Once you have selected and carefully read your article, you may begin to write your critique, which will cover five areas:
1. Thesis
2. Methods
3. Evidence of thesis support
4. Contribution to the literature
5. Recommendation
Thesis
Your first task is to find and clearly state the thesis of the article. The thesis is the main point the article is trying to make. In a 2014 article published in the scholarly journal PS: Political Science & Politics and titled “Transparency: The Revolution in Qualitative Research,” Andrew Moravcsik of Princeton University states his thesis very clearly:
Qualitative political science, the use of textual evidence to reconstruct causal mechanisms across a limited number of cases, is currently undergoing a methodological revolution . . . The cornerstone of this methodological revolution is enhanced research transparency: the principle that every political scientist should make the essential components of his or her work visible to fellow scholars. The most broadly applicable tool for enhancing qualitative research transparency is active citation.
Many authors, however, do not present their theses this clearly. After you have read the article, ask yourself whether you had to hunt for the thesis. Comment about the clarity of the author’s thesis presentation and state the author’s thesis in your critique. Before proceeding with the remaining elements of your critique, consider the importance of the topic. Has the author written something that is important for us as citizens or political scientists to read?
Methods
In your critique, carefully answer the following questions:
1. What methods did the author use to investigate the topic? In other words, how did the author go about supporting the thesis?
2. Were the appropriate methods used?
3. Did the author’s approach to supporting the thesis make sense?
4. Did the author employ the selected methods correctly?
5. Did you discover any errors in the way he or she conducted the research?
Evidence of Thesis Support
In your critique, answer the following questions:
1. What evidence did the author present in support of the thesis?
2. What are the strengths of the evidence presented?
3. What are the weaknesses of the evidence?
4. On balance, how well did the author support the thesis?
Contribution to the Literature
This step will probably require you to undertake some research of your own. Identify articles and books published on the subject of your “selected article within the past five years. Browse the titles and read perhaps half a dozen of the publications that appear to provide the best discussion of the topic. In your critique, list the most important other articles or books that have been published on your topic and then, in view of these publications, evaluate the contribution that your selected article makes to a better understanding of the subject.
Recommendation
In this section of your critique, summarize your evaluation of the article. Tell your readers several things: Who will benefit from reading this article? 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. Your thesis might be something like the following:
“In a 2014 article published in PS: Political Science & Politics and entitled “Transparency: The Revolution in Qualitative Research,” Andrew “Moravcsik of Princeton University provides the most concise and comprehensive discussion of the problem of maintaining high quality in quantitative research published in recent years. Political scientists should adopt enhanced research transparency because Moravcsik conclusively demonstrates that it will significantly improve the quality of quantitative research.”
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