February 8, 2017 by byuwriting

Critical Reading Assignment

Below are two possible assignments.

Critical Reading Assignment:  This 3-part assignment is to help students gain critical reading skills.  The first time they do this, it is very laborious – but although some students complain, those same students are usually the first to say to keep the assignment!

Article Analysis:  Used to introduce students to scholarly articles.  Many students have never really read scholarly articles; they often quote from an abstract or from the first 2 pages of an article without reading the whole thing.  Encourage students to choose an article that aligns with their research topic.

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Critical Reading Skills (Part 1)

When reading work done by those in psychology, readers assume that the author has thoroughly read and understands the complete articles the author cites.  Rather than simply reading a short section and citing it, an author seeks to understand the whole picture.

This assignment should help change the way you read and use scholarly sources.

1. Use PsychInfo to refine your search for scholarly articles on your topic. Remember to keep narrowing your topic as you research.  Find at least 5 sources.  Choose the source that is most relevant to your goals for this paper.  (It should have a minimum of 5 full pages of text.)

2. Critically read the article.
3. Make notes and comments in the left margin.
4. Ask at least one question for each paragraph in the right margin.

3. Complete the table below for the article.

4. Submit the scholarly article with your comments and questions, and the completed table.

5. The assignment will be worth 20 points as follows:

Article with comments and questions                         10 pts.

Completion of the table                                              10 pts.

The points will be awarded based on thoroughness and adherence to assignment description.

Your Name:

Critical Reading Skills (Part 2)

Now that you have completed critically reading the article that you believe will be most helpful for your paper, locate a second scholarly source.  This may be one of the original 5 articles you found, or you may want to use PsycInfo again to find a more relevant article.  Keep narrowing your topic.

1. Complete the table below for the article.

2. The assignment will be worth 10 points for the completion of the table.

[The points will be awarded based on thoroughness and adherence to assignment description.]

Your Name:

Critical Reading Skills (Part 3)

Now that you have completed critically reading two articles that you believe will be most helpful for your paper, locate a third scholarly source.  This may be one of the original 5 articles you found, or you may want to use PsycInfo again to find a more relevant article.  Keep narrowing your topic.

1. Complete the table below for the article.

2. The assignment will be worth 10 points for the completion of the table.

[The points will be awarded based on thoroughness and adherence to assignment description.]

Name:

After you complete this assignment, use your insights to locate 7 more scholarly sources on your topic.  Prepare a Reference list in correct APA format for the 10 sources.

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Analyzing Empirical Articles

For a well-written, well-researched paper, it is important to analyze the studies you choose to use as support for your claims.  The following are components of studies that are helpful in analyzing scholarly empirical articles.  Choose one article that you plan to use in your paper, and use these guidelines to assess the study in the article.  You do not need to include a copy of the article.  Address every question below. (You can also use the electronic version of this assignment & simply type in the answers). Include the questions with your answers. You do not need complete sentences. Remember – if you change your topic after completing this assignment, you will need to resubmit all subsequent assignments with the correct topic.

Background Info

1. Give all of the bibliographic information: authors’ names, date, title of article, title of journal, page numbers, etc. (This does not have to be in APA style.)

2. Who is the author(s)? Why is this author qualified to write on this topic?

3. What is the date of the article? Current? If not, how can you best use the information in the article?

4. Who is the audience? Does the author stay consistent to this audience level? What evidence do you have?

5. Is there an abstract? What form is it in? What is included? What is the tone?

6. Are there headings in the article? Are they specific or generic?

7. Is first person used?

Introduction

1. What general topic is the researcher addressing?

1. What have other researchers already discovered about this topic?

1. What is new about this study compared with other research?

11. What question does the study propose to answer? What is the research issue? Why does the author say it is important to study?

12. Are any “authorities” quoted? Who?

13. What is the hypothesis or thesis statement? What is the main assertion?

14. What is the verb tense of the introduction? (Present, past, etc.)

Method

15. Who were the participants (sample size, age range, ethnicity, gender, other)?

16. What research method was chosen for the study? (e.g., observation, correlational study, experiment, etc.) Are the methods appropriate to study the given thesis or hypothesis?

17. What did the participants actually do?

18. Were there any unique materials used in the study?

19. What is the verb tense of the methods section? (Present, past, etc.)

Results

20. What are the overall findings?

21. What results relate to the hypothesis? Do they support the hypothesis?

22. Are the results consistent with those of earlier research?

23. What do the figures and tables convey? Do they lend support to the hypotheses?  Are they an accurate portrayal of the facts?  Do they distort the data?

24. What is the verb tense of the results section? (Present, past, etc.)

Discussion/ Conclusion

25. Do the present research findings agree with previous research and with accepted theory?

26. If there are any unexpected findings, why did they occur?

27. Why do the researchers think their findings are important?

28. What are the implications of this research? What new research does it suggest?

29. Do the conclusions follow logically from the results? Why or why not?

30. Are other points of view included? Any points the author fails to address?

31. What are the limitations of the study? What alternative explanations are there for the findings?

32. What is the verb tense of the discussion section? (Present, past, etc.)

Source of most of the questions: Beins, B. C., & Beins, A. M. (2012). Effective writing in psychology: Papers, posters, and presentations. Wiley Blackwell.