DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

Region III
DIVISION OF CITY OF SAN FERNANDO
San Fernando East District
Nuestra Señora Del Pilar Integrated School
Brgy. Del Pilar, City of San Fernando, Pampanga

Name of Student: ____________________________________ Parent’s Signature: ____________

Parent/Guardian: _____________________________________

ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL PURPOSES

(Grade 12)
Quarter 1 – Week 2

I. OBJECTIVES

A. Content Standard:
The learner acquires knowledge of appropriate reading strategies for a better
understanding of academic texts
B. Performance Standard:
The learner produces a detailed abstract of information gathered from the various
academic texts read
C. Learning Competency/ Most Essential Learning Competencies (MELC)
MELC No. 3 –
State the thesis statement of an academic text
MELC No. 4 –
Use appropriate critical approaches in writing a critique, such as:
formalism, feminism, etc.

 Specific Objectives:
At the end of the lesson, the learners should be able to:
1. identify what critical approaches in writing a critique is defined,
2. identify the thesis statement in a paragraph,

II. CONTENT:

Thesis Statement and Critical Approaches in Writing a Critique

III. LEARNING RESOURCES

A. References
https://www.scribd.com/search?
content_type=tops&page=1&query=CRITICAL%20APPROACHES%20IN
%20WRITING%20A%20CRITIQUE%20quiz

Communicate Today English for Academic and Professional Purposes for

Senior High School by Jessie Saraza Barrot, Ph.D. and Philippe John
Fresnillo Sipacio

B. Other Learning/Instructional Materials

IV. PROCEDURE

A. Reviewing previous lesson or presenting the new lesson

 Let’s Warm Up

1 of 8
1. Within 5 minutes, write a paragraph about your idea of love. Make sure that
you have a central idea in your paragraph.
2. Underline the sentence, which encapsulates your idea of love.

B. Establishing a purpose for the lesson

The thesis statement is the overall idea or argument of your work. It is

a general statement that presents essential points that leads the reader to the
right direction. Your thesis statement makes all part of your work stick
together..

C. Presenting examples/ instances of the new lesson

A good thesis statement has several qualities:

1. A thesis statement is always framed as declarative statement.

Poor example: What is plagiarism?

Improved version: Plagiarism can be explained from cultural and
political perspectives.
2. A good thesis statement is focused, meaning it provides
supporting points that strengthen the main claim.

Poor example: An effective local government unit should have

good communication facilities and efficient resource management
programs since these initiatives will be beneficial for its citizens.
Improved version: Effective dissemination of information and
efficient resource management are indicators of effective local
governance.
3. A good thesis statement has clear boundaries. Meaning, it sets
limits to what the essay intends to explore.

Poor example: Guitar playing skills can be improved if the player

is dedicated, there are sessions devoted to technique, and
investments on good equipment must be considered since these
will be influential in performing in front of an audience.
Improved version: Excellent guitar playing requires countless
hours of practice, strategic decisions in purchasing equipment, and
tireless dedication.

D. Discussing new concepts and practicing new skills #1

What is a thesis statement?

A thesis statement is a declarative statement in sentence form. It is a
complete thought; it is not a question. It is a simple sentence that makes a
statement or expresses an attitude, opinion, condition, position, or feeling
about the subject.
Suppose you begin with a topic, the general subject matter, and, after
considering your audience and researching your subject, you formulate a
statement about the topic. For example:
Topic: Fast foods
Thesis: Fast foods are a serious problem for heart patients

You have made a complete declarative statement. This statement

expresses a condition about the relationship that exists between fast foods
and heart patients. However, consider the next example.
Topic: Fast foods
Thesis: Does fast foods cause a serious problem for heart patients?

This sentence is not a thesis statement. It does not express a feeling,

condition, opinion, or an attitude. The sentence is a question; it does not

2 of 8
 declare or tell anything -- it only asks. This sentence would not give focus to
your message for the audience. It would only pose more questions.
The thesis statement, then, is a complete declarative sentence that
expresses an opinion, condition, value, attitude, or feeling.

Purpose of the thesis

What is the purpose of the thesis sentence in a communication
situation? Why is one necessary? A thesis statement is the focus of the
speech, lecture, conversation, or discussion. It is the main idea or purpose of
the entire message, expressed in a single sentence. For example:
Topic: Inflation
Thesis: Inflation has seriously affected the housing market.

The entire speech, then, should be spent developing the thesis. You
should show how the housing market has been seriously affected by inflation,
Every statement, fact, opinion and example expressed should be concerned
with developing the concept that inflation has affected the housing market.

E. Discussing new concepts and practicing new skills #2

What are Reaction Papers, Reviews, and Critiques?

A reaction paper, a review, and a critique are specialized forms of writing in which a reviewer
or reader evaluates any of the following:
 A scholarly work (e.g., academic books and articles)
 A work of art (e.g., performance art, play, dance, sports, film, exhibits)
 Designs (e.g., industrial designs, furniture, fashion design)
 Graphic designs (e.g., posters, billboards, commercials, and digital media)
Reaction papers, reviews, critiques usually range in length from 250-750 words. They are
not simply summaries but are critical assessments, analyses, or evaluation of different
works. As advanced forms of writing, they involve your skills in critical thinking and
recognizing arguments. However, you should connect the word critique to cynicism and
pessimism.

