implications of a
capitalist system, such as the continuing
conflicts between working class and the
elite.
• Attempts to reveal that the ultimate
source of people's experience is the socio-
economic system
4. Marxist Criticism
Common aspects looked into when using
Marxist criticism:
• Social class as represented in the work
: Soda dias of the chiarieator
• Conflicts and interactions between
economic classes.
Other critical approaches you can use:
• Post-modern criticism
• Post-colonial criticism
• Structuralism
• Psychological criticism
• Gender criticism
• Ecocristicism
• Biographical criticism
• Historical criticism
• Mythological criticism
STRUCTURE OF A
REACTION PAPER
and
Reaction paper
w/ no prescribed
structure
 Structure of Reaction Paper w/ no
Reaction prescribed structure
Paper Introduction
Introduction (5%) • Basic details about the
• Title of the material (title, director or
book/article or work artist name of
• Writer's name exhibition/event)
• Thesis statement • Main assessment of the
material (for films and
performances)
 Structure of Reaction Paper w/ no
Reaction prescribed structure
Paper Analysis or interpretation
Summary (10%) • Discussion or analysis of
• Objective or Purpose the work (critical approach)
• Methods used (if • What aspects of the work
make you think it is a
applicable)
success or failure.
• Major findings, • Were there unanswered
claims, ideas, or questions or plot lines? If yes,
messages how did they affect the story?
Structure of Reaction Paper w/ no
Reaction prescribed structure
Paper • How does the work relate
in other ideas ore events in
the world?
• What stood out while you
were watching the film or
the performance?
 Structure of Reaction Paper w/ no
Reaction prescribed structure
Review/Critique
Paper(in no
particular order
75%)
• Does the writer explicitly
state his/her thesis
statement.
• What are the
assumptions
 Structure of Reaction Paper w/ no
Reaction prescribed structure
• What arePaper
the contributions
of the work to the field where
it belongs?
• What problems and issues
are discussed or presented in
the work?
• What kind of information are
presented in the work?
 Structure of Reaction Paper w/ no
Reaction prescribed structure
Paper Conclusion or Evaluation
Conclusion (10%) • Reinforcement of
• Overall impression assessment main
of the work • Comparison to a similar
work.
• Scholarly or literary
• Recommendation of the
value of the reviewed material (if you liked it)
article, book or work.
 Structure of Reaction Paper w/ no
Reaction prescribed structure
Paper Conclusion or Evaluation
• Benefits for the • Reinforcement of
intended audience assessment main
• Suggestion for • Comparison to a similar
work.
future direction of
• Recommendation of the
research material (if you liked it)
 GUIDELINES IN
WRITING A
REACTION PAPER,
REVIEW, OR
CRITIQUE
For Articles and Journals
• Read to the work to be reviewed carefully.
• Relate the content of the work to what
you already know about the topic.
• Focus on discussing how the book treats
the topic.
• Report the type of analysis or mode of
presentation
For Articles and Journals
• Examine whether the findings are
adequately supported
• Suggest points for improvement of the
reasoning.
• Point out other interpretations that the
writer missed out.
For artworks and other media
• Use speculative verbs (evoke, create,
appear, & suggest).
• Make sure to describe it to the reader (do
not spoil key events).
• Describe the material in simple terms
(artworks).
General note:
• Did the work hold your interest?
• Did the work annoy or excite you?
• Did the work prompt you to raise
questions to the author?
• Did the work lead you to some
realization?
• Did the work remind you of other
materials that you have read, viewed or
listened?
THANKYOU