A critical analysis essay is an overall evaluation of the author's effectiveness in conveying his or her purpose. (Wilhoit 95) There are several aspects of critical writing: analysis, evaluation, and explanation. Analysis requires that you break down the reading into essential parts, evaluation requires that you evaluate the quality of those various parts, and explanation should link your judgments to specific aspects of the readings and make those connections clear and convincing to your reader. (97) Such writing requires knowing the criteria or some expected aspects of a reading (such as thesis, support, genre, or style) and using standards that are the basis for evaluation. (95) To do this, remember that your textbooks, especially the Dialogues, what a good argument must contain (chapters 1-2). Assignment: You will be asked to write a one to two page critical analysis of an argumentative article. You can choose any article from the thematic readings in Dialogues. You will need to: identify a principle or definition relating to argumentation (see chapters 1 and 2 of Writing Arguments), ask a question. Effective arguments are based on logical facts rather than simple emotions. Question: Does the emotional appeal presented in this article invalidate your argument? Answer: If effective arguments are based on logical facts rather than simple emotions, the article must use facts to support its emotional claims. You will go into detail identifying the claim or argument, position taken by the author (for or against), and support provided by the author. You will need to establish a principle or standard about what is an effective argument. You will then evaluate each part to determine whether or not it effectively conveys the point. Finally you will have to make an overall evaluation of the writing. Does the author manage to create a strong, logically based argument? This is the main question you need to answer to be successful in this assignment.