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Find another peer-reviewed academic article about your research topic. As you read, do some critical thinking about the article and consider what you have found already in your exploratory paper.This essay should make 1 overall argument that evaluates the journal article; the essay should support that evaluation in the body paragraphs with evidence and analysis. The critique should focus on the content of the article, engaging the argument of the author.
What is a critical review?
A critical review is a review of an article that combines a summary and a critical comment.
Why are you asked to write a critical review?
Students are required to write critical reviews in some of your courses to enable you to demonstrate that you can:
✶ read to understand the main points in an article
✶ analyze the findings or argument of the article
✶ decide the appropriate criteria by which to evaluate the article
✶ provide a critical evaluation of the article based on the criteria selected.
The ability to read critically is not only important in academic study, it is also important in business because critical abilities enable practitioners to keep up to date and adjust to change; to assess and comment on problems and proposed solutions published in professional literature; and to evaluate and comment on solutions proposed in the workplace.
What steps should you take in summarizing an article?
1. Take a quick overview of the article by reading
✶ the title
✶ the abstract
✶ the introduction
✶ the subheadings
✶ the conclusion
2. Read the article without taking notes in order to gain an overall idea of its aim and main idea.
3. Read the article again analytically and make notes of main ideas and main topic.
✶ Highlight important ideas.
✶ Make brief notes in the margin or on paper.
4. Check your notes to ensure that they include:
✶ the main aim of the article, e.g. to analyze, explain, evaluate, argue, criticize,
discuss opposing views
✶ the methodological approach, e.g. empirical research, financial analysis,
textual analysis
✶ the main findings/conclusions
5. Use your notes to write a summary
6. In your summary ensure that you have paraphrased not plagiarized the authors’ words
and used quotations sparingly.
What is involved in commenting critically on an article?
Commenting critically on an article involves analysis and evaluation. Analysis of the article involves dissecting the information presented in order to identify the purpose, the main points, the methodology and the findings or conclusions of the article (This is done in the initial summarizing step).
In addition, analysis for critical comment involves identifying:
1. unstated assumptions
2. steps in the argument that are not logical
3. any additional purposes of the article that are not explicitly stated.
Evaluation of the article involves making judgments about the value (both positive and negative) of the article against specific criteria.
What criteria can be used for evaluating an article?
The following criteria are useful; however, not all of them will be relevant for evaluating all articles:
• the timeliness of the article
• the degree to which the article makes an original contribution
• the logic of the view put forward
• the validity of the evidence put forward
• the theoretical framework used: Is the framework valid? Has the framework been applied appropriately?
• the methodology used: Is the methodology appropriate? Is the methodological approach explained clearly? Does the methodological approach have any weaknesses? Is the study sufficiently comprehensive and thorough? Is anything important omitted in the research?
• the findings: Are the findings presented and described clearly and fully? Do the findings seem sound? Could the data be interpreted in another way? Do/does the author(s) account for everything in the data or do they ignore something that might be important?
• the validity of the conclusions
• the thoroughness with which the article treats the topic
• its value compared to that of other articles on the topic
• the appropriateness of the article for the intended audience
• the extent to which it might satisfy the specific needs of a specific user.
What is the structure of a critical review?
Like most other writing you do at university a critical review has an introduction, a body and a conclusion.
Introduction
In the introduction you should:
• provide a context for the article (background information or shared knowledge)
• give the title of the article and name of author (full name is possible here with subsequent references to the family name only)
• identify the writer by profession or importance if appropriate
• include some indication as to why the subject is important and thus worth writing about
• identify the purpose of the article
• give an indication of your overall impression of the article in general terms.
Body
In the body you should:
• summarize and analyze the contents of the article
• make clear by frequent reference to the author(s) of the article that you are presenting the author(s) views, not yours
• evaluate the article.
Conclusion
In the conclusion you should:
• summarize the previous discussion
• make a final judgment on the value of the article
• comment on the future of the issue/topic or implications of the view expressed.
What makes a good critical review?
A good critical review:
• gives correct information about the author, date and article in the introduction
• summarizes the purpose and main idea of the article in the introduction
• shows evidence of analytical thinking in the summary section
• evaluates the article against a number of criteria
• provides a final evaluation indicating the balance that is seen to exist between the strengths and weaknesses of the article
• makes sufficient reference to the author of the article
• makes appropriate use of reporting verbs
• makes appropriate use of summarizing vocabulary – words that sum up the ideas in previous sentences and paragraphs
• makes appropriate use of evaluation vocabulary
• provides clear transitions between paragraphs that are helpful in guiding the reader through the review
• provides full bibliographical details of the article at the end of the review
EXERCISES To DO:
3.1) identify the subject, character, verb, and action in these pairs of sentences. The unclear sentence is first; the improved sentence follows. What do you notice about how characters and subject, and actions, and verbs are aligned in each? :
——1a) There is opposition among many voters to nuclear power plants based on a belief in their to human health.
