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English 20-1

English 20-1 · Worksheets

The critical essay

Ten questions of mixed difficulty, covering Critical essay. Print it, or work through it on screen — the answer key starts on its own page.

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The critical essay

English 20-1 · maddyhelps.com

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Circle the best answer for each question. Show your work in the space provided.

  1. A critical essay should be written

    1. a) entirely in the past tense
    2. b) in first person throughout
    3. c) in formal register, in the present tense when discussing the text
    4. d) in casual register

  2. A quotation is best integrated when it is

    1. a) given as a long block
    2. b) paraphrased instead
    3. c) dropped in as a sentence of its own
    4. d) embedded in your own sentence and punctuated as part of it

  3. After giving a quotation, the next thing to write should be

    1. a) an explanation of what it shows and how it supports the argument
    2. b) a plot summary
    3. c) the next paragraph
    4. d) another quotation

  4. Evidence in a critical essay should come from

    1. a) the text itself
    2. b) the reader's personal experience
    3. c) the author's biography
    4. d) other students' essays

  5. A body paragraph in a critical essay is usually strongest when it

    1. a) retells the events of one chapter
    2. b) covers several points at once
    3. c) consists mainly of quotation
    4. d) makes one point, supports it from the text, and explains the support

  6. Leaving time to proofread a critical essay matters because

    1. a) errors in grammar, spelling and punctuation are marked in their own category
    2. b) markers only read the first paragraph
    3. c) length is scored separately
    4. d) handwriting is marked

  7. The text you choose for a critical essay should be one that

    1. a) nobody else in the class will choose
    2. b) you know well enough to quote and discuss in detail
    3. c) was published most recently
    4. d) is the longest you have read

  8. An essay that proves its thesis but only retells events in between has failed mainly because

    1. a) it used the wrong tense
    2. b) summary is not analysis, so the thesis is asserted rather than demonstrated
    3. c) the thesis was too narrow
    4. d) the essay was too long

  9. A thesis statement is

    1. a) a summary of the text's plot
    2. b) an arguable claim the essay sets out to prove
    3. c) a question the essay will explore
    4. d) a statement of the essay's topic

  10. Of these, the strongest thesis is

    1. a) This essay will discuss ambition in Macbeth
    2. b) Ambition in Macbeth becomes destructive when it is severed from conscience
    3. c) Macbeth was written by Shakespeare around 1606
    4. d) Macbeth is a play about ambition

Answer key · The critical essay

English 20-1 · maddyhelps.com

  1. c) in formal register, in the present tense when discussing the text — Literary present treats the text as always happening: Macbeth kills Duncan, rather than killed. Slipping between tenses mid-paragraph is one of the most common correctness errors.
  2. d) embedded in your own sentence and punctuated as part of it — Embedding forces you to state the point the quotation supports. A quotation standing alone leaves the marker to guess why it is there.
  3. a) an explanation of what it shows and how it supports the argument — The explanation is where the marks are. A paragraph of stacked quotations shows you can find them; the analysis shows you understand what they do.
  4. a) the text itself — The critical essay is an argument about a text, supported from that text. Personal experience belongs in the personal response, which is a different assignment with different rules.
  5. d) makes one point, supports it from the text, and explains the support — One point per paragraph keeps the argument traceable. If a paragraph needs two topic sentences, it is really two paragraphs.
  6. a) errors in grammar, spelling and punctuation are marked in their own category — Matters of Correctness is assessed on its own, and the errors that cost most — tense slips, missing quotation marks, sentence fragments — are exactly the ones a five-minute read-through catches.
  7. b) you know well enough to quote and discuss in detail — Familiarity beats prestige every time. An essay on a short story you know closely will outscore a vague essay on a famous novel you half remember.
  8. b) summary is not analysis, so the thesis is asserted rather than demonstrated — Retelling shows what happens; analysis shows what it means and why the writer arranged it that way. This is the single most common weakness in critical essays at this level.
  9. b) an arguable claim the essay sets out to prove — If nobody could reasonably disagree, there is nothing to prove and the essay becomes a summary. A topic is what you are writing about; a thesis is what you are saying about it.
  10. b) Ambition in Macbeth becomes destructive when it is severed from conscience — The first makes a claim that needs proving and points at the evidence that would prove it. The second is a topic, the third announces rather than argues, and the fourth is a fact.