Critical analysis is what you do when you break down anything into smaller parts and then tackle each piece in order to understand the whole. You take the role of the critic. The analysis is your critique. Your objective is in-depth understanding and constructive suggestions where needed. This happens a lot in the classroom regarding certain texts, or it could be conducted in a business setting to help a Competitive Analysis Templates , or any other setting where you will need to understand the underlying who, what, where, when, why, and how.
In either of these cases, these free samples will show you how different analyses are conducted for certain scenarios. Download them now as useful blueprints and reference examples.
Critical Analysis Template
Critical Path Analysis Template
Business Critical Analysis Template
Critical Incident Analysis Template
Critical Path Analysis Template
Critical Discourse Analysis Essay Template
Critical Analysis in Humanities Template
How to Conduct a Critical Analysis
As these samples show, how you conduct a critical analysis will also be affected by what you are analyzing. For example, in a business setting, you can either be conducting an overall Business Analysis or you can be tackling a specific sphere of your business; for instance, a Financial Analysis.
Or perhaps you are doing an analysis of a piece of literature or a whole academic field. Or maybe you are conducting a critical path analysis to assess and plan complex work procedures.
The same elements will come into play in some form or another:
- State the assumptions or conventional wisdom at the root of the current piece or system.
- Break down the current structure into its key components or main ideas.
- Return to cornerstone references and test each definition or assumption.
- Make an outline of your findings and a summary.
- Conclude with any implications you’ve inferred, as well as suggested solutions or next action steps.
This is a generalized outline underlying any critical analysis, simple or complex. For an even better in-depth understanding, download these templates and study them depending on the context most useful to you.
Critical Literary Analysis Template
Simple Critical Analysis Template
How to Use These Templates
First consider the basic structure of what you need to analyse.
- Is it a complex system of interdependent elements and factors outside your control? You will want any of the above business-related analyses or conduct a SWOT Analysis, even if you’re analyzing an intricate personal project.
- Is it a completed work centering around a theme or idea? Something like the Critical Literary Analysis Template or the Critical Analysis in Humanities Template will benefit your strategy, even if you are working in a mostly theoretical scientific field.
All these documents are available to download free of charge, so be sure to make the most of them.
Related Analysis Templates
For more examples of useful templates, check out these related links:
