Ethos, Pathos, and Logos are modes of persuasion used to convinced audiences. they are also referred to as the three artistic proofs (Aristotle coined the terms), and are all represented by Greek words.

ETHOS

• Also called as the ethical appeal, means to convince an audience of the author’s credibility or character.
• An author would see ethos to show to his audience that he is a credible source and is worth listening to.Ethos is the Greek word for “character.” The word “ethic” is derived from ethos.
• Ethos can be developed by choosing language that is appropriate for the audience and topic (this also means choosing the proper level of vocabulary), making yourself sound fair or unbiased, introducing your expertise, accomplishments or pedigree, and by using correct grammar and syntax.
• During public speaking events, typically a speaker will have at least some of his pedigree and accomplishments listed upon introduction by a master of ceremony.

PATHOS

• Also the emotional appeal, means to persuade an audience by appealing to their emotions.
• Authors use pathos to invoke sympathy from an audience; to make the audience feel what the author wants them to feel. A common use of pathos would be to inspire anger from an audience, perhaps in order to prompt action. Pathos is the Greek word for both “suffering” and “experience.” The words empathy and pathetic are derived from pathos.
• Pathos can be developed by using meaningful language, emotional tone, emotional evoking examples, stories of emotional events, and implied meanings.

LOGOS

• Or the appeal to logic, means to convince an audience by use of logic or reason.
• To use logos would be to cite facts and statistics, historical and literal analogies, and citing certain authorities on a subject. Logos is the Greek word for “word”, however the true definition goes beyond that, and can be most closely described as “the word or that by which the inward thought is expressed” and ” the inward thought itself”. The word “logic” is derived from logos.
• Logos can be developed by using advanced, theoretical or abstract language, citing facts ( very important), using historical and literal analogies, and by constructing logic argument.

Blogger: Lorenzo Melendres

APPEALS

One persuasive technique is appealing to the audience’s emotions, fears, need to protect their family, desire to fit in to be accepted, desire to protect animals and the environment, pride in our country and others.

Example:
– “Only a person who experienced poverty will ever understand its cognates”
– The anti-drug campaign posts harms in the lives of the innocent people in this country. This should not taken lightly by people. Wait not to be the next victim.

EVIDENCES.

Providing statistics, experts’ opinions, research findings, and anecdotal evidences

Examples:
– “According to UP Population Analysts, the prime cause of overpopulation is. . .”
– The latest study shows that 46.9% of women students marry at the age of 15-19.

ATTACKS

  Attacks on opposing views or the people who hold them can persuade the readers by portraying views and beliefs which are contrary to the editorial board’s contrition as foolish, dangerous and uncaring or deceitful.

Examples:
– “No politician will allow the promulgation of such law for it might be pro-poor and against them .”
– “Only a fool agrees to such to implementation.”

RHETORICAL QUESTIONS.

  Questions asked for effects only. They engage the readers and encourage them to consider the isse and accept the editorial board’s answer or imply that the answer is so obvious that anyone who disagrees is foolish.

Examples:
– “Do we want that we will only be higher learning institution in the country which does not change its opening of classes?”
– “If we would not clean our classrooms which are our homes in the first place, who will?”

CAUSE AND EFFECT

  Arguments may claim that there is a cause-and-effect relationship when really there is just a relationship, and other factors should be considered.

Example:
– “what causes this tragedy among the poor, is not the system of politics and corruption, it is the lack of education. . .”

CONNOTATIONS

The connotation is the emotional meaning associated with the word. Persuasive editorial writers often choose their words carefully so that the connotation suits their purpose. For example the words “Kill” and “Slaughter” mean the same thing but have different connotations causing readers to imagine what is horrific and what is more horrific. Other sample words are: “health issue” vs. “health crisis”.

HUMOR

The use of humor, such as puns, irony, sarcasm, satire and jokes can be persuasive by dismissing opposing views, providing a more engaging and friendly tone, and sway an audience by having them enter into a joke.

 Example:
– “Malice in Wonderland” instead of “Alice in Wonderland”. 

HYPERBOLE

The use of hyperbole emphasizes points by exaggerating. It can be used to mock opposing opinions, as a shock-tactics technique or an appeal to fears.

