Lesson 6 Critic Paper

English for Academic and Professional Purposes
Lesson 6: Writing a Reaction Paper, Review, and a

Critique
A reaction paper, a review, and a critique are specialized forms of writing in which a
reviewer or reader evaluates any of the following:
▪ A scholarly work (e.g. academic books and articles)
▪ A work of art (e.g., performance art, play, dance, sports, film, exhibits)
▪ Designs (e.g., industrial designs, furniture, fashion design)
▪ Graphic designs (e.g., posters, billboards, commercials, and digital media)
The length of a reaction paper, review, critique usually ranges from 250-750 words. They
are not simply summaries but are critical assessments, analyses, or evaluation of different
works. As advanced forms of writing, they involve your skills in critical thinking and
recognizing arguments. However, you should not connect the word critique to cynicism and
pessimism.
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.
Critical Approaches in Writing a Critique
There are multiple ways one can critique and analyze a certain material. You can critique a
material based on its technical aspects, its content, its approach to gender, your reaction as
an audience, or how it is significant to social structure and class struggle.
1. Formalist Criticism emphasizes the form of a literary work to determine its meaning,
focusing on literary elements and how they work to create meaning.
▪ Examines a text as independent from its time period, social setting, and author’s
background. A text is an independent entity.
▪ Focuses on close readings of texts and analysis of the effects of literary elements and
techniques on the text.
Two Major Principles of Formalism
▪ A literary text exists independent of any particular reader and, in a sense, has a fixed
meaning.
▪ The greatest literary texts are “timeless” and “universal.”
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Sample Formalist Technique of Footnote to Youth by Jose Garcia Villa

The distinct “literariness” in this text is determined by his usage of theme, and style to relay
the story in an easily comprehensible way. Villa’s style in writing Footnote to Youth could be
attributed and compared to the works of Anton Chekov, a legendary Russian fictionist.
Footnote to Youth, as classified by the researcher, is distinctly a Chekovian short story due
to its Chekovian point of view expressing the thought that the look of life in literature should
be in all its banality, all the tragic comedy and refuse to make judgment. Villa refuses to
condemn the characters that he made. He only narrated the actions of the
character as they are and leave them to speak for themselves. What Villa did is to bring to
light the tragic events in the story and let the reader judges the merits of the characters’
worth. Footnote to Youth could be said to portray the philosophy of realism.
Realism in literature attempts to describe life without any kind of idealization or romantic
notions wherein human life and social conditions are presented in its actual state [20].
Footnote strictly adheres on the fidelity of life and to the actuality of its representation in the
literature. The setting, the theme and the characters are all realistic and does not
exaggerate nor flaunts hyperbolic events to bridge the imagination of readers to the
meaning of the story. As to the symbolisms used in the story, the recurring cycle of Youth,
Love and Life are emphasized. In the story, it happened to Dodong and recurred to Blas.
Villa artistically stressed this cycle twice in the story. Youth is characterized in the story as
the time of fancy, immaturity, vigor, aggression, and freedom. Youth also possess this
uncanny habit of being reckless and irresponsible in their actions. Most of their doings are
mandated by the drive to be always happy and free. However, their irresponsible merriment
often constitutes with thoughtless means of actions leading to unfavorable results.
Villa had repeatedly emphasized the interconnection of Youth, Love and Life as a cyclical
occurrence. They are the elements that make up the person’s being. What one attains in
Life is a byproduct of his actions in Youth and Love.
2. Feminist Criticism is concerned with the role, position, and influence of women in a
literary text.
▪ Asserts that most “literature” throughout time has been written by men, for men.
▪ Examines the way that the female consciousness is depicted by both male and female
writers.
Four Basic Principles of Feminist Criticism
▪ Western civilization is patriarchal.
▪ The concepts of gender are mainly cultural ideas created by patriarchal societies.
▪ Patriarchal ideals pervade “literature.”
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▪ Most “literature” through time has been gender-biased.
Sample Feminist Technique of Footnote to Youth by Jose Garcia Villa

