Any suggestions for finding some critical essay example papers?

Student Forum
#1

I am writing a 2000 word essay which should critically discuss, challenge and deconstruct an issue/topic relevant to the graphic design industry. So, it is not critically analyzing a written text, but rather, critically discussing an issue such as authorship, ethics etc. My essay is a compare/contrast argumentative essay. So an X vs. Y kind of approach, which is slightly bias towards one side of the argument (counter arguments are included of course)

  1. The title needs to be posed as a question. I am stuck on how to structure/word this, and what the best formal approach is. I am looking for some examples of titles posed as questions. As mentioned, the essay compares and contrasts two different areas of design, a little bit bias towards one side. In that sense, it is like a critical argumentative essay.

  2. I am not critically analyzing a written text by someone else, the essay requires me to formulate my own argument on an issue in the graphic design industry and back that up with quotes etc. This feels like uncharted territory for me! I am so used to critically analysing texts by other authors, rather than critically writing about a topic chosen by me and from scratch. So I really would just like some examples of critical essays that challenge/deconstruct an issue in the industry or practice, and perhaps apply some critical theory to specific works or wider discourses. This is purely for a better understanding on structure, writing style and the title. Many of the resources I have found as of yet are not really written in a style that matches a critical, student-proof, academic essay - i.e well structured paragraphs, formal writing and objective, etc. So I have been on the hunt for some examples of university essays/student/formal essays to guide my critical writing approach.

Any suggestions appreciated.

I have not included the topic as it is not relevant, I just would like to do some reading on critical papers. I also am still deciding on a final topic. I see there are a few posts here which are fairly recent, must be that time of year for students! But haven’t been able to find any examples of essays that 1. include a title question and 2. critically analyze a topic relevant to the industry in formal, academic writing.

Any help greatly appreciated.

Abby

#2

I think you’re confused about the first step - title as a question. This is easy. For example, if you wanted to write about the history of typefaces, you’d make your title in the form of a question, such as “Do typefaces influence what we buy?: An exploration into Retail Design of the Twentieth Century.”

The second part is you formulating an argument regarding your topic. For my above example, your argument could be “Retail design has been vastly impacted by the typefaces manufacturers use to market their products.”

This would be followed by sources that support your argument. You’ll need to seek out quotes from articles that cover your topic to find these. Your school or public library may have access to an article database that can help you search for newspapers or magazines that specifically mention your topic.

#3

I’d consider the topic to be a relevant thing.
But I’m curious, were you given no instruction in your classwork on how to approach this? It is extremely odd to leave learning how to do research on a topic up to the student to figure out. Is someone not doing their job?

Web search term
“critcal essays on graphic design”
gave these results and more:

https://educators.aiga.org/design-research-resources-journals/

https://csus.libguides.com/graphicdesign/articles

http://www.ijdesign.org/index.php/IJDesign

#6