Example:
– One presidential candidate said that when he becomes the President, every Filipino will eat three times. Yes, with his record and background marred by corruption and plunder cases, every Filipino might just eat three times . . . Three times a week.

IMAGERY AND FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

The use of figurative language. Metaphor and simile can paint a word picture for audience, making the point visually or may appeal to emotions.

Reference:
https://www.scribd.com/document/429453410/EAPP-Reviewer-docx-docx

Blogger: Nigel Ann Belen

Guide Questions:

1. Did the writer analyzes the controversy and discuss what others have said about it?
2. What are the various position on the issue?
3. What are the strengths and weaknesses of this position? Did the writer cite sources of information and provide a reference list for readers who wants to read those?
4. Did the writer explain and fairly analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the various sides of the issue?
5. How deeply into the argument was the writer able to go? If there were only two different opinions did the writer carefully explore the strengths and weaknesses of each, or did he/she just disprove one side without going into the details?
6. What is the writer’s position on the issue? What is he/she arguing that we, the readers should or should not do about it?
7. What are the writer’s reasons for his/her opinion? How well does the writer support the recommended course of action?
8. Did the writer see the objections to weakness in his/her own argument? Did he/she strongly argue for the particular point of view of direction? was the paper persuasive? Why or Why not?

Guide Questions and Strategies in Writing Position Paper

• Define the issue and provide as thorough a background as possible. State your own position.
• Discuss and analyze the various positions you have researched. Ensure that both strengths and weaknesses are taken into account
• Discuss your position and analyze its strengths and weaknesses. Discuss its relevance to other positions and why you have chosen it.
• Provide counters against potential criticisms of and weaknesses in the argument.
• Give reasons why your position and/or suggested course of action is the optimum one for all parties involved.
• A successful position paper is one that persuades its audience towards its argument. Reading your paper objectively and asking the same questions of it as you asked of the ones you researched, will help you avoid the same weaknesses in argument that you may have noticed in the papers you have analyzed.

References:
Maimon, Elaine P., Peritz, Janice H., & Yancey, Kathleen Blake. (2005). A Writer’s Resource. New York: McGraw-Hill retrieved from: https://webdev.isenberg.umass.edu/sites/default/files/Documents/Position_Papers.pdf

Blogger: Erwin Villareal

What is a Position Paper?

A Position Paper is a common type of academic argument writing assignment. Typically, a Position Paper is written after reading about and discussing a particular issue. Quite often, the readings cover more than one issue, and as a writer you must choose a particular area of focus. The central goal of writing a position paper is not only to state and defend your position on the issue but also to show how your stance relates to other positions. As we write the Position Paper, we will continue to practice skills such as articulating a thesis statement that contains an overall claim, developing an argument with reasons and evidence, and using transitions and reader cues for coherence. We will also introduce the following skills:

• identifying issues in a set of readings
• collecting information from readings on a particular issue
• positioning one’s claim in relation to other positions on the issue
• documenting sources using MLA in-text citations and works cited
• choosing an effective organizational strategy
• researching the library and Internet for sources

Requirements:

• Length: 4-6 pages
• Workshop and final draft: typed, double spaced, 1-inch margins, 10-12 point legible font
• Find an article from a periodical or the Internet relevant to your issue.
• Submit final draft in pocket folder with all drafts, workshop comments, notes, collecting, photocopy(ies) of outside written source(s), homework not yet collected, postscript.

Purpose

The purpose of a position paper is to generate support on an issue. It describes the author’s position on an issue and the rational for that position and, in the same way that a research paper incorporates supportive evidence, is based on facts that provide a solid foundation for the author’s argument.  It is a critical examination of a position using facts and inductive reasoning, which addresses both strengths and weaknesses of the author’s opinion.  

Elements of the Position Paper

The classic position paper contains three main elements:

• An Introduction, which identifies the issue that will be discussed and states the author’s position on that issue.
• The Body of the paper, which contains the central argument and can be further broken up into three unique sections:
• Background information
• Evidence supporting the author’s position
• A discussion of both sides of the issue, which addresses and   refutes arguments that contradict the author’s position 
• A Conclusion, restating the key points and, where applicable, suggesting resolutions to the issue.    

