Intro to Critiquing Research

Your tutorial task is for you to critique several articles so that you develop skills for your Assignment.

Tutorial 2 Exercise

• For this tutorial, you will be asked to:1. Choose 3-5 articles from the list of readings given

on the blackboard site, or find some from the library – refereed articles only

2. Critique the articles as explained in this powerpoint

3. Write up a literature review on the critiqued articles

4. This exercise will form the basis of your first assignment and help you write and reference your research

Why Critically Review Research Articles?

The purpose of the ‘critique’ is for you to become more familiar with research literature in colour and light and develop critical thinking and evaluation skills to help you with your first (and second) assignments.

It is important that as future and current design professionals you be able to read, understand and critique research projects and journal articles – this assignment is designed to help you develop a sophisticated understanding of research so you can read published research papers with a critical and informed eye

Four tips for Critiquing Articles

1. Discussion of completeness of the article

2. Appropriate indication of whether the article is original

3. Discussion on the authoritativeness of the article

4. Discussion on whether the manuscript reads well

1. Discussion of completeness of the article

• What is the question or issue it seeks to address? • Does article answer the question or address the issue?• Is the issue, question or problem worth addressing? • What are the interesting ideas in this paper? How do they relate to

other research? • Is the material logical and coherent?• Are rationale, goals and problem statements explicit? • Are basic premises & assumption acknowledged?• Is the information relevant or interesting to readers?

2. Appropriate indication of whether the article is original - may include:

• Does it provide new information or hypotheses, or does it contribute corroborative evidence to an existing body of knowledge?

• Which elements in it are new or original?• Is the same information already available to readers?• Is the information timely?

3. Discussion on the authoritativeness of the article - may include:

• Are the assertions well supported?• Is the use of other’s research appropriate?• Have important authorities in the subject been ignored?• Are relevant sources from different academic fields overlooked?• Are all sources cited genuinely relevant and necessary? • Is it relevant for practice? What is the contribution of this paper to your

research question? • Can you identify the theoretical perspective on which the research is based?

4. Discussion on whether the manuscript reads well, may include

• Are the concepts clearly defined?• Is any information unnecessary?• Does its organisation facilitate reading and understanding?• Does it conform to guidelines including grammar,

punctuation, headings, reference citations, etc?

What is a literature review?

“… a systematic…method for identifying, evaluating and interpreting the …work produced by researchers, scholars and practitioners.”

FINK, A., 1998. Conducting literature research reviews: from paper to the internet. Thousand

Oaks, CA: Sage., p.3.

Why review the literature?

“…without it you will not acquire an understanding of your topic, of what has already been done on it, how it has been researched, and what the key issues are.”

HART, E., 1998. Doing a literature review: releasing the social science research imagination, by E. Hart and M. Bond. London: Sage., p.1.

Identifying Keywords

• Identify the significant terms and concepts that describe your topic from your thesis statement or research question.

• These terms will become the key for searching catalogs, databases and search engines for information about your subject.

Evaluate what you read

• Think about…

• Relevance to your topic • Intended audience • Currency of the information • Coverage of the topic• Accuracy of the information • Authority of the author or information source• Level of objectivity of the author

A good literature review…• Goes beyond simply listing relevant literature• Is a critical essay • Assesses the range of literature available• Is a critical summary of the literature• Examines the background against which your own

research is set• Forms a significant section of your dissertation

A good literature review…

• Offers opinions and personal response to the different writings

• Relates different writings to each other, compares and contrasts

• Does not take the literature at face value• Shows an awareness of the theories and values that

underpin the research• Uses particular language: authors assert, argue,

state, conclude, contend

Dr. Lili Ann SMM4999 - Literature Review 15

How to review? Comparison across studies

The aim is to extract key points by comparing and contrasting ACROSS studies, instead of reading one paper after another.

Key points for a review may concern areas of similarities and/or differences in:

Research aim(s) or hypotheses Research design and sampling Instruments and procedures used How data were analysed Results or findings Interpretations

In summary, in a critique you really need

to answer the following questions

1) Provide a research summary

2). Understand the contribution – i.e., this research is important because...

3). Understand the strengths and weaknesses – i.e., what are the pro’s & con’s of the research

4). What would you change to make it better?