Are you surprised a little with such task as a research paper critique? Do you think that students only have to write research papers, not critique them? Well, it is not exactly so and quite often you will be asked to analyze and evaluate works of other students.
If you have never had to critique a research paper before, you probably have a lot of questions at the moment. By the way, asking questions is what making a research paper critique is about. Anyway, let us explain you everything in details.
How to critique research papers: where to start
First off, you need to read a research paper carefully, probably several times. At this stage, just think about your first impressions, note the first drawbacks you notice, etc.
By the way, let us remind you that making a research paper critique is not only about criticizing someone’s work and making negative comments.
How to critique research papers: asking questions
You will start analyzing a research paper after the reading session is over. To make your work easier, split the chosen/assigned research paper into its major parts, and criticize part by part. This is how you will do it.
How to critique a research paper introduction
There are two main questions that you should ask while commenting on an introduction:
- Does the author provide enough background information on a topic?
- Does the introduction have a clear and strong thesis statement?
How to critique a research paper body
The main function of body paragraphs is to support the author’s points and disclose a topic properly. Questions that you should ask are as follows:
- What reasons does the author provide to support his/her points and opinions?
- Are there enough evidences, which show that the author’s reasons are good?
How to critique a research paper conclusion
This is the final set of questions you need to answer:
- Do you agree with author’s conclusions?
- Did he/she manage to answer the main question?
- Do you agree that author’s findings are important?
Here, you can find more details about the parts of research papers.
