Guidelines for Writing the Article
Critique
You will write three critiques of scholarly articles you choose from the psychology databases
in the library. Scholarly or peer-reviewed journal articles are written by scholars or
professionals who are experts in their fields. In psychology, they often publish research
results. You can access them at the library website. While you may reference Substantive
news articles that are reliable sources of information on events and issues of public concern
in the discussion threads, the critiques are just about scholarly articles.
The article can be on any psychological subject we discuss in class or you read about in the
text. Your purpose is to describe the main aspects of the article as specified below. In
addition, explain what the article has contributed to your learning and evaluate its strengths
and weaknesses as you see them. Finally, you should write your critique in a way that your
classmates would have no trouble understanding it. Each critique should be around 500600 words, have a title page, and be submitted in the Canvas drop box under
yournameassignment#.docx. All assignments are due by Sunday midnight.
1. In your introductory section, summarize (do not rewrite or copy) each of the
following aspects of the article, preferably in this order. With this section, you
are offering an overview and explanation of the research study. This section will
be several well-developed
paragraphs (and not merely disconnected responses to the questions below):
a. The study’s rationale -Why did the authors want to do this study?
b. What were the authors trying to discover in this study?
c. The population studied -Where did the sample come from? What was the
sample size?
d. The methodology -Was the study descriptive, correlational, or
experimental? How did the authors conduct the research? Briefly summarize
the steps they took.
e. The results - What were the authors' findings?
f. The author's conclusions - Typically, in the Discussion section, the authors
describe why their findings are important. They also describe the problems
(limitations) with their study.
2. Following the introductory section you will provide your Interpretation and
Analysis: Describe the knowledge you gained from this article and give good
examples of how you might use what you've learned in the future. This section
will address these questions:
a. What were the article's strong points and weak points?
b. Why do you think the findings are important?
c. What did you think was wrong with it? For example, was the sample poorly
drawn, not representative?
d. Was the article poorly/strongly w r i t t e n ?
3. In your concluding section, explain how the findings are relevant to you or
the lives of others. Give an original example of a practical implication of the
findings.
4. Writing quality:
Your critique should use standard edited English: grammar, punctuation,
sentence structure, and paragraph structure. Edit and proofread carefully, using
your word processor to check spelling and "grammar" errors, Follow APA
format for integrating, citing, and listing references. An effective critique
typewritten and double spaced.
See the grading rubric on the next page to see how your grade will be
computed.
Introductory Psychology Article Critique Grading
Rubric Your grade will be computed by adding your scores for each category.
Good
Fair
Category
Excellent
Study Purpose
&
Methodology
Clearly describes
the author's
rationale. Clearly
and correctly
describes the
study's
methodology .
(to points)
Somewhat clearly
describes the author's
rationale. Correctly
describes the study's
methodology .(7.5
points)
Somewhat unclearly
describes the
author's
rationale. Unclear
description of the
study's
methodology. (5
points)
Summarizes all
important aspects
of the article.(50
points)
Summarizes about
half of the important
aspects of the article.
(37.5 points)
Summarizes a few
important aspects of
the article. (25
points)
Analyzes at least
five of the
article's strengths
and weaknesses.
Clearly describes
knowledge gained
and gives 2 or
more good
examples of how
you m ight use
what you've
learned in the
future. (30
points)
Uses APA
format. Free of
grammatical or
spelling errors .
Well organized
with good
paragraph
construction. (to
points)
Analyzes three or
four of the article's
strengths and
weaknesses.
Somewhat clearly
describes knowledge
gained and gives at
least I fairly good
example of how you
might use what you've
learned in the future.
(22.5 points)
Analyzes one or two
strengths or
weaknesses.
Somewhat
unclearly describes
knowledge gained
and gives fairly
poor examples of
how you m ight use
what you've learned
in the future. (15
points)
Uses APA format with
a few mistakes. A few
grammatical or
spelling errors.
Adequately organized
with satisfactory
paragraph construction.
(7.5 points)
Uses APA format
with many m
mistakes.
Several grammatical
or
spelling
errors.
Poorly
organized
with unsatisfactory
paragraph
construction .(5
points)
-- /10
Summary
-- /50
Interpretation
and Analysis
--/30
Writing
Quality
- /10
Total
/100
Poor (25
points)
Does not clearly
describe the
author's
rationale.
Methodology
described
incorrectly or
not at all. (2.5
points)
Summarizes no
important
aspects of the
article.(12.5
points)
Mentions no
strengths or
weaknesses .
Does not
describe
knowledge
gained and
gives no
examples of
how to use what
you 've learned
in the future.
(7.5 points)
Fails to use
APA format.
Many
grammatical
and spelling
errors. Very
poorly
organized with
very poor
paragraph
construction.
(2.5 points)