Journal Critique Guideline

Journal Critique Guideline Scholarly Journals Professionals need to be able to discern the differences between scholarly journals, the popular press, and other literary sources. One reason is the difference in the level of writing: generally, the popular press is written at a sixth grade level. Many articles in the popular press are informative and enlightening. However, authors contributing to the popular press do not need to adhere to the rigorous standards required of scholars. Scholarly journals are published by professional organizations, in order to report research and advances in any given field. Articles in scholarly journals are subject to peer-review, meaning that submissions are read and reviewed by experts in the field, both prior to and after they are accepted for publication. Thus, articles written by scholars are carefully scrutinized and may be challenged by colleagues -often resulting in fascinating debates in current and subsequent issues. Authors publishing in scholarly journals must meet high standards in both research methodology and reporting. Unlike the popular press, where sources do not have to be cited (and are frequently omitted), in scholarly journals, authors must include citations for all sources in text and in a reference list. There are a few formats for publication that have been established, however, in the social sciences, most authors follow the publication standards established by the American Psychological Association (APA, 1994). APA requires parenthetical citations in text, such as the one included in the previous line, as well as a variety of other very specific elements. The more you read educational and psychological texts and scholarly journals, the more familiar you will become with the format. (Your textbook is written in APA style.) For APA Style Resources, see: http://www.psychwww.com/resource/apacrib.htm The Write Up Refer to your text for relevant topics. Your choices are rather broad but should relate to issues covered in this course. Your paper must be typed/word processed. Be sure to include a copy of the article with your report. Briefly summarize the article and critique it (i.e., synthesize the important constructs, objectively analyze the article, and evaluate its contribution to teaching and learning). We have a number of scholarly journals in the library, and I have also put up direct links to many articles and scholarly journals at my web site: See: http://EdPsyc.org You need not be concerned with all of the detailed intricacies of APA style. Use standard 1 inch margins and double spacing. Typically, in APA style, you would include a reference list at the end of your report. However, since your report will be referencing only one source, the format will be different. At the top of the first page of your report, write the name of the journal you will critique, in the following format, with appropriate indentations and punctuation:

Smith, D.E., & Jones, S. P. (1998). The effectiveness of behavioral interventions in general education classroom settings: A summary of the research. Journal of Applied Behavioral Analysis, 29, 16-34. Papers should be approximately 2-4 pages, though this may vary depending upon the length of the article. Write in the past tense, as in: Smith & Jones (1998) asserted that... Keep quotes to a minimum and paraphrase the important constructs (e.g., put the main ideas in your own words). Whenever you do quote, use quotation marks and, at the end of the quote, cite the author, copyright date, and page number, such as the following: "It is very important to identify the antecedents and consequences of target behaviors" (Smith & Jones, 1998, p.52).

How To Write A Psychology Critique Paper By Kendra Cherry, About.com Guide Ads: 

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Ads Moleskine® Pens Now Herewww.moleskineasia.comMoleskine Pens and Pencils. Free Delivery Worldwide. Shop Now! Earn Money From Homewww.agea.comOpen DEMO Account and learn Forex. Then Go Live and Get $5 Bonus. No matter what your major is, you will probably be expected to write a critique paper at some point. For psychology students, critiquing a professional paper is a great way to learn more about psychology articles, writing and the research process itself. Students can analyze how researchers conduct experiments, interpret results and discuss the impact of the results. While these tips are designed to help students writing a psychology critique paper, many of the same principles apply to writing critiques in other subject areas as well. Difficulty: Average Time Required: Variable Here's How: 1. Read the introduction section of the article. Is thehypothesis clearly stated? Is necessary background information and previous research described in the introduction? In addition to answering these basic questions, you should take note of information provided in the introduction and any questions that you may have. 2. Read the methods section of the article. Is the study procedure clearly outlined? Can you determine which variables the researchers are measuring? Remember to jot down questions and thoughts that come to mind as you are reading. Once you have finished reading the paper, you can then refer back to your initial questions and see which once remain unanswered. 3. Read the results section of the article. Are all tables and graphs clearly labeled? Do researchers provide enough statistical information? Did the researchers collect all of the data needed to measure the variables in question? Again, make note of any questions you have or any information that does not seem to make sense. You can refer back to these questions later as you are writing your final critique. 4. Read the discussion section of the article. How do the researchers interpret the results of the study? Did the results support their hypothesis? Do the conclusions drawn by the researchers seem reasonable? The discussion section offers students a good opportunity to take a position. If you agree with the researchers conclusions, explain why. If you feel that the researchers are incorrect or off-base, point out problems with the conclusions and suggest alternative explanations. Another alternative is to point out questions that the researchers failed to answer in the discussion section.

5. Once you have read the article thoroughly, prepare an outline of your thoughts on the article. Use the following guide to help structure your critique paper: 6. Introduction - Begin your paper by describing the journal article and authors you are critiquing. Provide the main hypothesis or thesis of the paper and explain why you think the information is relevant. 7. Thesis Statement - The final part of your introduction should include your thesis statement. Your thesis statement is the main idea of your critique. Your thesis should briefly sum up the main points of your critique. 8. Article Summary - Provide a brief summary of the article, outlining the main points, results and discussion. Be careful not to get too bogged down by your summary. Remember, this section of your paper should highlight the main points of the article you are critiquing. Don't feel obligated to summarize each little detail of the main paper. Focus instead on giving the reader an overall idea of the content of the article. 9. Your Analysis - In this section, you should provide your critique of the article. Describe any problems you had with the authors premise, methods, or conclusions. Your critique might focus on problems with the authors argument, presentation or on information, and alternatives that have been overlooked. Organize your paper carefully and be careful not to jump around from one argument to the next. Argue one point at a time. Doing this will ensure that your paper flow's well and is easy to read. 10. Conclusion - Your critique paper should end with an overview of the articles argument, your conclusions and your reactions. Tips: 1. As you are editing your paper, utilize a style guide published by the American Psychological Association, such as the Concise Rules Of APA Style or the officialPublication Manual of the American Psychological Association. 2. Reading scientific articles can be difficult. Learn more about how to read (and understand) psychology journal articles. 3. Take a rough draft of your paper to your school's writing lab for additional assistance. What You Need 

