STUDENT GUIDE PROVIDED BY PROFESSOR:
The purpose of this assignment is to summarise the main ideas of a research article and provide a critical evaluation of the content. This will involve carefully reading a single research article and presenting your critique in writing. You are to present your written material in APA format. Please note that to be critical does not mean to criticize in a negative manner, but rather to question the information and opinions and present your summary and evaluation of the study.
The structure of the review should include:
• Title Page
• Introduction (100 words)
• Body
o Summary (400 words)
o Critical Evaluation (400 words)
• Conclusion (100 words)
• References
Please note that the allocation of words to each section is a guideline and will vary across
individual assignments. Moreover, there is no requirement to use headings/sub-headings
for the Introduction, Body and Conclusion.
You can divide this assessment into different tasks:
• Reading the research article
• Summarizing the research article
• Critically evaluating the research article
• Writing your critical review
Reading the research article
There are several questions that you need to keep in your mind when you are
reading the research article in order to develop an overall understanding of the research
article.
You need to identify the general subject and purpose of the research article and
what research question(s) is the author(s) trying to answer.
What is the main thing they are
trying to communicate or their ‘argument’?
What evidence do they provide to support their
argument?
Does the author(s) manage to persuade you in terms of their argument or the
evidence they use?
What are the strength and weaknesses of the research article?
Remember to take/make notes as you go in response to these questions and begin to think
about the overall assessment of the research article (e.g., positive or negative).
Summarizing the research article
It is important that you provide your summary of the research article and not
merely rely on the actual wording used by the author(s).
Tips to help this include using the following:
• The author(s) argues that….
• According to Skues et al. (2016), …..
• They suggest that…
Although you are able to use direct quotes when you cannot paraphrase the words
without changing the meaning or capturing the significance, it is better to paraphrase
relevant sections of the article and describe it in your own words.
Critically evaluating the research article
Although there are several aspects of a research article that can be evaluated, there
are some important dimensions that you need to think about.
These include:
• The quality of the ideas/argument being presented
• The extent to which these ideas/argument are supported by evidence.
• The extent to which the sample, research design, procedure, data analysis
and interpretation of data addresses the research question and/or hypotheses
of the study.
When evaluating the ideas/argument, you will need to consider whether these ideas
are interesting, new and thoughtful etc.
Are they consistent or inconsistent with each other?
Are they relevant?
When evaluating the supporting evidence, you will need to ask yourself what kind
of evidence is used to support these ideas?
Is it adequate and used appropriately?
Is there
counter evidence and is this acknowledged by the author(s)?
When evaluating the conduct of the research, do they use an appropriate sample
(e.g., size, representativeness) to collect data in order to test the research questions and/or
hypotheses?
Were the correct measures administered and described in enough detail?
Have
they analysed and interpreted the data correctly?
Is there an alternative analysis and
interpretation?
Do the implications of the research article logically follow on from the
findings?
Are they aware of the limitations of the research?
What recommendations would
you make?
Lastly, the evaluation should be a balanced discussion and evaluation of the
strengths, weaknesses and notable features.
Writing your critical review
The Introduction is usually one paragraph and should say why the general subject
of the research article being evaluated is important or interesting and what you are going to
do (e.g., This critical review will….). The last sentence can be a brief evaluation of the
article.
You can elaborate on the Summary section by identifying the main ideas of the
research article. You do not have to say something about every research article you read,
rather you should provide a more in-depth description and critical evaluation of the chosen
research article. Look to include appropriate references when describing the topic, purpose
and ideas discussed by the article as well as to support your critical evaluation where
necessary.
The Critical Evaluation section is where the strengths and weaknesses of the
research article should be presented. You can choose how to structure this section. For
example, you can base it on the chronological order of the research and where the article
fits, going from the most to least important findings or conclusions of the article, or if your
review is positive, then start with weaknesses and finish with strengths (and vice versa).
Please note that you should support your criticisms with evidence from the text or from
other sources. You can include recommendations for improving the article in this section.
The Conclusion should provide a summary of the major points of your argument
and your overall opinion on the research article. Perhaps consider what the article has
contributed to your understanding and to the development of knowledge in this area of
research.
Lastly, whilst you are only reviewing one research article for this assignment, you
should read widely and include a reference to other research articles in your review. This
should be in APA format.
LINK TO ARTICLE:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10643-017-0862-x
Last Completed Projects
| topic title | academic level | Writer | delivered |
|---|