Step 4 – Criticism and evaluation of the article
Now that you’ve finished reading, consider your personal reaction to it. First impressions
are often superficial: “I liked it,” or “It was hard to read.” First impressions
are usually opinions and not particularly reasoned. They can be useful in that
those opinions can be a starting point, but remember that they are your own, personal,
reactions to the effort of the task of reading the article. Rarely are your first
impressions the best evaluation you can give of the article or title. Dense or technically
complex is not necessarily bad and easy-to-read is not necessarily anything
more than a nice summary.
Second thoughts should probe quite a bit more deeply. Thinking about what the
author is trying to say, considering who he or she was addressing in the first place,
identifying the gap the article has been written to fill and asking other such questions
is the foundation for the critical evaluation of the article. Even if you didn’t
know anything about the topic before you read the article, you can make some
judgements about it and how well the author made her or his case
Evaluation is a bit harder. In academic circles, evaluation means to judge the worth,
usually by comparing a thing to some kind of standard. In the case of evaluating
an article, that standard would be other articles in the same discipline or journal as
the one you’re reading. If you are not familiar with those other articles it may be
hard to evaluate well. You can, however, do a fairly good job of it by considering
the stylistic and structural conventions of other, similar articles. Does this one fit
the pattern? Does it measure up to the academic standards of writing, presentation,
organization, source citation and such? Sometimes even those questions can be hard
to answer but they should be attempted. The answers will give you some ammunition
for your critique.
Some questions to guide you in critiquing and evaluating the article:
Was there anything that was left unfinished? Did the author raise questions or
make points that were left orphaned in the paper?
These questions are to make you think about what was in the article and what
was left out. Since, by looking at the thesis statement, you should have a good
idea of what the author is going to say, you should also be able to tell if any of
the points weren’t explored as fully as others. In addition, in the course of the
paper, the author might have raised other points to support the argument. Were
all of those worked out thoroughly?
Did it make its case?
Even if you were not a member of the intended audience for the article, did the
article clearly present its case? If the author crafted the paper well, even if you
don’t have the disciplinary background, you should be able to get a sense of the
argument. If you didn’t, was it your reading or the author’s craft that caused
problems?
What does the point made by the argument mean in or to the larger context of
the discipline and of contemporary society?
This is a question that directs you to think about the implications of the article.
Academic articles are intended to advance knowledge, a little bit at a time. They
are never (or hardly ever) written just to summarize what we know now. Even
the summary articles tend to argue that there are holes in the fabric of knowledge
and someone ought to do studies to plug those gaps. So, where does this
particular article fit in? Can real people improve their lives with this information?
Does this increase the stock of information for other scholars? These sorts of
questions are important for appreciating the article you’re looking at and for fitting it into your own knowledge of the subject.
Is the organization of the article clear? Does it reflect the organization of the
thesis statement?
It should be and it should. Go back and check if you’re not sure.
Does the author’s disciplinary focus lead her or him to ignore other ideas?
This sort of thing may be hard to determine on the face, but ask if the author has
adequately supported his or her interpretation of the evidence? Are there any
other explanations that you can think of? Have you read anything else on the
same subject that contradicts or supports with this author is saying?
Were there any problems with grammar, sentence structure, or word usage?
Even if you’re not very good at writing or grammar, did you notice errors in the
paper? Errors may not necessarily be the author’s fault. Editors prepare the text
for publication; they should have worked with the author to fix any errors. Some
spelling problems may well be typos. Word usage problems typically originate
with the author and persist through the editing process. Sloppy editing can suggest
possibly hurried peer review, a worrying inattention to detail, and even hasty
publication. These are very serious flaws in an academic work; the type of work
needs to be clearly established for just this sort of reason.
What did you learn? What are you going to do with this information?
Most of this document is about the author and how you might suck every last
nuance out of a published academic work. The point of the whole academic
writing enterprise is to put information out into the environment to advance
scholarship. The goal of authors is to have you read their work and find something
useful, interesting, intriguing or even controversial in their ideas, interpretations
or findings. Will you change your mind about anything as a result of
reading this article? Does it improve your understanding of something you’re
studying? What does this information mean to you?