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A Newsletter Exploring Science
& Biomedical Research Issues
For School Educators
Volume 1, Issue 17, Fall 2007

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How to Write a Critical Analysis Paper

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unethical, but it is preventing any kind of critical thought process from happening and will hinder the proper development of your topic. Besides, your readers will recognize this. You must be able to understand the concepts that you are discussing and realize that there are several ways an issue can be viewed in regards to the subject that you are writing about. If you only present a portion of the story it will not create an effective argument for your conclusions.

The flow of your entire paper or essay is important. Your introductory paragraph should set the stage for what follows. Use a catchy first line to grab the reader's attention and keep the reader in mind as you continue to write so you don't lose them with unnecessary details or missing information that they might need in order to understand your position on the topic you have chosen. Each paragraph should contain a specific point of your argument and should transition to the next point. Every paragraph should follow this particular pattern:

  • The topic sentence should come at or near the beginning.
  • The succeeding sentences should explain, establish or develop the statement made in the topic sentence.
  • The final sentence should either emphasize the thought of the topic sentence or state some important consequence (Strunk, p17).
In your final paragraph you should sum up your overall conclusions. This paragraph should not contain any new or additional information. It should simply restate the ideas or arguments that have already been presented in your paper. Be sure that you leave your readers with a concluding sentence that makes an impact and signals the end of your paper.

An important part of any writing assignment is the editing process. Once you have your initial draft on paper, then if it is not legible to someone else, you should type your paper on the computer before you edit it. Never rely on spell check alone because it will not catch homonyms like "whether" and "weather", "to", "two" and "too", and sentences in general that don't combine into an intelligent argument and paragraphs that don't flow well. You also should have at least two other people proofread your paper for grammatical errors. Be sure to include someone that has no expertise in the area that your topic is covering. Editing is an integral part in the writing process and usually, due to poor planning, a step that many people tend to skip. Avoid this mistake because the reader will not take your arguments seriously if you use improper words throughout the body of your paper. How your paper reads is as important as what your paper says.

To properly finish your paper you must create a bibliography in order to:

  • Give credit to all authors and sources that you have used in your research.
  • Provide information in case someone would like to delve further into your topic.
All bibliographies should be double-spaced and arranged alphabetically by author, or if no author is disclosed, by title. The standard formats for documenting sources of information in research papers can be found in:

In conclusion, you should create your own library of books on how to write well, including all of those referenced in the bibliography of this article (see sidebar to the left). The Elements of Style by William Strunk is a very short (50 pages), straightforward book that summarizes the rules of grammar and the elementary principles of composition that I referred to earlier, in relation to the flow of your paragraphs. If you follow the important advice in this book and the critical thinking skills that have been outlined in this article, you will be able to write a grammatically correct and thoroughly convincing paper that will impress even the strictest professor.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA (Modern Language Association) Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. Sixth Edition. New York: MLA, 2003.

"Grammar." Handy Grammar, Usage & Punctuation. Second Edition. New York. Random House, 2003. 3-104.

Hahn, Pamela Rice. The Only Writing Book You'll Ever Need. Avon, MA: Adams Media, 2005.

Knott, Deborah. Critical Reading Towards Critical Writing. July 9, 2005. June 1, 2007
www.utoronto.ca/writing/advise.html

Pechenik, Jan A. A Short Guide to Writing about Biology, Second Edition. New York, NY: HarperCollins College, 1993.

Plotnik, Arthur. The Elements of Editing: A Modern Guide for Editors and Journalists. New York, NY: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1982.

Scriven, Michael and Paul, Richard. "Defining Critical Thinking". The Critical Thinking Community. (A Statement for the National Council for Excellence in Critical Thinking Instruction 2004. August 12, 2006)
www.criticalthinking.org/aboutCT/definingCT.shtml

Strunk, JR, William. The Elements of Style, Original Edition. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, Inc., 2006.

Zeiger, Mimi. Essentials of Writing Biomedical Research Papers. Texas: McGraw-Hill, 1991.

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