Of all the convoluted and nefarious aspects of the English language, none could be more hate inspiring than the critical essay. Don’t get me wrong. I love the English language. In fact, when most of my peers opted to go in for the more manly courses of study like science and engineering, I chose to study English Literature out of choice. And I was reasonably good at it. That is, until I came face to face with the horrible critical essay.

Maybe it had something to do with the fact that the very first time I was asked to explain what a critical essay was, I faltered and mumbled something about it being a criticism of things to the mirth of the entire class and the consternation of my professor. But since that day, critical essays have been the bane of my existence. My professor, who sadly never saw the mirth of my mutterings, seemed to have resolved to torture me with the critical essay. And soon, my till then enjoyable English classes dissolved into a quagmire of criticism and critical essays.

To say that I managed to tackle critical essays would be a lie of the most monstrous proportions. I really sucked at critical essays. In fact, my entire approach to the English language as a course of study had been based on the fact that I loved writing and writing came naturally to me. When I had to lay this writing down on a bench and to dissect and mutilate it till all that remained was a weakened shadow of its former self, I began to despise the very course of study. According to me, the critical essay takes all the joy out of learning more about the English Language. And the great critical essay writers of yore are little more than frustrated practitioners of language.

Sadly, the rest of the class seemed to enjoy analyzing critical essays. I was the only one who hated the genre with a passion. And this did nothing to endear me to my professor or the rest of my class mates. It almost seemed like a sign. The one person (me!) who had described critical essays as being criticism oriented things had become, by far, the most critical student in the entire class. But to my surprise, over the course of the semester, I began to appreciate the art of the critical essay (even if grudgingly!) Being exposed to the critical essays of the masters gave me an insight into the vagaries and the eloquence of the English Language. And to be honest, some of the thoughts that they tried to discuss in the critical essays, were more than food for thought. They were comprehensive discussion topics in their own right. And so, a critical student of critical essays like me, grew into being a believer. And believe me when I say that I slowly, but surely began to enjoy the art of the critical essay to such an extent that I began to write some of my own like about credit cards for people with bad credits. And my classmates and my professor too were thrilled at what they presumed was a conversion of an agnostic. Little did they know that I invest more than my fair share of efforts into demystifying the critical essay genre!