Critical Lens Essay: Make an Exciting Story Out of a Single Quote

By reading this article, the student will find the answers on most of the questions related to the critical lens essay, but if it seems insufficient, make an order at StudyCrumb delivering academic writing services to get the fastest and most quality help online!

The initial question, which comes to mind of any student who faces such type of academic assignment sounds like, “What is a critical lens essay?”

As literary elements are an integral part of any critical lens essay, it is important to define it as well to understand how to write a critical lens essay. Literary elements refer to the means a writer applies to describe/evolve characters.

There are several things left to identify before moving to the sections that contain the detailed description of the critical lens essay structure.

The final 3 elements include symbolism (anything that reflects something), theme (the main message of the story), and tone (the way an author perceives his own story).

It is time to go under the hood of this academic assignment by taking a look at how to write a critical lens essay step-by-step.

If you do not know the structure of the given type of academic assignment, you don’t know how to write a critical lens essay. Some of the United States high schools have it as the regular homework task. In most cases, those schools that are affiliated with the New York State Regents Exam offer a critical lens essay to their students. The whole essay is based on a single quote from a specific literary work. A student has no right to copy-paste the quotation, so it is recommended to rewrite this sentence or few.

Try to memorize more rule associated with a critical lens essay writing:

The goal of this type of academic assignment is to research the chosen literary quote. A student must talk about the original sources from which the quote was retrieved. Come up with personal critical analysis and explanation. This way, high school & college teachers assess the student's ability to read & analyze things plus writing, research, formatting, and analytical skills. The final grade is based on all of these factors.

The main purpose is to get ready with an outline. A student should follow this roadmap not to get lost during the process of writing:

A student can make it the five paragraph essay by adding one more paragraph to the body if he wants. A couple of body paragraphs is okay.

An introduction of such essay has an unusual structure because it has to begin with a literary quote while in case of other academic assignments a student may choose which type of hook to include and whether he needs it. Example:

A student can start by writing, “George Eliot once said…” (paraphrase).

The next thing a student should do is to interpret the chosen quote. The offered quotation means people should never stop trying to achieve something greater even if they think they have everything in this life. It calls for further self-development. Then, the author of the essay should take some time to decide whether he/she supports the offered saying or no, and provide a transition to the following part. It might be enough to write, “I agree with the given statement as humans are meant to develop all the time.” Should this type of essay contain a thesis statement? Of course!

Keep in mind that both (title of the analyzed piece 1) by (writer’s name) and ( the title of the analyzed piece 2) by (writer’s name) stick to the opinion that a human being must develop and learn something new throughout the life.

Start with the topic sentence number 1. It should look like, “The story written by (author’s name) titled (name of a literary work) states that (example: it is better to erase some moments from person’s memory.”

Transition statement is what comes after. The author may implement another literary element. Example: “One of the methods the author involves to prove his/her particular opinion is by (specific literary element discussed above).

Everything left to do is:

Here we go with a critical essay example of the body paragraph!

Once the student explained the chosen literary quote in the shape of a couple of sentences in each body paragraph, he should move to the conclusion. Make a summary of the body paragraphs to emphasize you stand. An interpretation must be clear & concise.

Start writing an essay’s conclusion by rewriting the selected quote; begin summarizing the examples you used to cite throughout the essay. Repeat the full name of the writer and other contributors. Point out some evidence collected from the primary sources to motivate the target readers to start thinking about your topic by going on with the independent research.

Is critical lens essay format somehow different from the typical essay’s format? The structure is different from, let’s say, argumentative/persuasive paper, but the format is everywhere the same if we speak about the established writings styles. They include MLA, APA, Chicago style paper, and rarer formats.

The formatting elements include:

We are smoothly moving to the closing section of the article. It contains a critical lens example essay & topic ideas. Anne Frank is a great author – let her work be our example!