Make up your own topic - Essay Example

The Strain of Music: A Critique The article en d “The Strain of Music” written by a in an English 102 course proffered issues pertinent to dispelling the myth that students delve into music as an academic major to experience an easier path through collegiate life. The author’s purpose was to present the challenges that students with music majors encounter during the course of their academic pursuit. The aim of the essay therefore it to evaluate how well the author presented the arguments in terms of analyzing the article with a keen and critical eye and gauge its ability to logically present the arguments, as structured.

In this regard, the article would be critiqued focusing on logical presentation of contentions in the most balanced and objective way. The essay hereby aims to proffer the effectiveness of the author’s discourse using appropriate critical analysis techniques, as required. To analyze the essay in a logical form, one needs to clearly set the meaning of a critical analysis. One’s academic background and learning from various modules on critical thinking recognizes the involvement of rational and logical thinking skills in closely evaluating the effectiveness of a discourse to determine if the specified objective is achieved.

Using these explanations, the article initially started with an introductory paragraph that provided some background information on the author’s rationale for pursuing music as an academic major. However, introductory paragraphs need to establish the general overview of the discourse and stipulate the author’s aim and thesis statement as well. In this article, the introductory paragraph did not contain the author’s purpose nor the thesis statement, as required; thereby failing to comply with the general requirement of an academic essay.

The author proceeded with a narrative discourse of how people wrongly perceived music courses, in general. While indicating that the perceptions are false, the author did not support the statement but instead, diverted the discussion to presenting some approach to seek respite from the demands of the course. Further, the structure and arguments that are supposed to prove that music is not an easier path was not effectively and logically presented. For example, the paragraph that is supposed to discuss that long hours of practice cut homework time in core and other courses did not support this contention in any way; but instead, opted to discuss the challenges posed by taking a diction course for vocal performance majors.

The general arguments that need to support the author’s main thesis which is to dispel the myth that students who opted to take music as a major course or degree were not logically structure, neither supported nor validated. The article lacks citations from credible sources to increase the validity of arguments that were presented. The structural format was weak as the author did not have a clear focus on the subjects and discussions that would support the thesis. The overall format was also weak as the main purpose was stipulated at the end of the discourse rather than explicitly stating it in the introductory portion.

The article did not effectively nor logically support the contentions for the thesis. Due to the disorganized and disorderly manner by which arguments were provided, in conjunction with the failure to support these arguments from secondary academic sources, the general content was weak and ineffective in relaying the disclosed statements that are supposed to persuade readers that students pursuing music as majors did not, in fact, choose an easy path.