References:
https://writing.colostate.edu/index.cfm
https://bowiestate.libguides.com/c.php?g=442189&p=3014828

Blogger: Shientany Roque

Elements

Title page — provides a tentative title for the dissertation.  The title of the Concept Paper should be a stand-alone statement that can fully describe the project by summarizing the main idea of the manuscript.  The title should concisely identify the variables being investigated and the relationship among those variables (American Psychological Association [APA], 2010).  Words should serve a useful purpose; avoid words that do not add substance or words that are misleading.  The title of the Concept Paper may become the title of the dissertation.

Statement of the Problem — provides the purpose for the research.  This section of the Concept Paper introduces the problem under investigation, addresses why the researcher wants to investigate this problem, and how the research findings may help.  Supporting documentation, including statistical data if available, should be used to emphasize the need for this research.  This section is one of the most important sections of the Concept Paper; its serves to gain the reader’s attention and support.  You care about the research, but the reader may need some convincing.  The first few sentences of the Concept Paper should intrigue the reader to spike his or her interest and encourage further reading.

As you begin to write the problem statement of your Concept Paper, consider your research.  First consider why you feel the problem is important.  Consider how your study relates to previous work in the field, how you will link your hypotheses and objectives to theory, and how the hypotheses relate to the research design.  Finally, consider the theoretical and practical implications involved in your research project (APA, 2010).  A well-developed, concise, and clear problem statement will lay the foundation for a strong Concept Paper and the dissertation that follows.

Preliminary Literature Review — provides identification of major literature that supports and validates the topic; focuses on areas that offer support for new research, and offers the student an opportunity to analyze and synthesize past research in the context of their present problem.  For the Concept Paper, the student should connect their research project to a theoretical model reported in the literature.  The most successful research projects have been based on the research of predecessors, and this section of the Concept Paper provides enough of a description of previous research to plant seeds in the mind of the reader suggesting more information is needed.  A strong Concept Paper is based on a wide-range literature review that is condensed into a summary of key points.

Goal Statement — provides a broad or abstract intention, including the research goals and objectives.  This part of the Concept Paper tells the reader “who, what and when” regarding the research goal.

Research Questions — provides a preliminary view of the questions the student will investigate.  Questions are based on theory, past research, experience, and need.  These questions will direct the research methodology; their inclusion in the Concept Paper links the research problem with the methodology.  For some, composing the research questions may be the most difficult part of the research project, or possibly the most difficult aspect of writing the Concept Paper.  The questions will direct everything that will be done; therefore, it is important that they are accurate and focused to the main research problem.  These research questions will specifically direct the research and the type of analyses conducted, as such their compatibility is essential.

An Abridged Methodology — provides the student’s best idea on how to conduct the research and analyze the data. The goals and objects identified in previous sections of the Concept Paper should relate to the research methods described in this section.  For the Concept Paper, the methodology is simplified or summarized, serving as a general outline of the methods that will be employed.

Timeline — provides a range of time for completion of the project, highlighting key elements for each stage of the project.  This element is unique to the Concept Paper and provides the student structure for managing sections of the project within a realistic time frame.

References — provides references to the material cited in the literature review and elsewhere in the Concept Paper.

Source:
http://www.statisticssolutions.com/research-concept-paper/

Blogger: Lady Lyh Villena

What is Concept Paper?

Concept Paper lays the foundation for the applied dissertation process, providing an introductory form of communication between the doctoral student and the doctoral committee.  Essentially, the Concept Paper acts as a proposal; it allows the doctoral student the opportunity to define a research focus and obtain early feedback on the research idea.  A well-planned Concept Paper will capture the interest of the dissertation committee and establish a clear plan for the student’s dissertation.

When is the Research Concept Paper Written

The Research Concept Paper is completed prior to the dissertation proposal and serves as a development tool and summary of the planned dissertation.  The Concept paper is a brief document.  Depending upon the requirements of a specific academic program, the Concept Paper may range from as few as 2-3 pages to as many as 10-20 pages.  The essential point of the Concept Paper is to explain the importance of a particular research project.

