MILE5000 Chap.9 Writing a Critical Summary and Critique
Writing a Critical Summary and Critique
The individual assignment
The critical summary and critique is worth thirty per cent and is due on Friday 23 October. You choose one article from a set of recent research articles supplied by the course and write a summary and critique in no more than 750 words excluding references.
The syllabus asks for careful, active and critical reading and requires the summary to reproduce the meaning of the article accurately in your own words.
What the summary must contain
The brief lists the contents: the context of the study and how it emerged from the literature;
the research questions, hypotheses or main arguments and why they matter; the design, setting, participants, methodology and analysis; the results and their significance; and the implications, discussed with reference to the questions or hypotheses.
What the critique must answer
The brief sets four questions: whether the research is designed well enough to answer its questions, including flaws in tasks, recruitment or analysis and their effect on validity;
how far the conclusions generalise to other contexts and participants; how you would modify the research in the light of your criticisms if you ran it as a pilot; and what an extension study could add.
The strongest critiques tie each flaw to a specific conclusion and pair it with a concrete repair.
Integrity and word economy
The syllabus states that copied wording cited without quotation marks is still plagiarism, and that a plagiarised assignment will not be accepted.
The 750-word ceiling is tight for nine parts, so plan the split before drafting and give the critique at least as much space as the summary.
What this chapter covers
- 01
The assignment brief and deadline
- 02
Five parts of an accurate summary
- 03
Four critique questions
- 04
Flaw, consequence and repair
- 05
Matching claim strength to design
- 06
Planning 750 words
- 07
Choosing an article you can critique well
Worked example · free
Turn a list of weaknesses into one critique point
- 2Choose the weakness that most threatens the article's main conclusion.
- 2Explain its consequence for that conclusion.
- 2Propose a concrete modification for a pilot.
Key terms
- Generalisability
- The extent to which a study's conclusions would hold for other participants and settings.
- Validity
- The degree to which a study's design and measures support the conclusions drawn from them.
- Extension Study
- A follow-up that repairs a weakness of an earlier study or covers something it left out.
- Pilot Study
- A small trial version of a study used to test and refine its design before a full project.
Writing a Critical Summary and Critique FAQ
How should I divide 750 words between summary and critique?
The brief sets only the ceiling, so the split is yours. Because the critique must answer four questions while the summary reports five parts briefly, giving the critique at least as much space as the summary is sensible. Leave some room for revision rather than drafting to the limit.
Can I quote the article in my summary?
You can quote with quotation marks and a citation, but the brief asks for the research to be presented in your own words, and the syllabus treats copied wording without quotation marks as plagiarism even when cited. Keep quotations for a phrase whose exact wording matters, and paraphrase everything else from your own notes.
What makes a critique point strong?
It names a specific feature of the design, explains which conclusion that feature weakens and why, and proposes a concrete change you would make in a pilot. Generic weaknesses such as small samples or self-report only become strong points when you show how they affect this article's particular claim.
Assessment move
Pick two candidate articles and write a one-line design sentence for each before choosing. Choose the one for which you can already name a flaw tied to a specific conclusion; an article you can describe completely after one careful reading gives you more to evaluate within 750 words.
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