Academic Research Article Critique
The final assignment for this course is an academic research article critique. The purpose of the critique is to ensure that you know how to read and critically assess research for use in your own research, to understand social problems in society, support decision making in public policy, or to influence one's own individual research approaches.
Focus of the Final Paper
Reading and critically analyzing academic research reported in journal articles is an important part of learning and applying scholarly research for multiple applications within your discipline. Through the first four weeks of this course, you have become more familiar with the various components of research design. For this final assignment, read and critically review one of the journal articles provided in the list by discipline (below). You may choose from any of the lists, however you will probably find one from your own discipline to be of greater interest to you and more useful for future reference.
Choose one article from the list below and read it.
Communication Studies
Social and Criminal Justice
Summarize the article you chose, including discussions surrounding the purpose of the study, the methodology utilized, the results obtained, and the conclusions drawn by the author(s) utilizing questions posed in the reading. Utilize questions posed in the "Analyze the Text" section of the Learning Commons resource to develop this section. You must include the full APA citation for the article in your references page.
Body (about five pages)
Determine both the strengths and weaknesses of each section of the paper (i.e., introduction, methods, results, discussion, overview). Use questions posed in the "Evaluate the Text" section of the Learning Commons resource to develop this section.
Conclusion (about three pages)
Discuss the significance of the research. Utilize questions posed in the "Establish the Significance of the Research" section of the Learning Commons resource to develop this section.