THE TEXT IS APPROXIMATELY HALF THE WORK, FOCUSING ON READING AND WRITING INSTRUCTION THAT DEPENDS ON STUDENTS GROWING THROUGH APPLICATION AND DISCOVERY.

The purpose of the critical essay is either to explicate an entire literary work or to analyze (explore one or two aspects) a literary work.  Rarely in an essay is a writer able to explicate an entire work; therefore, analyzing a piece of literature is more common.
	Like other nonfiction essays applying the expository approach, the critical essay presents a clearly defined introduction, body, and conclusion.  The introduction often includes not only a specific statement of the topic, but also a direct reference to the title of the piece of literature and the author (full name first reference, last name only afterward) of the work.  Also the thesis of a critical essay--when directly stated--includes the specific topic of the essay, like other essays, but the critical essay thesis is unique since it often requires the writer to establish a connection between a literary device and a larger aspect of the work; the writer then must prove and explain the connection in the body of the essay.  Consider the following example, beginning with the introduction:

[INTRODUCTION]
	In 'The Hospital Window,' James Dickey presents a young man struggling with the imminent death of his father.  The reader sees the son leaving the hospital and realizing his father is dying.  Throughout the poem, blue and white color imagery reinforces the theme of dealing with the death of a loved one in order to continue one's own life.

	From the sample introduction, what appears to be the focus of the essay that would follow?  What connection is the essay attempting to prove?  Critical essays often explore the what, how, and why within its focus--what is the author presenting, how is that author presenting it, and why does the reader care.
While the goal of the introduction is to establish the focus of the essay through a specific statement, the intent of the body paragraphs is to prove (with direct quotes from the work of literature) and explain the thesis in order to convince the reader the statement is legitimate.  All body paragraphs of a formal critical essay must contain direct proof in the form of quotes to support the thesis.  The writer of a critical essay is responsible for showing the reader the exact sections of the literary work that are the sources of the points being asserted in the critical essay.  The reader is then able to judge both the validity of the critical thesis and the writer's support of the thesis.  Consider the following body paragraphs (note the same structure as needed in any body paragraph--transition, statements, proof, explanation, and connection with the thesis):

[BODY]
	The first color established in the poem is blue.  The speaker says, "Higher and higher he lies/ Above me in a blue light" (ll. 2-3).  The blue imagery begins to suggest sadness as the reader realizes the sickness of the father lying in a hospital bed.  In the middle of the poem, the speaker presents blue in a comparison and connects the son with the father and with dying:  "And I turn as blue as a soul,/ As the moment when I was born"  (ll. 33-4).  Added to the sadness associated with blue is the son feeling the loss and feeling the strong ties a son naturally has toward the father who helped conceive him.  Then, the speaker links blue imagery with "soul" and "born" in those lines to emphasize the pain of losing a parent.  Near the end of the poem, the speaker shifts the blue imagery and sadness to the father--"In the bold blue gaze of my father" (l. 44).  The father's "blue gaze" suggests he is sad that his son is preoccupied with the father's death.  The shift of blue imagery from the son, to both the son and the father, and finally to the father alone reveals the son's need to overcome his sadness in order to continue living his own life after his father's unavoidable death.
	While blue images suggest sadness, white images develop a connection with death and heaven in the poem.  In the first stanza, the speaker "drop[s] through six white floors" on the elevator when leaving the hospital (l. 5).  Then outside, the speaker notes "...all the white rooms/ They turn to the color of Heaven" (ll. 17-18).  The direct connection of white with hospitals becomes a stronger connection between white and Heaven.  In the middle of the poem, white images shift to pale images, and a suggestion of death replaces the connection with Heaven.  The speaker imagines "[d]ozens of pale hands...waving" from the hospital windows (l. 20).  He begins realizing that the hospital is a place of death.  After he risks his own life by stumbling into traffic, the speaker ends the poem with a reference to death:
	. . .not at all, in the pale,
	Drained, otherworldly, stricken,
	Created hue of stained glass.   (ll. 51-3)
By the end of the poem, "white" becomes "pale," and the speaker associates the white images with "drained," suggesting a corpse being embalmed, and "otherworldly," suggesting the afterlife.  Then white imagery, like blue imagery, grows in the poem to reveal to the reader the need for the speaker to overcome his grief for his father's death so the son can pursue his own life.

	Explore the sample body paragraphs from the critical essay.  Does each paragraph employ the components of a body paragraph?  Does each paragraph contribute to the reader's understanding of the thesis?  Is the writer successful and effective in presenting the focus of the thesis?  (Also, pay special attention to the format of the paragraphs--the handling of the quotes, the documentation, the mechanics.)
	The conclusion of a critical essay should focus the reader on the broad, but specific emphasis of the thesis.  Yet the conclusion often does not introduce new proof or new points.  The writer should reword the focus of the essay, realizing that the reader has reached the conclusion after digesting the bulk of the essay.  Consider the following sample conclusion:

[CONCLUSION]
	Dickey's poem details a son revealing his sadness over his father's dying; also the son becomes preoccupied with the father's death, thereby ignoring the speaker's own life.  Blue images stress the son's sadness and the father's fear that his son will be broken by the father's death.  White and pale references create images of heaven and death in the poem.  Both color images develop throughout the poem to reinforce the speaker's realization that he must continue to live his life even after the painful loss of his father.

	Examine the sample conclusion.  Does the conclusion refocus the reader on the thesis?  Does the conclusion introduce new proof or topics?  Does the conclusion restate the thesis or merely repeat the thesis?
	When writing a critical essay some basic guidelines are valuable for organizing the essay.  The introduction will often include the author's full name and the title of the work of  literature.  The introduction will often include at least two sentences; an effective technique is writing a broad summary sentence of the work and a thesis sentence.  The thesis must establish the what, the how (literary technique, term), and the why.
	The body paragraphs must contain transition from paragraph to paragraph and from idea/sentence to idea/sentence.  They must also include proof (direct quotes and specific references to the work, not plot summary) while incorporating the actual literary terms from the thesis into the full paragraph discussion.  The body paragraphs should include a clear connection to the thesis, best achieved by including the literary term in the discussion.
Though not an exact repetition of the thesis and introduction, the conclusion should restate the focus of the essay and often expands the scope of the discussion in the essay.

Regardless of the approach, most essays share similar features--the structure.  A reader is better able to understand a writer's intent if the reader is aware of the writer's focus, just as the writer is better able to communicate effectively if that writer is aware of the approach best suited for the essay.
	Both reader and writer should be able to identify and apply the writing approach--narrative approach, an argumentative approach, a descriptive approach, or one of the many expository (or informative) approaches.  Awareness of the primary approach by the reader increases comprehension; awareness by the writer increases effectiveness of communication.