The Concept Paper initiates the dissertation phase of a doctoral degree which follows the completion of necessary coursework and training, and represents a culmination of the student’s learning.  The dissertation is a student’s final academic effort to synthesize course material by applying their learning to a research project. The project is expected to add new information to the field of study.  The Concept Paper acts as a summary of this project.

The Concept Paper, although highly abridged, is comprised of many of the same items found in a dissertation.  These specific elements of the Concept Paper may vary depending upon the academic program and the chosen degree.  Programs typically provide a grading rubric that serves as an outline for the required components and student are encouraged to follow those rubrics closely in developing their Concept Paper.

Establishing the Purpose

1. Grab your reader’s attention. Concept papers are meant to persuade sponsors, convincing them to fund or adopt your idea. This means it’s critical to “hook” them right at the beginning.

• For instance, you could start off your paper with an attention-grabbing statistic related to your project: “Every year, 10.5 million pounds of food go to waste due to one common pest: rats.”
• Giving your concept paper a descriptive title, like “Lock the Rat Box: Humane, Hands-Free Rodent Control,” is another good way to grab their attention.

2. Explain why you are approaching this sponsor. After getting your reader’s attention, the introduction to your concept paper should then describe how your goals and the sponsor’s mission mesh. This tells the sponsor that you’ve done your homework and are serious about approaching them.

• Try something like: “The Savco Foundation has long been committed to funding projects that foster healthy communities. We have developed Lock the Rat Box as an easy, cost-effective means to lower illness rates and sanitation costs in municipalities, and are seeking your support for the project.”

3. Describe the problem your project addresses. The next section of a concept paper will devote a few sentences or short paragraphs to the specific purpose of your project. Describe the problem you want to solve, and illustrate how you know it exists.

4. Put the problem in context to explain why it matters. Show how your project relates to current issues, questions, or problems. Statistics and other numerical data can help build a convincing case for why your problem matters. Some readers might also be moved by narratives or personal stories, so consider including those as well.

• For instance, your concept paper could include a statement like: “Rats are a nuisance, but also a serious vector of diseases such as rabies and the bubonic plague. Municipalities across the United States spend upwards of twenty million dollars a year combating these issues.”
• Include references to verify any data you cite.

Sources:
http://www.statisticssolutions.com/research-concept-paper/
https://www.wikihow.com/Main-Page

Blogger: Lord Glenn De Asis

What is Bibliography?

A bibliography is a list of all of the sources you have used (whether referenced or not) in the process of researching your work. In general, a bibliography should include:

• the authors’ names
• the titles of the works
• the names and locations of the companies that published your copies of the sources
• the dates your copies were published
• the page numbers of your sources (if they are part of multi-source volumes)

Adhere to the conventions below in listing different kinds of text, observing the correct formatting of titles and use of punctuation.

For a book:

Stam, Robert, Film Theory: An Introduction (Oxford: Blackwell, 2000)

For a book where you have not used the first edition:

King, John, Magical Reels: A History of Cinema in Latin America, 2nd edn (London: Verso, 2000)

For a translated book:

​Baudrillard, Jean, The Mirror of Production, trans. by Mark Poster (St Louis: Telos Press, 1975)

For an edited volume of essays:

Aizenberg, Edna, ed., Borges and His Successors: The Borgesian Impact on Literature and the Arts (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1990)

For a chapter in an edited volume:

Balsamo, Anne, ‘Reading Cyborgs Writing Feminism’, in Cybersexualities: A Reader on Feminist Theory, Cyborgs and Cyberspace, ed. by Jenny Wolmark (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1999), pp. 146-56

Here the page numbers given are the first and last page of the chapter or essay.

For an article in a journal:

Hühn, Peter, ‘The Detective as Reader: Narrativity and Reading Concepts in Detective Fiction’, in Modern Fiction Studies, 33.3 (Autumn 1987), pp. 451-66

Here ‘33’ refers to the volume number and ‘3’ to the issue number, while the page numbers given are the first and last page of the article.