——1b) many voters oppose nuclear power plants because they believe that such plants threaten human health.
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3.4) one sentence in each of these pairs is clear, expressing characters as subjects and actions as verbs; the other is less clear, with actions in nominalizations and character often not in subjects. First identify which is which. Then circle the nominalizations, bracket verbs, and underline subjects. Then put a ‘c’ over characters that seem to perform actions:
——-1a) Some people argue that atmospheric carbon dioxide does not elevate global temperature.
——1b) There has been speculation by educators about the role of the family in improving educational achievement.
——2a) The store’s price increases led to frustration among its customers.
——2B) When we write concisely, readers understand easily.
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3.6) Revise these next sentences so that the nominalizations are verbs and characters are their subjects. In (1) and (5), characters are in brackets() and nominalizations are in <>. :
——1) (Licoln’s) <hope> was for the <preservation> of the Union with-out war, but the (South’s) <attack> on Fort Sumter made war an <inevitability>.
——5) The (health care industry’s) <inability> to exert cost <controls> could lead to the (public’s) <decision> that (congressional) <action> is needed.
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4.1) Diagnose and revise these next sentences. Look at the first six or seven words (ignore short introductory phrases). Then revise so that each has a specific character as subject of a specific verb. To revise, you may have to invent characters. Use we, I, or any other word that seems appropriate. :
——-1. Contradictions among the data require an explanation.[we]
——-3. In recent years, the appearance of new interpretations about the meaning of the discovery of America has led to a reassessment of Columbus’s place in Western history. [historians]
——-8. Tracing transitions in a well-written article provides help in efforts at improving coherence in writing.
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4.2) In the following, change all active verbs into passives, and all passives into actives. Which sentences improve? Which do not? (in the first two, active verbs that be passive are “()” ; verbs already passive are “<>”. :
——1. Independence is <gained> by those on welfare when skills are <learned> that the marketplace (values).
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5.1) Revise this passage to improve their flow by putting old information first in each sentence. In (1), I “()” the words that I feel are old information.:
—–1. Two aims-the recovery of the American economy and the modernization of America into a military power-were in (the president’s mind when he assumed his office.) The drop in unemployment figures and inflation, and the increase in the GNP testifies to (his success in the first). But our increase involvement in international conflict without any clear set of political goals indicates (less success with the second). Nevertheless, increases in the military budget and a good deal of sabre rattling (pleased the American voter).
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5.2) Revise these passages to give them more consistent topic strings. Identify words that name what the passages “comment” on and use those words as subjects of most of the sentences. In (1), words that could be consistent subjects/topics are in “brackets ()” :
——1. (Vegetation) covers the earth, except for those areas continuously covered with ice or utterly scorched by continual heat. Richly fertilized plains and river valleys are places where (plants) grow most richly, but also at the edge of perpetual snow in high mountains. The ocean and its edges as well as in and around lakes and swamps are (densely vegetated). The cracks of busy city sidewalks have (plants) in them as well as in seemingly barren cliffs. Before humans existed, the earth was covered with (vegetation), and the earth will have (vegetation) long after evolutionary history swallows us up.
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6.1) Revise these sentences to emphasize the right words. In the first three, I “()” what I think should be stressed. Then eliminate wordiness, nominalizations, etc. :
——1. The President’s tendency (to rewrite the Constitution) is the big best danger to the nation, in my opinion, at least.
——2. A new political philosophy that could affect our society (well into the twenty-first century) may emerge from these studies.
——3. There are (limited) opportunities for faculty to work with individual students in large American colleges and universities.
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6.2) Revise this passage below so that their sentences begin with appropriate topics and end with appropriate emphasis:
——-1. The story of King Lear and his daughters was a popular one during the region of Queen Elizabeth. At least a dozen available books offered the story to anyone wishing to read it, by the time Elizabeth died. The characters were undeveloped in most of these stories, however, making the story a simple narrative that stated an obvious moral. When he began work on Lear, perhaps his greatest tragedy, Shakespeare must have had several versions of this story available to him. He turned the characters into credible human beings with complex motives, however, even though they were based on the stock figures of legend.
