Note: A critique is the same as a review of a story, article, chapter or a book. It analyzes the author’s opinions and style of presentation and brings out both the strengths and weaknesses of the author. This means that your critique MUST be OBJECTIVE in its presentation by both acknowledging the strengths, as well as pointing out the weaknesses that may be involved in the author’s arguments, style and opinions.

A. Your Title could be:

A Critique of Tess Onwueme’s Tell It To Women/ Tell It To Women

OR, A Critique of Tell It To Women

B. Your first paragraph should provide a short overview of the entire story or chapter, or book. This should be about 4-6 sentences or less.

Example: Tell It To Women, by Tess Onwueme, is a play set in Nigeria during the …………….period. It tells the story of ………….showing how ………………. The story ends with…………………… Broadly, it discusses the issue of ………..within the Nigerian society, and, to some extent, African societies as a whole.

(Please create your own introductory paragraph making sure that your reader has a brief overview of the entire story).
C. NEXT, provide a detailed Summary of the story to give your reader a good description of the major events that occurred in the story that you will be reviewing. You may want to include the following:

a. Who was the Author?
b. What was the story about?
c. Where was the story situated?
d. Who were the main characters of the story?
e. How does the story end?
D. Follow the Summary with your Critique but DO NOT separate it from the summary, just continue from the next paragraph.
E. Keep the following points in mind in your critique:

-Did the Title match the story?
-Did the author present the story in a clear, simple and readable language, particularly for the Western reader?
-Did the story flow together as one fluid piece of information, or was it disjointed and confusing?
-Did the author explain the native terms used to help with your understanding?
-Was the author objective or biased in his/her presentation of the story?
-If biased, provide some examples from the book to support your claim . If the author was not biased, give examples to show his/her objectivity.
-What were some of the major strengths and weaknesses of the story?
-Did the author provide adequate research evidence to support his/her arguments?
-What are some of the hidden issues in the story, if any?
-What do you think the author could have done to improve the story?
-Your general conclusion on the story.
-Cite some specific examples from the story as evidence of your reading the book.
F. Things You Should Avoid in Your Critique:

-Do not repeat the author’s name several times in a single paragraph.
Example: “Tess Onwueme stated that………. Tess Onwueme argued that…..Tess Onwueme wrote that………….

You’ll need to interchange the author’s real name with pronouns.
Example: “Tess Onwueme’s Tell It To Women was easy to understand, because she explained all the foreign words……. Additionally, her style of storytelling was interesting due to her………. She also provides……………

OR, you may also begin your paragraphs with:
“Ms. Onwueme presented her story in a clear and……………
“The author was quite objective in her treatment of………………

G. Avoid writing too many short sentences, merge ideas together in single sentences without making them too long either.

Elaborate on your ideas.
Example: “The story was interesting because……………………………
“I found the story quite disturbing due to the fact that the author never explained why she used the character of……………………….

H. Watch your spellings, especially in your use of the following:

-Then (this refers to some point in time)
-Than (comparison/comparing)
-its (possessive)
-it’s (it is)
-There (place)
-Their (possessive)
-Woman (singular)
-Women (plural)
Reference:

Important: Provide a Reference page on a separate page at the end of your
work.

Example:

Achebe, Chinua. 1997. The Morals of African Education. New York: Praeger.