Writing reviews are a little challenging because you have to read the article, book, or body of research, and evaluate it.
Though reviews are usually shorter assignments, they often require a great deal of thought and reflection. The documents in this section contain many questions and considerations to help you evaluate the piece of work you're reviewing and also help you to find structure for the particular review you're writing.
This weblink provides a clear and easy to use framework for writing critical article reviews. Detailed reading tips and review structure are given to guide you through the assignment.
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What will I be able to do after reading this handout?
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- Show the strengths and weaknesses of the journal article based on a list of criteria.
- Decide what elements of the article are most relevant to your thesis.
- Answer common questions regarding the journal article to help you organize your review.
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When might I use this handout?
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- When you are having trouble deciding what focus your review should have.
- When you don't know the general structure of an article review.
- When you re unsure what is meant by a "critical" approach.
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How should I use this handout?
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- As a list of prompts/questions to provide direction and focus during the initial stages of the journal review process.
- As a step by step guide in collecting, organizing and writing a review.
- As a guide to thinking on a deeper level about the ideas presented.
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Why should I use this handout?
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- To ensure you know that the requirements of a journal article review are more than summarizing and discussing the topic, and extend into evaluating the argument and methods used.
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This weblink poses some of the key questions you need to answer in an article review including:
- the author's intentions,
- whether the hypothesis was proved, and
- if the references are recent and valid.
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What will I be able to do after reading this handout?
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- Use questions to evaluate the contribution of the article to the field of study.
- Find other resources on how to write critiques.
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When might I use this handout?
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- Before you read the article to be reviewed so you know what to look for.
- Before you start writing to focus your thinking.
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How should I use this handout?
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- Choose only the most relevant questions from the list to guide your critique. These responses will help you form an overall judgment on the worth of the article and thereby help you create a thesis for your review. These questions can be used to highlight strengths as well as weaknesses of an article.
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Why should I use this handout?
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- This reference source can help you analyze specific components of an article which is integral to writing a solid review.
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This weblink helps you to evaluate texts through probing questions you can ask yourself while reading. In addition, it helps you to connect the reviewed book with course material. This source is not intended to help you review a piece of literature, like a poem or novel, rather it is intended to provide guidelines for reviewing non-fiction work.
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What will I be able to do after reading this handout?
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- Ask yourself pertinent questions regarding the author's position on a topic.
- Relate course materials to text.
- Interact more with the text.
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When might I use this handout?
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- When you are having trouble deciding exactly what your critical review should say.
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How should I use this handout?
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- As a list of questions designed to engage you with the text so you can evaluate the information effectively.
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Why should I use this handout?
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- This reference source will give you a quick review of the questions a critical review should address.
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This weblink briefly highlights why and how literature reviews are written with both pre- and post-writing tips for writing literature reviews.
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What will I be able to do after reading this handout?
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- Know how a literature review can contribute to your understanding of a particular topic.
- Show how past research on a topic leads to a need for your current research project.
- Conduct a literature review search and narrow its focus.
- Create an organizing principle to prepare for writing the literature review.
- Detect common problems with literature reviews and correct them.
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When might I use this handout?
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- When you are in a rush and just want a quick overview of literature reviews.
- When you are overwhelmed with the amount of research you have collected and don't know how to limit the scope of your project.
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How should I use this handout?
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- As a list of prompts/questions to provide direction and focus during the initial stages of the literature review process.
- As a step by step guide in collecting, organizing and writing about each piece of research.
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Why should I use this handout?
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- To help you choose the most relevant articles for your research topic so you can tell your readers why you have chosen these articles to present in defense of your proposed research project.
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This weblink is easy to read and gives you a detailed description of literature reviews, as well as clear strategies for how literature reviews should be written and organized by offering well explained tips for the pre-writing, writing, and post-writing stages. The source offers you concrete strategies whether you are an inexperienced or experienced literature reviewer.
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What will I be able to do after reading this handout?
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- Develop a unifying theme to provide structure in the literature review.
- Consciously avoid common mistakes of literature reviews such as improperly paraphrasing or losing my own voice.
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When might I use this handout?
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- Before researching to know the purpose of literature reviews and what kinds of sources to look for.
- Before writing the outline to know the different organizational strategies for literature reviews.
- As you write the draft to know the key considerations, such as being selective and using evidence, for writing the literature review.
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How should I use this handout?
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- This source can be read through as a detailed step by step guide or glanced at as a reference for specific concerns.
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Why should I use this handout?
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- To learn strategies to focus your writing.
- To gain clarity regarding the purpose of literature reviews.
- So you can take control of the process and feel confident in your approach to the task.
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