A critique starts with a brief summary of what the author(s) said and then looks at it critically.
To summarize an article, you should first read the whole article and related references. What are the author’s
main points? How does s/he/they back them up; that is, what evidence do/es the author(s) cite to support
them? How could you make the same argument in your own words? At this point you should reread the
article to make certain you summarized the author’s ideas correctly and that you clearly identified the source
of each idea (whether it’s a direct quote or not).
It is important to review related discipline areas and identify conflicting data/results and possible alternative
scientific interpretation(s).
The next step is to critically review what the author(s) wrote: is the scientific argument logical and coherent?
Were the methods used to gather the evidence appropriate for the author’s purposes? Does the evidence cited
lead to the conclusion the author reached? Do you know of other evidence that might be used to make a
counterargument? Be sure to check the date of the article and the evidence – are the conclusions still valid?
You should also consider the author(s): Who is/are this/these person/people? What education or experience
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does the author(s) have in this field? Is(are) the author(s) simply an experienced writer in many fields or does
the author(s) have real expertise? How do you know? (You will need to research the author(s). The format of
scientific journals and their content varies, depending on the target audience. Most journal articles are
reviewed by peers and there may be editorial decisions made to alter the work. It is important to review the
’scope and intent’ of the journal as well as the instructions to authors.