Footnote to Youth mirrors the Androcentric Culture of the Filipinos which is much frowned
upon by feminism. Androcentric culture is termed as the culture “where men have access to
the world while woman have access only to the house and where the “common humanity” of
women have largely been ignored [23]. This is a culture that feminism strives to avert
advocating that women should be granted with equal opportunity and women’s rights,
interest, and issues shall be promoted. The Androcentric Culture is clearly evident
as portrayed by the two women characters in the story. Villa might be impartial in depicting
the strength and weakness of both female and male characters but the dominating figure is
still irrevocably the males, whereas, the women in this story are characterized as the lesser
persons because of the weakness that they mostly portray. To deeply acknowledge this
claim, a thorough analysis on the roles of each major characters are examined to find out
who between the male and female characters are weak or strong individuals. Dodong is an
assertive son who manipulated his father in bestowing his blessings and permission for him
to marry. Dodong’s father is portrayed as a head of the family and therefore should be
sought for guidance and wise counsel. The patriarchal schema of the story begins from him
and is immensely given prior attention due to the cyclical events that happened even until to
Dodong’s own son. As for the female counterparts, Dodong’s mother is seen only as a silent
figure whose roles alienates her from the outside world. She functions only inside the home.
Teang, Dodong’s wife is easily interpreted as the voiceless and conforming wife
representing further the restrictive role of women in the story. However, the Androcentric
culture depicted by Villa is not a solid accusation that would pin him down in undervaluing
the women’s role. His point of view is the result of traditional influences of how Filipinos look
upon women during Villa’s era in the 1930’s. This view is also apparent in other culture
during this time. Hall further summarized the condition of women in the 19th century when
she wrote “The Attribute of Womanhood” by which “a woman judged herself and was
judged by her husband, her neighbors and society, could be divided into four cardinal
virtues, piety, purity, submissiveness and domesticity. Put them all together and they
spelled mother, daughter, sister, wife - woman.” As Williams [24] further suggested that “if
women were strong, physically, or mentally, she was not given the respect that she
deserved. The men at this time wanted their women meek and undomineering because that
was romantic to them.”
3. Reader-Response Criticism asserts that a great deal of meaning in a text lies with how
the reader responds to it.
▪ Focuses on the act of reading and how it affects our perception of meaning in a text (how
we feel at the beginning vs. the end)
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▪ Deals more with the process of creating meaning and experiencing a text as we read. A
text is an experience, not an object.
▪ The text is a living thing that lives in the reader’s imagination.
READER + READING SITUATION + TEXT = MEANING
Two Important Ideas in Reader-Response
▪ An individual reader’s interpretation usually changes over time.
▪ Readers from different generations and different time periods interpret texts differently.
Sample Reader response criticism Technique of Footnote to Youth by Jose Garcia Villa
Footnote to Youth accentuates the nature of teenage marriage to impress upon the youth its
entailing difficulties. The title itself bears a stern reminder about the pitfalls of an unrequited
and unplanned love to the youth who most oftentimes fall prey to the disillusion of love. The
story is very rich and vivid in its direct portrayal about a family life laden with hardships and
melancholy as a result of early marriage. It is a warning; it is a caution to the youth of today
whose rising number of pregnancy is alarmingly increasing. This story gives the reader an
overview of a married life built on flimsy dreams and youthful love. Teenage marriage is
characterized as the marriage of either a bride or groom “under 20 years old”. Footnote to
Youth tells the two unpleasant marriages in the lives of Dodong and Blas. The lines ‘he
wanted to marry, he was seventeen,” is a strong indication that Dodong married so young.
On the other hand, Dodong was confronted with a dilemma “when Blas was eighteen” and
asked permission to marry. With the similar incident that happened between father and son,
the hardship in life is not farfetched. Teenage marriage serves as a signal of the impending
hardships that will soon follow in the life ahead. The result of unwise decisions by Dodong
led him to have a regretful and unfulfilling life. “Dodong whom life had made ugly,” is
Teang’s sentiment in her kind of life as a result of her teenage marriage with Dodong.
Dodong accepted this fate knowing that he had made this fatal mistake in life, but his fears
were reawakening when he realized that Blas is about to make the same mistake that he
had committed. For he knew in his heart that “Blas was very young. The life that would
follow marriage would be hard.” Dodong and Blas sealed their fate to have an arduous life
brought about by teenage marriage.
4. Marxist Criticism emphasizes economic and social conditions. It is based on the political
theory of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.
▪ Concerned with understanding the role of power, politics, and money in literary texts
▪ Marxist Criticism examines literature to see how it reflects
▪ The way in which dominant groups (typically, the majority) exploit the subordinate
groups (typically, the minority)
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▪ The way in which people become alienated from one another through power, money,
and politics
Remember: We should always keep our focus on the text and use these critical approaches to
clarify our understanding of a text and develop an interpretation of it. We will never look at a text
STRICTLY from one standpoint or another, ignoring all other views.
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English for Academic and Professional Purposes

Lesson 6: Writing a Reaction Paper, Review, and a

Sample Formalist Technique of Footnote to Youth by Jose Garcia Villa

▪ Most “literature” through time has been gender-biased.

Sample Feminist Technique of Footnote to Youth by Jose Garcia Villa

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