Difference between a Summary and an Article Critique

In most cases, people fail to differentiate between the two and sometimes write one in place of the other. A summary simply seeks to share important and main arguments in an article in order for the reader to understand the overall stand of the article without having to go through the article itself. On the other hand, an article critique focuses on evaluating and critically responding to the ideas in an article, with a brief summary of the same.

Importance of Article Critique

Apart from improving the student’s evaluation skills, an article critique goes a long way to:

• Improve the student’s knowledge in the field.

• Aids in understanding and recognizing strengths and weaknesses of an article

• Helps improve quality of arguments in the same field

• Helps to understand the purpose of an article

• Helps the student to appreciate the process of argument development

Guidelines to Writing an Article Critique

The general processes of writing critique involves reading, identifying, evaluating, and responding to the thoughts in a piece of writing. Nonetheless, the precise process is as follows;

• Choose an article

• Read the article actively

• Question the main points

• Identify pros and cons

• Write the critique

1. Choose an Article

In most cases, the instructor almost always provide the student with the article to critique, but if you are ordained with opportunity to choose for yourself, it is prudent to choose carefully. Choose an academic article that argues for or against a certain notion. It is advisable to choose from a topic that you already have knowledge about as this would help you to critically analyze the text.

2. Read the Article Actively

This is an important step in article critique. First, read to get the main ideas while paying extra attention to the thesis of the article. Read for the second time as you note important points together with other important factors including;

1. The target audience

2. Reason for writing the article

3. Arguments supporting the thesis

4. Are all reasons explored?

Thereafter, develop preliminary ideas as to what you appreciate and what you would question in the article.

3. Critique/Question the Main Points

As you read for the second time, question whether the writer’s general idea is plausible or feasible. Check for biases within the main points while comparing them with other research in the same field. Analyze each point and compare with the current knowledge you have on the same topic. Check for contradiction within the points elevated by the writer while paying keen attention on the recommendations presented by the author. This is the first point towards developing your own ideas. Here is an illustration on how to critique a journal article

4. Identify Pros and Cons

Contrary to what the masses might believe, article critique does not only involve criticism. It is therefore prudent to identify the importance of the article and mention the same in your article critique. This ensures that there is little/no biasness in your analysis. Additionally, you should identify and note down the disadvantages of the article or the ideas within the article.

5. Write the Critique

Before physically writing the critique, you need to have the general lay out of your critical analysis. Thereafter, write your critique while keenly following the outline of a critique paper, which generally constitute;

• Introduction

• Summary

• Analysis

• Conclusion

• References

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