Griffen Riley

Critical Reflection

Critical Methods and Theories

For my critical reflection on “Critical Methods and Theories” I chose to show

my final research paper for Dr. Nayar’s Critical Methods class, ECM (…). In this class,

we looked at many different theories and ways of analyzing writing. We studies a

variety of scholars and philosophers and applied their various theories about

language to different texts, but mainly applied these theories to Joseph Conrad’s

novella The Heart of Darkness. By applying all the different theories we learned to

one text, we were really able to get a full understanding of the theories. It is

extremely beneficial to be able to compare your own analysis to each other to see

the difference in thinking and philosophy

For my final research paper, I applied the theory of linguistics to Conrad’s

Heart of Darkness in order to take a deeper look at the actual way Conrad structures

his writing. Here is an excerpt from that paper:

Another way in which Conrad manipulates the narrative through his writing

is in the way he physically presents it to us. Not only does Conrad give us the

story in bits and pieces, but sometimes he gives us the literal sentences in bits

and pieces, forcing the reader to stop frequently while reading. The opening

line of the novella “immediately alerts us to the oppositions of movement and

stasis that permeate the tale” (Jones). Conrad establishes that not only will the

story be about opposite “movements” at work, but the actual structure and
 syntax are also “movements” at work. “The Nellie, a cruising yawl, swung to

her anchor without a flutter of the sails and was at rest. The flood had made,

the wind was nearly calm, and being bound by the river the only thing for it

was to come to and wait for the tide,” (Conrad 1). In each sentence above, the

verb tense is simple past and the voice is active. With this being said, the

endings to the clauses are unusual for it to be in active voice.

I was able to apply all the different skills and techniques I learned in the

course to help me formulate my final research paper. I took my knowledge of

linguistics and applied the methods of analyzing passages and asking “why” and

“how” questions that was taught during the course to create a well-written paper

that looks deeply at Conrad’s phrasing and sentence structure. This phrasing and

sentence structure created a story of its own, and I could not have even discovered

this without the skills I learned in the course.