For a book with more than one volume:

Martin, Michael T., ed., New Latin American Cinema (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1997), 2 vols

For an essay in a book with more than one volume:

Solanas, Fernando and Octavio Getino, ‘Towards a Third Cinema: Notes and Experiences for the Development of a Cinema of Liberation in the Third World’, in New Latin American Cinema, ed. by Michael T. Martin (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1997), I, pp. 33-58

For an article on the internet:

Chanan, Michael, ‘Latin American Cinema in the 90s: Representational Space in Recent Latin American Cinema,’ in Estudios interdisciplinarios de América Latina y el Caribe, 9.1 (Jan-June 1999), <http://www.tau.ac.il/eial/IX_1/chanan.html> [accessed 9 August 2010]

As far as possible, give the same information in the same order as for a printed journal article, and then add the URL. If the article is not part of an online journal, it may not be possible to give the full range of details (volume number, title of journal, etc.), but at the very least your reference should include the author, title of article, URL and date accessed.

For a film:

Lang, Fritz, Metropolis, prod. by Tawd Beckman et al. (Universum Film, Germany, 1926)

Include the producer and distributor if possible (this information is sometimes difficult to access).

Listing more than one work by an author

If your bibliography includes more than one work by the same author, substitute the repeated author’s name with a long dash and put the works in date order.

Foucault, Michel. 1984. ‘Truth and Power.’ […]

—— 1990. ‘The Concern for Truth.’ […]

Listing more than one work published in the same year by the same author

If you are listing more than one text published by the same author in the same year, you simply add the letter ‘a’ to the date for the first title (in alphabetical order) and ‘b’ to the date of the second, e.g. ‘2003a’, ‘2003b’.

Sources:
https://www.plagiarism.org/article/whats-a-bibliography
https://www.mml.cam.ac.uk/dissertation-toolkit/bibliography

Blogger: Gwendelou Galang

Reference list

A reference list includes details of the sources cited in your paper. It starts on a separate page at the end of your assignment paper and is titled References. Each item cited in the reference list must have been cited in your paper. All sources appearing in the reference list must be ordered alphabetically by surname.

The reference list should be double spaced (no line spaces between references) with hanging indents used for the second and subsequent lines of each entry. A hanging indent is where the left line starts at the left margin and subsequent lines are indented (approx. 1.3 cm or five spaces). You can use your word processor to automatically format the double-spacing and hanging indents.

Italics is the preferred format for titles of books, journals and videos. Article and chapter titles are not italicized or put in quotation marks. Volume numbers are italicized but issue numbers are not.

Capitalization in APA style is very specific. For references, the following general rules apply:

• Book titles – capitalize the first letter of the first word of the title, and the first letter of the first word after a colon.
  e.g. Ageing and aged care in Australia and Brave new brain: Conquering mental illness in the era of the genome.
• Article, chapter or section titles – capitalize the first letter of the first word of the title, and the first letter of the first word after a colon.
  e.g. Personal resilience as a strategy for surviving and thriving in the face of workplace adversity: A literature review.
  

Pronouns, acronyms and abbreviations that are normally capitalized should be capitalized in the reference list and citations.

Example of a Reference List

References

Andreasen, N. C. (2001). Brave new brain: Conquering mental illness in the era of the genome. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

Atkin, M. (Reporter). (2008, November 13). Bermagui forest disputed turf. The Hack Half Hour.
Retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/hack/notes/

Copstead, L., & Banasik, J. (2005). Pathophysiology (3rd ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Saunders.

Gilbert, D. G., McClernon, J. F., Rabinovich, N. E., Sugai, C., Plath, L. C., Asgaard, G., …Botros, N.
(2004). Effects of quitting smoking on EEG activation and attention last for more than 31 days
and are more severe with stress, dependence, DRD2 A1 allele, and depressive traits. Nicotine and Tobacco Research, 6, 249-267. doi:10.1080/14622200410001676305

Hall, B. (Writer), & Bender, J. (Director). (1991). The rules of the game [Television series episode]. In J. Sander (Producer), I’ll fly away. New York, NY: New York Broadcasting Company.

