Guidelines for Critiques of the Reading Assignments

The critique should be no more than three pages, and it should include the following:

• A brief summary of the salient results of the paper;
• A brief discussion of implications/ramifications that stem from the results of the paper;
• A discussion of the consistency of the results presented in the paper with all else that you know, and especially in relation to what we have learned in this class;
• Identification of any fundamental issues in the paper that are not clear to you.

Additional notes on critiques:

• You need to do more than just paraphrase the article in your summary. We will be looking to see if you can determine the most essential parts of a paper and summarize them clearly and concisely. This should take about 1 page. Only go into detail on the items in the paper that you find either important or troubling.
• The most important part of your critique is your assessment of the ideas presented in the paper--we want to see that you are thinking critically about what you are reading. Do you believe the conclusions in the paper? Why or why not? How important are the results in the paper?
• Make sure you identify how the article relates to what you already know, either from class or your own background. However, don't merely state which facts and/or numbers in the article are consistent with what is in the book or presented in class.
• Make sure that you state what things you didn't understand. This could either be terms or concepts that were not clear to you after reading the paper, or it could be points in the paper where you do not agree with the method that the authors use to reach their conclusion (i.e. you don't understand their argument).

Critiques will be graded on a 20-point scale:

• 5 points for your summary of salient points;
• 5 points for your analysis of the important implications or ramifications;
• 5 points for identification of unclear issues and relating the article to what you already know;
• 5 points for clarity, cohesiveness, originality, and overall quality.