Why Critique?
Proper critiquing is essential in judging the overall value of a particular journal article, which in turn is a crucial in standard research procedure. A researcher must be able to professionally scrutinize prospective sources and assess their level of quality before deciding to make use of them in a particular study. Also, being able to detect both common and uncommon errors in journal articles helps a researcher to avoid similar mistakes when working on his own papers.
Online sources on critiquing tips point out that a critique paper is composed of nearly as many parts as the paper that it seeks to evaluate. Thus, a proper critique paper must allot sufficient space to the discussion of different pertinent parts and chapters of an article or study. These are usually the title, abstract, background, methods, results, and conclusions.
What is a good title?
A good title must be an effective representative of the entire article or study. It must contain the most relevant and extensively used terms and ideas used in the article and at the same time contain only as many words as necessary in order to convey the connection among those terms and ideas. Thus, the title of an article that is about the effectiveness of a particular method in teaching must contain the name of that method, the subject area that it is applied to, and the students that are subjected to it. Also, a good title should not mislead the reader into expecting more than what is actually inside the article. A title that reads “On Diophantine Equations: Sums of Odd Squares” for an article that is largely about the Sums of Odd Squares with no particular focus on Diophantine equations should not have the words “On Diophantine Equations” included in the title.
The line between an abstract and not an abstract
A true abstract must also be representative of the entire study. However, only selected parts of the study’s structure should be given space in the abstract with but a couple of sentences devoted to each part. The abstract must introduce the topic, describe the methodology, reveal the overall results and make the conclusions based on the results. In other words, the abstract must be able to summarize the study for the reader without having to delve into its intricate details.
When do you have enough background?
The background of the study should be sufficient to launch new research. This means that all previous significant conclusions made by other articles prior to the study must have been discovered and included in the study’s review of related literature. This is to assure that the study is not a mere redundancy of another study that the researcher simply failed to discover in his readings. The background must also be sufficient to make the reader understand what the study is all about by drawing from its relationship to other studies done before it. Retrospectively, the background should be free of information that is not related to the study.
Methods: Validity and Reliability
The method used to obtain results for a particular study must be valid, that is it must conform to current procedural norms for the particular area being researched on. It must also be reliable, which means that it should be the appropriate method to be used given the demands of the study. A particular method may be valid yet unreliable for the purpose of the study.
Results, Conclusions and a Syllogistic Perspective
Results must be well organized and objectively derived. Tables and graphs must be used as necessary although not overused. The reader must be able to make comparisons between figures conveniently by referring to both tabular and figure-based data. There is little need to point out that the results must be the product of following the proper methodologies described in the previous chapter accurately. The conclusions must be based on the results and the results’ implications as based on the background of the study. Syllogistically, the background of a study is considered the premise, and the results the argument, together leading to the conclusion which should provide the answers to the study’s objectives.
