How to write a critique
A critique is a short paper about one book or article. It starts with a brief summary of what the author said and then looks at it critically. To summarize an article, you should first read the whole thing. Then think about it. What are the author\'s main points? How does s/he back them up; that is, what evidence does the author cite to support them? How could you make the same argument in your own words? At this point how to write a critique for that you should reread the article to make sure you\'ve summarized the authors ideas correctly and that you\'ve clearly identified the source of each idea (whether it\'s a direct quote or not).
The next step is to critically review what the author wrote. Does the argument hang together? Were the methods used to gather the evidence appropriate for the author\'s purposes? Does the evidence cited really lead to the conclusion the author reached? Do you know how to write a critique of other evidence that might be used to make a counter-argument? Be sure to check the date of the article and the evidence -- are the conclusions still valid?
Overall steps for how to write a critique
1. The first step is to select an appropriate journal article; the best articles are taken from scholarly journals.
2. Browse journals until you find a topic that interests you; this makes for a better critique.
3. Select an article that fits your current level of knowledge. Do not include statistics unless you are versed in those statistics.
4. Try to select articles that are current; pick an article written within the preceding 12 months.
5. Writing the critique will cover five areas, after you have read the article thoroughly: thesis, methods, evidence of thesis support, contribution to the literature, recommendations.
6. Tips on the five elements: (1) clearly state the thesis. (2) Under methods, answer the following questions. "What methods did the author use to investigate the topic? Were the appropriate methods used? Did the author\'s approach to supporting the thesis make sense? Did the author employ the methods correctly? Did you discover any errors in the way the research was conducted?" (3) Evidence of Thesis Support: how to write a critique "What evidence did the author present in support of the thesis? What are the strengths of the evidence? What are the weaknesses? How did the author support the thesis?" (4) Contribution to the literature: "Conduct your own research and include at least five other authors on the subject. Evaluate the contribution that your selected article makes to a better understanding of the subject." (5) Recommendation: "Summarize your evaluation of the article. Who will benefit from reading this article? How to write a critique? What will the benefit be? How important and extensive is that benefit? Clearly state your evaluation of the article in the form of a thesis for your own critique."
7. Find yourself a paper format in which to put your critique and follow assigned or selected citing methods, as well, when giving support for your thesis or quoting your source materials.
How to write a critique >
|