CRITICAL APPROACHES IN WRITING A CRITIQUE

There are various ways or standpoints by which you can analyze and critique a certain
material. You can critique a material based on its technical aspects, its approach to gender,
your reaction as the audience, or through its portrayal of class struggle and social structure.

1. Formalism- claims that literary works contain intrinsic properties and treats each work
as a distinct work of art. In short, it posits that the key to understanding a text is through
the text itself; the historical context, the author, or any other external contexts are not
necessary in interpreting the meaning.

Following are the common aspects looked into formalism:

 Author’s techniques in resolving contradictions within the work
 Central passage that sums up the entirety of the work
 Contribution of parts and the work as a whole to its aesthetic quality
 Relationship of the form and the content
 Use of imagery to develop the symbols in the work
 Interconnectedness of various parts of the work
 Paradox, ambiguity, and irony in the work
 Unity in the work

2. Feminist Criticism-also called feminism, it focuses on how literature presents women

as subjects of socio-political, psychological, and economic oppression. It also reveals how
aspects of our culture are patriarchal, i.e., how our culture views men as superior and
women as inferior. The common aspects looked into when using feminism are as follows:
 How culture determines gender
 How gender equality (or lack of it) is presented in the text

3 of 8
  How gender issues are presented in literary works and other aspects of human
production and daily life
 How women are socially, politically, psychologically, and economically oppressed by
patriarchy
 How patriarchal ideology is an overpowering presence

3. Reader-Response Criticism- is concerned with the reviewer’s reaction as an

audience of a work. This approach claims that the reader’s role cannot be separated from
the understanding of the work; a text does not have meaning until the reader reads it and
interprets it. Readers are therefore not passive and distant, but are active consumers of
the material presented to them. The common aspects looked into when using reader
response criticism are as follows:
 Interaction between the reader and the text in creating meaning
 The impact of the reader’s delivery of sounds and visuals on enhancing and changing
meaning

4. Marxist Criticism- is concerned with differences between economic classes and

implications of a capitalist system, such as the continuing conflicts between the working
class and the elite. Hence, it attempts to reveal that the ultimate source of people’s
experience is the socioeconomic system. The common aspects looked into when using
Marxist criticism are as follows:
 Social class as represented in the work
 Social class of the writer/creator
 Social class of the characters
 Conflicts and interactions between economic classes

Note that these are not the only critical approaches you can use. Other approaches in writing
a critique include postmodern criticism, post-colonial criticism, structuralism, psychological
criticism, gender criticism, ecocriticism, biographical criticism, historical criticism,
mythological criticism, and deconstructionist criticism.

F. Developing mastery

Read the following statements and write ThS on the line if the sentence is a
thesis statement and ToS if the sentence is a topic sentence.
____1. Automated elections should be improved to minimize fraud, facilitate
faster turnout, and maximize voter participation.
____2. The lakes of Laguna are grand spectacles worth seeing.
____3. Creating comics involves several steps.
____4. Despite some risks, online businesses can be sustainable models for
doing business since they minimize operating costs and provide greater
options for consumers.
____5. Writing requires careful planning.

G. Finding practical applications of concepts and skills in daily living

H. Making generalization and abstractions about the lesson

 A thesis statement is a declarative statement in sentence form. It is a

complete thought; it is not a question. It is a simple sentence that makes a
statement or expresses an attitude, opinion, condition, position, or feeling
about the subject.
 The four critical approaches in writing a critique: Formalism,
Feminist Criticism, Reader-Response Criticism, Marxist Criticism

I. Evaluating learning

Activity 1: Write T if the statement is true. Otherwise, write F.

4 of 8
 ____1. A paragraph can consist of two or more topic sentence.
____2. The abstract presents the thesis of the text.
____3. By observing the writing style of the author, you can determine the location of
the topic sentence.
____4. Locating the thesis statement or topic sentence while reading a text can save
time.
____5.Most of the time, the author begins the paragraph with a topic sentence.
____6. Sometimes, the main idea is presented at the end of the paragraph.
____7. The main idea is always stated in the first part of the paragraph.
____8. The thesis of a text is in question form.
____9. When an abstract is not provided, the thesis statement is not evident in the
text.
____10. You do not have to read the full text if you know how to spot its main idea.

Activity 2: Identify what is being asked. Write the LETTER of your answer.

CHOICES:

A. MARXISM D. PSYCHOLOGICAL
B. FEMINISM E. SOCIOLOGICAL
C. READER-RESPONSE F. FORMALISM

____1. It investigates the life of an author using primary texts, such as letters, diaries, and
other documents, that might reveal the experiences, thoughts, and feelings that led to
the creation of a literary work.
____2. This approach includes power struggles of characters
____3. This approach deals with gender relationships of characters
____4. This is a school of literary criticism and literary theory having mainly to do with
structural purposes of a particular text
____5. It deals with the personal significance of the selection to the reader.

J. Additional activities for application or remediation

5 of 8
6 of 8
Prepared by:

NIÑA CAMILLE A. DAVID

Teacher II

7 of 8