Final Essay: Critiquing Authorities

The final assignment you turn in for our class will be a written critique (an essay with an evaluative argument).  Your approach must be sociolinguistic and/or historical-linguistic: that is, it must analyze your text’s language and logic in relation to broader data and linguistic concepts in the history of English, or in current varieties of English, informed by a complex understanding of the social and historical significances of those concepts.

In short, you must write with a methodology similar to that in our ongoing readings from scholarly publications (World Englishes, etc.). Here’s how to do it: 

First,

Choose one authoritative text that you’d like to critique. You can choose any publication, guide, handbook, or website that you have come across, in or out of class, that offers instruction (or correction) on how to write, speak, interpret, or understand English — the text be from any year, and can concerning itself with any use of English in any year. Any English-language authoritative text, which exerts its authority on how to write, speak, interpret, or understand English, is fair game.

Some examples of authoritative texts:

• any style guide assigned in your other English classes;

• any part of the Oxford English Dictionary, or any dictionary at all;

• treatises and rants on orthography (like Webster or Hume or their present-day counterparts);

• any ESL/EFL learning worksheet;

• any editor’s gloss, translation, or interpretation of an early English text for modern readers;

• our own course textbook;

• or any other example you find worthy of critique, in any publication, guide, handbook, or website that offers instruction (or correction) on how to write, speak, interpret, or understand English.

Next,

Hone in on one particular aspect or small part of that text that is ripe for critique — perhaps on the treatment of one word or phrase or punctuation choice, or on one logical misstep or historical misunderstanding, or one unfounded generalization. Think deeply about the ramifications of that small item.

Next,

Put it in writing. Your assignment is to craft a short, argumentative critique (roughly 1000 words) of any text that presents itself as an authority on the English language or its use.  Focus, again, on one particular element of that guide in particular and suss out, using critical thinking and rigorous logic, the full implications and ramifications of that particular element of the guide in its social context.  Develop a close analytical reading of that single element that is ambitious, risky, complex, in-depth, and non-obvious enough that a 1000-word scholarly argument is required to fully explain and defend it. You’ll need to find and include research from previously published studies, as well as close readings from elsewhere in the text, as far as these are necessary for your argument. Be sure to consider the full semantic ranges, social connotations, and etymologies of the words being used by the guide.  (See my 12 Criteria for Undergraduate Essay Writers for more on how to craft an argument.)

Arrange the material of your reading into a coherent, singular thesis. Include no information or material that is not immediately relevant to that thesis. The style, tone, and formatting of the writing should be professional and mature.

Email your critique (.doc or .docx preferred; pdf also acceptable) to your TA, by the date specified in the course schedule. Your TA will share the necessary email contact information in class.