Plans for Class 2/11,
2/13
2/11
I. Questions, reactions
to Peer Feedback Process???
II. Instructions for
EWA2 and EWA3 (Handed out)
Extended Writing Assignment
2 is a critical review of the literature on a topic of your choice.
A critical review means that you will not only be relating
information that you find but evaluating it as well. Evaluation will be in
terms of whether you think the argument made (claims, evidence, support)
are convincing and why you think so.
A critical review
is different from a traditional “term paper” precisely because it includes
an evaluation of the articles cited. A critical review combines most of the
characteristics of Article Critiques (see SWM, page 121 – 125) with a traditional
literature review where you read several articles and then tell what is known.
The major difference between a critical review and the typical paper is precisely
the emphasis on the claims and evidence in each of the sources you draw on
in your paper. With the exception of two sections (the sections called
Contribution to the Literature and Recommendation), chapter
9 of SWM provides a good discussion of the kinds of thinking
that go into writing a critical literature review. There are a series of
questions on page 128 of SWM that are useful guides to reading the literature
on the topic you selected for EWA2. In particular, when reading a source,
you should be evaluating it based on the claim(s) made and the evidence in
support of those claims. In evaluating the evidence, you should be asking
“are the concepts under investigation well defined and appropriate” (pg.
128)
“what research methods have been used successfully in other relevant studies”
(pg. 128 SWM)
“what important questions does the research leave unanswered” (pg. 128)
When putting together information from multiple sources for your critical
literature review, you should be thinking about the following questions
(adapted from page 128 of SWM):
What study or studies provide the best information on the topic
and what do they conclude about it?
“What are the apparent methodological strengths and weaknesses of these studies?”
What are the unanswered questions?
“What appear to be effective methods for developing new information about
the topic?”
Across the articles, what is there agreement about and what is there controversy
over?
In other words, a critical literature review has an argument structure and
applies criteria for sound arguments to the evaluation of the literature
on the topic. Your goal in undertaking the mini-review for EWA2
is either
1. to identify an important controversy
or disagreement about the topic you selected.
OR
2. to narrow down the topic to a subarea
that you find particularly important and interesting.
NOTE: Chapter 10 in SWM discusses the “traditional psychology research paper.”
This information is also useful
for you in writing your critical reviews for EWA2 and 3. Chapter 10 focuses
on what you can do to narrow your topic and develop and focus the thesis you
are going to support in your EWA2.