I meant to mention this in class, but I wanted to share a few thoughts on how to structure (or sequence, or arrange into a syntagm yayy!) a critical essay. A scientific paper in our field typically has the following structure (and you are welcome to use it in this class, if it makes sense to do so):
- Intro
- Lit Review
- Methods
- Results
- Discussion
- Conclusion
Critical essays don’t have a standardized structure like this. Typically, though, they have a structure that can be more or less described as a sequence of high-level ideas or concepts. Take a look at Manovich to see what I mean. Each of his sections develops a single concept. Each chapter covers several of these concepts. And the introduction and conclusion identify the relationships among each of those concepts. And actually, most of the readings I assigned this semester are like that.
So ask yourself what the main ideas you are exploring, and think a little bit about how they relate to each other. That should help you come up with a good outline and thesis.
Interaction Culture 