Jackson, D., Firtko, A., & Edenborough, M. (2007). Personal resilience as a strategy for surviving and thriving in the face of workplace adversity: A literature review. Journal of Advanced Nursing,
60(1), 1-9. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2648.2007.04412.x

Potente, S., Anderson, C., & Karim, M. (2011). Environmental sun protection and supportive policies and practices: An audit of outdoor recreational settings in NSW coastal towns. Health
Promotion Journal of Australia, 22, 97-101.

Wheeler, D.P., & Bragin, M. (2007). Bringing it all back home: Social work and the challenge of
returning veterans. Health and Social Work, 32, 297-300. Retrieved from
http://www.naswpressonline.org

Source:
https://library.westernsydney.edu.au/main/sites/default/files/pdf/cite_APA.pdf

Blogger: Lorenzo Melendres

Approaches to Literary Criticism

• Sociological Criticism: This approach “examines literature in the cultural, economic and political context in which it is written or received,” exploring the relationships between the artist and society. Sometimes it examines the artist’s society to better understand the author’s literary works; other times, it may examine the representation of such societal elements within the literature itself. One influential type of sociological criticism is Marxist criticism, which focuses on the economic and political elements of art, often emphasizing the ideological content of literature; because Marxist criticism often argues that all art is political, either challenging or endorsing (by silence) the status quo, it is frequently evaluative and judgmental, a tendency that “can lead to reductive judgment, as when Soviet critics rated Jack London better than William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Edith Wharton, and Henry James, because he illustrated the principles of class struggle more clearly.” Nonetheless, Marxist criticism “can illuminate political and economic dimensions of literature other approaches overlook.”
  
• Mythological Criticism: This approach emphasizes “the recurrent universal patterns underlying most literary works.” Combining the insights from anthropology, psychology, history, and comparative religion, mythological criticism “explores the artist’s common humanity by tracing how the individual imagination uses myths and symbols common to different cultures and epochs.” One key concept in mythological criticism is the archetype, “a symbol, character, situation, or image that evokes a deep universal response,” which entered literary criticism from Swiss psychologist Carl Jung. According to Jung, all individuals share a “‘collective unconscious,’ a set of primal memories common to the human race, existing below each person’s conscious mind”—often deriving from primordial phenomena such as the sun, moon, fire, night, and blood, archetypes according to Jung “trigger the collective unconscious.” Another critic, Northrop Frye, defined archetypes in a more limited way as “a symbol, usually an image, which recurs often enough in literature to be recognizable as an element of one’s literary experience as a whole.” Regardless of the definition of archetype they use, mythological critics tend to view literary works in the broader context of works sharing a similar pattern.
  
• Reader-Response Criticism: This approach takes as a fundamental tenet that “literature” exists not as an artifact upon a printed page but as a transaction between the physical text and the mind of a reader. It attempts “to describe what happens in the reader’s mind while interpreting a text” and reflects that reading, like writing, is a creative process. According to reader-response critics, literary texts do not “contain” a meaning; meanings derive only from the act of individual readings. Hence, two different readers may derive completely different interpretations of the same literary text; likewise, a reader who re-reads a work years later may find the work shockingly different. Reader-response criticism, then, emphasizes how “religious, cultural, and social values affect readings; it also overlaps with gender criticism in exploring how men and women read the same text with different assumptions.” Though this approach rejects the notion that a single “correct” reading exists for a literary work, it does not consider all readings permissible: “Each text creates limits to its possible interpretations.”
  
• Deconstructionist Criticism: This approach “rejects the traditional assumption that language can accurately represent reality.” Deconstructionist critics regard language as a fundamentally unstable medium—the words “tree” or “dog,” for instance, undoubtedly conjure up different mental images for different people—and therefore, because literature is made up of words, literature possesses no fixed, single meaning. According to critic Paul de Man, deconstructionists insist on “the impossibility of making the actual expression coincide with what has to be expressed, of making the actual signs [i.e., words] coincide with what is signified.” As a result, deconstructionist critics tend to emphasize not what is being said but how language is used in a text. The methods of this approach tend to resemble those of formalist criticism, but whereas formalists’ primary goal is to locate unity within a text, “how the diverse elements of a text cohere into meaning,” deconstructionists try to show how the text “deconstructs,” “how it can be broken down … into mutually irreconcilable positions.” Other goals of deconstructionists include (1) challenging the notion of authors’ “ownership” of texts they create (and their ability to control the meaning of their texts) and (2) focusing on how language is used to achieve power, as when they try to understand how a some interpretations of a literary work come to be regarded as “truth.”
  
