Have you ever heard of the term “article critique“? Well, you might think it’s about finding all the wrong points and mistakes and being as critical as possible. Let us clarify this for you: an article critique is about scrutinising an article to evaluate its strengths and weaknesses. When we write a critique, we usually narrate the article, analyse its composition, interpret its message, and assess the significance of the work.
Article critique needs students to analyse a paper critically; it may include a journal article, a book or an essay. Whatever your major is, you will need to write a paper critique sooner or later. Writing an article increases student’s critical thinking and academic writing skills. At the same time, it’s quite a mind-wrecking task, which demands extraordinary analysis, critical thinking, and writing skills.
You might be worried about your article critique assignment right now. Well, don’t worry; you have the option of acquiring paper writing services for your article evaluation assignment, but ensure you get it from a reputed provider. If you want to give it a try yourself, we are going to equip you with the top eight skills that will help you master the art of critique writing.
How to Critique an Article? Top 8 Skills to Master
To critique an article, students need to analyse clarity, research methodology, purpose, organisation, and findings. Students are also required to link the analysis to their discipline-specific experience. There are different evaluation methods for each research method, we will cover the general tips here, which you can implement on both.
1. Read the Article Multiple Times Before Writing a Critique
Before you start writing the critique, the first step you need to take is to read the concerned article and read it thoroughly. You need to go beyond the surface and try to understand the perspective, argument, and thesis of the author.
To understand the author’s message and approach, you need to read it multiple times. However, read the article for the first time to understand the main idea of the content. If you find some words difficult and unfamiliar to you, underline those words to look at them later and continue reading the paper.
As you read the article a second time, try to understand the ideas used in the article to back the main point, are there any facts, examples, or personal opinions used? Has the author addressed the opposing arguments thoroughly, has the author been able to convince you of the argument? do you agree with the main point or reject it? You need to identify everything.
Now, read the paper for the final time, (you can read more times if you think you missed anything) and identify your personal reaction towards this. Try to develop a clear and short description in favour of your reaction. You need to evaluate the importance of his work and look for key findings and their contribution to the field.
Identify the Exact Aspects You Are Critiquing
A literature review needs you to expand the understanding of multiple articles into the knowledge, assessment of ideas, analysis, and application. You need to pinpoint the same aspects you are going to critique.
You should quote the article or examples to demonstrate the validity of your points. While you critique the aspects you disagree with, remember to appreciate the points on which you are on the same page with the author.
1. Look for Flaws
The main purpose of an article critique is to identify the flaws and gaps in the research. Almost all the basic research has gaps, restraints, and flaws. In point of fact, more and more study gaps and limitations will be revealed in the academic papers when their finding and study designs will be discussed.
In fact, this is how the literature review and research process continue, where one researcher stops, other scholars will snatch up and design the research to fill up the gap.
These are the common flaws in an article evaluation you need to look for;
- Flaws in the study design and its aims
- Any deviation from the main point that is not explained
- Use of non-credible sources
- Remarks further on the article’s scope
- Lack of evidence to back the findings/conclusions
- Over-explanations of events to increase the length
2. Maintain a Respectful Tone
The most important thing in expressing thoughts about the article is to keep the tone professional and respectful in the entire critique. Make sure to avoid demeaning or insulting language, and personal attacks on the scholar. Also, avoid a judgemental and bitterly cold tone, instead focus on the academic aspects of the article. You need to keep the tone formal; an overly emotional tone is also not acceptable.
3. Suggest Ways the Author Can Improve
You need to be honest and certain in your criticism. Critiquing a work is okay, but identifying areas of improvement and offering suggestions is the most crucial and difficult part.
You have to have loads of knowledge about the topic to offer suggestions for the betterment and enhancement of their work. You can highlight or underscore certain paragraphs, sections, or quotes that appeal to you more. Similarly, you can state areas where the article has gaps and needs improvements.
Providing constructive criticism and providing areas of improvement for future research on the topic can be a positive point for your critique. Furthermore, you should propose techniques to improve the use of research methods, evidence analysis and discussion on the overall quality of the text.
4. Study the Evidence Carefully
A research process cannot be legitimate until it refers to credible shreds of evidence. You need to check the relevancy, credibility, trustworthiness, and quality of the supporting evidence that is used in the article to back the claims of the article. The sources have to be reliable, up-to-date, and well-researched statistics. You also have to observe how the author has used the evidence to build a coherent argument.
Studying the evidence is quite a technical part, to assess the reliability and credibility of the source, you need a deep understanding of the research methods. Your work’s trustworthiness can be at risk if you get this part wrong. We suggest you hire an expert paper writer from a trusted agency to eliminate the chances of risk.
5. Take Notes
To process the important information better and to memorise the important points taking the notes is most underrated step. It is easier to understand the information in chunks, so, taking notes of the points you agree with or the points you reject will help you better understand your reaction to the article.
Once you have taken notes while reading and observing the paper, it will become easier for you to recall the points you approve or reject. You will not need to read the article while writing the critique. Otherwise, you will be reading the article again and again all the time instead of writing the article evaluation.
6. Summarise Your Analysis
The Last and far most important part tip for your academic literature critique is to summarise your evaluation of the paper in the conclusion. You have to be concise and reasonable while writing the summary, but at the same time, you have to make sure that you don’t miss something important.
One more thing that you have to ensure is to not distort or change the meaning of the original article. Write the strengths or weaknesses that you concisely identified in the evaluation process. Sum up the arguments, style, and ideas discussed in the work. Also, remember to restate the improvement suggested by the author.
Article Critique Examples
Here we have provided an example of a perfect article critique example, so, you can take the inspiration from this critique while writing your paper. This example is taken from the University of Wisconsin La-Crosse.
What Are the 2 Ways to Critique an Article?
These are the 2 ways you can build your critique of the article.
First way:
- Particularise the main point of the argument, support it offered and reasons for disagreement
- Talk about the weaknesses and strengths of the argument
- Recognise the audience of the article
- evaluate the value of the overall argument
Second way:
- Point out and explain the ideas and point of view of the author and audience. To demonstrate your point, add direct quotes from the article while describing flaws.
- Describe your perspective about the article
- Focus on certain strengths and weaknesses of the article
- For each point, add quotes or sections to prove your point
What Are the Four Main Parts of the Article Critique?
There are four sections of an article critique, the writer has to complete the critique in these four sections only.
- Introduction/description of the argument and ideas
- Summary of the main idea, style, and the argument of article
- Critique or critical analysis of the article
- Conclusion of the paper
Conclusion
To sum up the guide, academic or article critique is quite a demanding the tiring task. The students have to take care of every little detail, which requires a lot of focus and determination.
We have provided you with the top eight tips to win the game of your article critique. We have tried to answer all your common questions and concerns. Including the examples for a better understanding of the critique process.
If you think you lack critical thinking and analysis skills you need time to develop that. In that case, you should avail of the paper writing help to get your critique done by the top-notch professionals.