The article you plan to critique

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A copy of the APA publication manual

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Plenty of time to read, take notes, and compose your critique

Tips on Writing a Perfect Journal Critique 五月 7, 2012

Rate This Have you ever found yourself stuck onto a piece of blank paper aimlessly like a piece of overstretched rubber band? Fruitless attempts after attempts on editing, deleting irrelevant information and writing back and forth doesn’t take you anywhere. You need practical help. Tips on writing a presentable critique are arguably the wave of the requirements of the society and schools. Improving your craft on perfecting your journal critique have become a way of unleashing one’s academic talents and ignite creativity. For inspiring writers, one of the most effective ways of improving your self-knowledge is through multiple researches and journaling. Writing a perfect journal critique is not all about trying desperately to find a way to impress your lecturers, hunting and beating around the bush with irrelevant points, giving redundant information when it’s uncalled for, and gathering the pieces of puzzles together attempting to form a complete article. This is a piece of useful advice, because in order to come up with a decent journal critique, you have to understand what it is all about. Learn how to analyse the purpose, arguments, biases, assumptions and background of your article to find niche ideas for your critique. Scholar and Peer-reviewed journals are highly recommended for this purpose. Finding the targeted audience, highlighting strong statements that evoke great response from you makes an excellent jump start in structuring your critique. This approach solves the problem of planning, creating your introduction by organising your text while determining the suitability of the intended text for usage. The format of writing a journal critique is mostly quite similar containing your personal analysis based on your targeted topic. Remember, we need facts, not opinions. This means you need to have a strong ground for arguments with concrete evidence to support your main points. Make it a point to stay informative on the background and recent developments of the topic even before you decide on the right journal to critique. Face it. There is no way you can lay your

hands on the paper without knowing what it is all about in the first place. Fundamental knowledge, hence, is a critical factor determining the success of a critique. Structure your article in a standard essay format. Needless to say, these comprises of a proper introduction, body and powerful conclusion. Define your subject of critiques and point of views clearly. Refrain from following the writing style of the author as there is a strong tendency one may subconsciously ended up doing a summary of the article instead of a proper critique. Defend your view points with raised issues, aspects of arguments and evidence. Identify and elaborate author’s ideas and how they agree or disagree with you. Offer rationales and solutions to the arguments you have contested give you an edge over others. Share your thoughts and how you think about the journal article. Concluding a journal critique is as important as the planning and executor phase in writing. Reemphasising and summarising your arguments assembles all information into a very useful niche critique with a perfect finish. Be realistic of what a successful critique entails. Treat your piece of work as though it was any other of your favourite task that you wanted to excel at. Start planning by craving out specific blocks of time to work at it. Writing crap is better than not getting it started at all. It may be at your worst form or sub-standard, willing to continue writing is one of the most important keys in achieving success. In the end, it is only you who can build up your confidence in writing.

How to Write a Journal Critique Using APA Style by Fitzalan Gorman, Demand Media      

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APA style guides you on how to structure, format and cite your critique. When you write a journal critique, you give a qualified opinion of the article. American Psychological Association format is most often used when writing articles relating to social and behavioral sciences. The sixth edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association provides guidelines on how to structure, format and cite your critique. Sponsored Link Journal of Social Science

Publish Your Research for Ph.D. 7 Days Review. Quality Assured. www.ijsst.com Basic Format When writing a journal critique in APA format, you must follow general structural guidelines. Format your paper so all of the text is double-spaced and there is a 1-inch margin on all sides. The APA recommends using Times New Roman in 12 point. Your paper should include four major sections: title page, abstract, main body and references. On the title page, list the name of your paper, your name and your school’s name all on separate lines. Abstract On your abstract page, center the word “Abstract” at the top of the page without any additional formatting. On the next line, write a concise summary of your critique. This should be a brief summary about the article and your critique. Examples of points to make in this paragraph include objectively analyzing the article and evaluating its contributions to learning. This paragraph should be between 150 to 250 words. Main Body On a new page, type your title at the top of the page without any additional formatting. Following a double space, begin writing your critique. Journal critiques analyze a variety of topics. Examples of issues you may want to include in this section include whether you found any errors of fact or interpretation, the author had any underlying assumptions or the author was objective. If you are critiquing a research journal, then consider discussing whether the experimental methods were described adequately, the procedures included enough detail to be duplicated or any content was duplicated. In-Text Citations To strengthen your journal critique, you may want to quote or paraphrase sections from the original article. Whenever you do this, you must include in-text citations. With APA style, you use the author-date citation system. If you mention the original author by name, then you only need to include the year of publication within parentheses directly following his name. When you quote or paraphrase a specific passage from the journal, include the page name at the end of the sentence in parentheses. This should be written as “p.” and placed before the final punctuation mark. References For references, your paper may only reference the journal that you are critiquing. To write this in proper APA style, write the author’s last name, a comma, first and middle initials and a period. Write the publication year in parentheses followed by a period. Type the name of the article title in sentence case followed by a period. Then, write the name of the journal in italics and title case, a comma, volume number, a comma, page numbers and a period. The volume number should also be in italics, but all text that follows should have plain formatting. For example: Hernandez, D. (2008). Choosing and using citation and bibliographic database software. Diabetes Educator, 34, 459-60.