article critique sample

article critique sample

Effective Strategies for Writing an Article Critique

1. Introduction to Article Critiques

A critique is not a review or summary. The purpose of a critique is to indicate whether the material is accurate, relevant, and significant; that is, the critical evaluation is like an in-depth analysis that offers examples, points out strengths and weaknesses, and shares suggestions for improvement. When points are expressed clearly and concisely, it shows that the writer truly understands the material. The first step is to thoroughly read about the subject matter. This step helps ensure that your critique will be positive. Once one has an expanded working knowledge of the subject, it is time to brainstorm, select topic sentences and record the skeleton of your critique, which might be used in creating a critique notebook or a written document.

An article critique, often required in university courses, analyzes a scholarly work. Professors often assign them to introduce students to the work of experts in a given field. These papers also help students to use the work they are critiquing as indirect support for their own work. One can critique a research article, a book, a novel, a play, or even a painting. One must have an expert working knowledge of the subject one is critiquing. Know the subject well, because an expert like you will receive a critique. Start with a concise summary of the author and the work.

2. Key Components of a Well-Written Critique

The primary focus of any critique is to provide a reaction to decisions, their reasons, and how they are or should be communicated. This means introducing, explicitly stating, explaining, summarizing, evaluating, and interpreting. When responding to any statement, action, or behavior, a critique generally has one or more of these components. The critique has a focus, or point, which gives direction and a measure of importance to other components. There are some defining features of each to help guide the relationship between the concept and the article. Introducing signifies first explaining to the audience what is being critiqued, who the critics are, and the focus of the critique. Explicitly stating consists of stating the focus point, argument, assumptions or conclusion made in the article, or something unique to the essay.

Just as with a movie review, the article critique is a reaction to the judgments and comments of others. Whether the subject is an expert or an influencer, a student will often view them through the lens of an article critique. They hope to make their own ideas more convincing and to uncover the unacknowledged assumptions. They equate the sometimes intimidating and awe-inspiring characters with people just like themselves and provide their own insights through article critique writing. The knowledge that the characters do not always hit the nail on the head all the time is empowering. Not only does the act of article critique empower, but it invites others to hold their claim to that power as well. There are a number of important components that different writing strategies address.

3. Analytical Frameworks for Evaluating Articles

The second part of an article critique considers the nature of the study or theoretical framework — one or a series of questions or hypotheses, not only the stand alone paper — these are the ‘why’ and ‘how’ aspects of evaluation. What theoretical frameworks do the authors use and are they appropriate? What is known about and what is not known or unexplored/understood about the topic? Are additional experiments and perhaps new methodologies required in order to resolve the problem and answer the questions posed effectively? What is and is not done well? Only after having answered these questions can a final, overall critique (quality and workmanship) of the article be adequately formulated.

Due to space constraints, many journal editors, particularly in the natural and physical sciences, impose a limit of 250 words for the abstract. If this is the case, one missive to authors is — the longer the abstract, the more effective it is, the better you do your job.

Once the reader has a good understanding of the contents of the article, it becomes very easy to designate what passage is significant. What questions did the author(s) profitably examine? Patterns, themes, relationships, anomalies, etc. — such ‘discoveries’ or insights from reading form the first part of an evaluation of the article.

4. Common Mistakes to Avoid in Critiquing Articles

Writing an article critique is an in-depth analysis of the publisher’s work, which explains the writer’s opinion and if the author achieves the intended purpose. You are very lucky if you are given such a task because it will improve your critical thinking and abilities. It is important to develop the necessary skills to write a good article critique because your teacher may ask you to critique one of your peers’ work. That is why it is important to be able to write the paper properly.

One of the most common mistakes which students make is confusing what they have read. Do not write an article summary in your article critique. But at the same time, if your reader has understood the main point, it means that you only made a good job. The purpose of a critique of a scholarly article is to inform the reader about the quality of the publisher’s work. Another mistake that occurs in writing is to speculate about the writer’s intentions. We want to warn you: do not tell the article author what he has such intentions or what he meant by the words in the article. Use proof to verify your claims. After the distortion of the author’s thoughts, speculation is the second common writing flaw.

5. Conclusion and Summary of Key Points

In conclusion, some people may consider article critique writing difficult. However, this is an excellent opportunity to find out those issues that were previously unknown and learn something new. It is more exciting when you can evaluate the paper and also provide it with other students’ points and explanations. Consequently, you receive credit and are pleased with yourself for engaging the material and earning some valuable information. We hope that there are fewer questions urging left on how to write article critique. However, it is important to keep in mind a list of particular considerations and, following the guidelines, to help you avoid mistakes and receive a good grade for your paper. With the questions provided in the text, you will not experience any difficulties in writing the assignment. Good luck!

The key element of success in writing this type of assignment is how well you understand the authors’ work. It is important that when writing, you either agree or disagree with the paper’s findings to include proper discussion and following of the provided guidelines. Ensure that you restate your position in the next part in order to avoid misunderstanding. Finally, our list of observations and considerations should relieve your pain more and you can try to keep them in mind to start receiving bigger grades for your assignment.