Critical reading and research
Asking the right questions (when reading)
- What is the purpose of the text?
- Who is the audience?
- Why am I reading this?
- What are the authors claiming?
- How convincing are the claims?
- What evidence?
- Is it reputable/refutable?
- Who would agree/disagree with this?
- How could I use this in my assignment?
- What theories are referred to?
- Who is the author referencing?
- Are there inconsistencies?
- Does the conclusion reflect the evidence?
Ways of finding the answers
So, what can you look for to find answers to these questions?
Example question: Are these ideas the author’s summary of someone else’s research?
Look for:
- words like ‘according to…’
- ‘a research study by…’
- ‘evidence supplied by…’
- citations
How would you find answers to these questions?
- Is the argument sound/strong?
- Is the evidence (statistical, reports, etc.) reputable?
- Is the evidence refutable?
- Are there any threads in the text that have not been dealt with or inconsistent statements?
- Does the conclusion reflect the evidence/information in the text?
Suggestions
- Is the argument sound/strong?
- Look for examples of other research to back it up
- Look at other sources for disagreement – which is more convincing?
- Is the evidence (statistical, reports, etc.) reputable?
- What is the author’s track record?
- Compare with lectures, course textbooks, etc.
- Survey the author on internet
- Is he/she recommended by your lecturer?
- What type of publication is it?
- Is the evidence refutable?
- What are other authors’ views?
- What methods were used to gather the evidence?
- Are there any threads in the text that have not been dealt with or inconsistent statements?
- Take each idea and check what was said. Colour-coding useful here.
- Use ‘find’ facility to survey electronic texts
- Does the conclusion reflect the evidence/information in the text?
- Scan the text for each conclusion statement to see where it was dealt with
Applying it to your writing
When reading your writing, your readers will be asking the same critical questions of you.
For example:
- What is this paragraph about?
- What exactly is that?
- What is your argument?
- What is the evidence – and what does it mean?
- How does this relate back to the question?