• Queer Theory: The queer theory is a tool to study the possibilities of giving an identity to the LGBT community that was isolated or marginalized by the society and cultures for years. It is largely focuses on the difference between the gender, sex and desire. Basically, queerness is the term used for the bisexuality and the subject like gay and lesbian. However, it also includes the analysis of the topics like intersex bodies and identities, cross-dressing, gender ambiguity and surgery for gender correction. The main purpose of queer theory is to discuss the sexual orientation in the context of natural development or the set rules by the society or the belief of essentialists.
  
  Sources:
  http://home.olemiss.edu/~egjbp/spring97/litcrit.html
  https://www.aresearchguide.com/the-queer-theory.html

Blogger: Nigel Ann Belen

Approaches to Literary Criticism

• Formalist Criticism: This approach regards literature as “a unique form of human knowledge that needs to be examined on its own terms.” All the elements necessary for understanding the work are contained within the work itself. Of particular interest to the formalist critic are the elements of form—style, structure, tone, imagery, etc.—that are found within the text. A primary goal for formalist critics is to determine how such elements work together with the text’s content to shape its effects upon readers.
  
• Biographical Criticism: This approach “begins with the simple but central insight that literature is written by actual people and that understanding an author’s life can help readers more thoroughly comprehend the work.” Hence, it often affords a practical method by which readers can better understand a text. However, a biographical critic must be careful not to take the biographical facts of a writer’s life too far in criticizing the works of that writer: the biographical critic “focuses on explicating the literary work by using the insight provided by knowledge of the author’s life…. Biographical data should amplify the meaning of the text, not drown it out with irrelevant material.”
  
• Historical Criticism: This approach “seeks to understand a literary work by investigating the social, cultural, and intellectual context that produced it—a context that necessarily includes the artist’s biography and milieu.” A key goal for historical critics is to understand the effect of a literary work upon its original readers.
  
• Gender Criticism: This approach “examines how sexual identity influences the creation and reception of literary works.” Originally an offshoot of feminist movements, gender criticism today includes a number of approaches, including the so-called “masculinist” approach recently advocated by poet Robert Bly. The bulk of gender criticism, however, is feminist and takes as a central precept that the patriarchal attitudes that have dominated western thought have resulted, consciously or unconsciously, in literature “full of unexamined ‘male-produced’ assumptions.” Feminist criticism attempts to correct this imbalance by analyzing and combatting such attitudes—by questioning, for example, why none of the characters in Shakespeare’s play Othello ever challenge the right of a husband to murder a wife accused of adultery. Other goals of feminist critics include “analyzing how sexual identity influences the reader of a text” and “examining how the images of men and women in imaginative literature reflect or reject the social forces that have historically kept the sexes from achieving total equality.”
  
• Psychological Criticism: This approach reflects the effect that modern psychology has had upon both literature and literary criticism. Fundamental figures in psychological criticism include Sigmund Freud, whose “psychoanalytic theories changed our notions of human behavior by exploring new or controversial areas like wish-fulfillment, sexuality, the unconscious, and repression” as well as expanding our understanding of how “language and symbols operate by demonstrating their ability to reflect unconscious fears or desires”; and Carl Jung, whose theories about the unconscious are also a key foundation of Mythological Criticism. Psychological criticism has a number of approaches, but in general, it usually employs one (or more) of three approaches:
  1. An investigation of “the creative process of the artist: what is the nature of literary genius and how does it relate to normal mental functions?”
  2. The psychological study of a particular artist, usually noting how an author’s biographical circumstances affect or influence their motivations and/or behavior.
  3. The analysis of fictional characters using the language and methods of psychology.

Source:
http://home.olemiss.edu/~egjbp/spring97/litcrit.html

Blogger: Erwin Villareal