Components of Investigation

1. Intent: What is the author’s objective in creating the text? What does the author want to achieve?-
-convince, inform, instruct, enlighten or entertain the readers

2. Content: What does the author say—subject and theme (s)? How does the author say it? What
agents and devices have been applied and why? Characters, settings, plot, techniques and figures of
speech etc.

3. Target: What does the author appeal to—soul, heart, mind, conscience, imagination, senses? What
does the text intend to evoke—convictions, feelings, thoughts, impressions or longings? What
thoughts, feelings (pity and fears, for instance), etc?

Effect: What is the intended effect (catharsis, for instance) and what is the actual effect? What
additional effects do we get from the text than those meant by the author? What do we get/learn
from it overall? Which of the author’s agents and devices can we use in composing our own texts?
Why should we pay attention to it? What is the significance of the message and the contents? How do
we relate the contents to life and learning?

5. Critique: How well does the author convey the message? How well do his tool and agents work on
us? How accurately and aptly do we get the desired message, or a different one? How well does the
text achieve the two fundamental objectives of literature?

6. Response: How subjective could our response to all these questions be? How could our perception
of the text become part of the ultimate effect of the text on us and how could it influence our
response therein?

Components of Pedagogic Critique

1. Focus and Clarity: (purpose/utility, subject, themes and effects)

2. Structural Organization: (parts, sections, paragraphs and sentences)

3. Diction: (enriched vocabulary)

4. Literary and Critical Devices/Figures of Speech

5. Reflection: life, gender, age group, generation, social class, ideology, period, region, culture,
movement, tradition, etc.

6. Aesthetic Appeal

7. Authenticity and Credibility

8. Appropriateness: taking into account the age and level (language proficiency, expected
awareness etc) of the students; and societal sensitivities—ideological, moral, cultural, etc.
 9. Textual comparison/ Better Alternatives (if any)

(“Purpose” in point 1: related to the basic purpose of literature as well as specific national, academic
and institutional objectives.

Sources
a. Primary Source (solid textual evidences)

b. Literature Review (if available).

c. Field Research (authentic, verifiable and documented): auditing, interviews, questionnaires and
workshops, etc.

d. Personal views and inferences.