EDD 8100: Academic Writing

Below is a published example of a journal article critique.

The ones that exist do not represent exactly what your professor expects, but reading through them may help give you ideas of how to approach your assignment.

It is also important to see how published authors react and respond to each other in the scholarly realm.

The following example was found in APA PsycInfo.  The direct link requires you to type in your Shark ID and password to open the full text.

Evaluating Purpose and Argument of the Article

• How well is the purpose made clear in the introduction through background/context and thesis?
• How well does the abstract represent and summarize the article’s major points and argument?
• How well does the objective of the experiment or of the observation fill a need for the field?
• How well is the argument/purpose articulated and discussed throughout the body of the text?
• How well does the discussion maintain cohesion?
• Evaluating the Presentation/Organization of Information
• How appropriate and clear is the title of the article?
• Where could the author have benefited from expanding, condensing, or omitting ideas?
• How clear are the author’s statements? Do they challenge current beliefs, are they ambiguous statements.
• What underlying assumptions does the author have, and how does this affect the credibility or clarity of their article?
• How objective is the author in his or her discussion of the topic?
• How well does the organization fit the article’s purpose and articulate key goals?
• What types of evaluative methods does the author employ. 

The questions were taken from this website: https://www.uis.edu/learning-hub/writing-resources/handouts/learning-hub/how-to-review-a-journal-article