CRITICAL READING FOR EVALUATION
Posted on February 24, 2020 by waldenacademicskills in Reading
This post is a continuation of Hillary’s previous post: Critical Reading for Analysis and Comparison.
Whereas analysis involves noticing, evaluation requires the reader to make a judgment about the text’s strengths and weaknesses. Many students are not confident in their ability to assess what they are reading. It is important to remember, though, that even though a piece of writing is published, it is not necessarily accurate, scholarly, or free of bias. Readers must look at published writing with a critical eye to gauge its trustworthiness.
READING FOR EVALUATION
Critical reading for evaluation can be considered a three-step process of prereading, reading, and forming the evaluation.
Prereading
Scan the title, abstract, publication information, headings, and reference list to gather your first impressions on the credibility of the text. Ask yourself questions like these:
Who is the author?
Once you have been reading and studying in your field for a while, you may begin to recognize certain authors or scholars. The more you read, the better the sense you will have about which scholars are well-known and have immediate credibility in your field. If you are unfamiliar with an author, you can do a simple Internet search to learn more about their background. Then use your critical thinking skills to help determine the author’s credibility. For example, an article on nuclear energy written by a nuclear scientist will likely be worth more to a researcher than one written by a neurosurgeon. Also consider potential biases between the author and the subject. A piece on gun control written by a former president of the National Rifle Association is likely to come with biases.
Who is the publisher?
Determine the journal or publisher by locating the publication information, usually found in the library database and/or title page of the article. Peer-reviewed sources are preferred (check Ulrich’s for details about specific publications). In general, choose scholarly journal articles over other types of sources. If a source has no specific author or publication date (or is published by a corporation with an obvious bias), regard it skeptically.
When was the work published?
Fields develop and change, some more rapidly than others. For fields in which change is rapid, a researcher must rely on the most current sources. Generally, works written within the last 5 years are preferred.
Does the author include a reference list or bibliography?
Examining the references should tell you whether the subject was well researched. If there is no reference list or the references are outdated or nonscholarly, you should question the usefulness and trustworthiness of the material.
During the pre-reading step, you might determine that the text is not worth reading because it is clearly biased or authored by someone who is not credible in your field. If you decide to read it, continue with the next step below.
READING
Once you have decided to commit to a text, your next step is to read it with a critical eye. During this step, pay close attention to the argument and the evidence used to support that argument. Ask yourself questions like these:
Audience, Purpose, and Language:
Has the author communicated clearly and organized the text well? (e.g., logical connections between topics, clear sentences, use of headings)
Is the author effectively writing to their audience? (e.g., appropriateness of language and tone)
Argument and Evidence
Does the evidence support the conclusions that are drawn? In other words, has the author interpreted the evidence correctly? Are there other interpretations that could be made?
Does the author present and address a counterargument?
Has the author made unreasonable assumptions?
Has the author allowed bias to influence their work?
Methods (for Research Studies):
Was the research method appropriate, or would another method have been more effective?
Was the sample size sufficient? How generalizable are the findings? (In some instances the evidence is strong but applies only to an isolated case, as might occur when research deals with a small sample size or a unique demographic. In such cases, a critical reader must be able to recognize that the case is isolated and the results cannot be generalized to a larger population.)
What were the limitations in this study (both the ones disclosed by the author and ones that you see as a critical reader)?
Could the evidence be flawed due to how the study was conducted?
David H. Schwartz’s video Not All Scientific Studies are Created Equal provides an excellent example of reviewing sources, considering variables, and discovering potentially flawed causal relationships.
Forming the Evaluation
The final step is to form your evaluation based on the judgments you made as you were reading. This exercise is a short one that may not always end up in a paper or dissertation chapter, but it is essential. What is your overall evaluation? Can you articulate it in a few sentences? Consider how you would respond if someone asked, “How was the article?” or “How was that book?” Here is an example:
Although Ramirez’s (2017) study provided compelling evidence for mandatory drug testing of athletes, the researcher was also the principal at the school where she conducted the study. Ramirez did not adequately control for researcher bias. Therefore, more research is needed to determine whether similar results would be achieved without such a relationship.
If you are using a tool like a literature review matrix, now is the time to fill in your evaluation of the source and other notes. If you are writing a course paper, include your evaluation along with a brief source summary in your notes. Be sure to evaluate the source immediately after reading it so that it remains clear in your head.
Hillary Wentworth joined Walden in 2010 as a writing instructor in the Writing Center. She now serves as a contributing faculty member in the Academic Skills Center and as a learning architect developing Walden’s academic programs. She holds a BA in English from the University of New Hampshire and an MFA in creative writing from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Hillary lives in Maine with her husband and young son.
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