ASK WEEK Pathways to Success

18-22 November 2013

Critiquing and Analysing Research

Chris McMillan

Academic Skills Adviser

Session Overview

Consider how to approach a research issue

Examine the principles of active reading

Understand the key elements of critiquing research

Investigate the process of producing a critical

intervention into the research

What does it mean to critical?

Moving from remembering, recording and

describing information to analysing, evaluating and

synthesising knowledge

Describing Analysing, Evaluating

and Synthesising

Being critical is a questioning attitude, rather than a

set of skills

Assignment questions

Problems and issues

Academic research

What are we thinking critically about?

…getting

involved in the

academic

debate

Critical Thinking Means…

Taking a critical and active attitude to reading is the most important first step in this debate

Once you have identified the parameters of your project, it is vital to read widely

You are not reading simply to catalogue information, but to find your intervention into the research

From thinking to reading

Key Tip #1

Being critical is the

key to research

What does it mean to Critique Research?

Critical Thinking: A questioning attitude towards

knowledge

Analysis: The process of breaking a topic into

smaller parts

Critique/Critical Analysis: Disciplined, critical and

systematic analysis

Beginning Research

Start with a broad topic and move towards a

research question

Discover existing answers to this question

Establish what is missing from these responses

Work out how to find out this information

Brunel Library holds approximately 500,000 books

Searching ‘research’ in the library database produces 18,466,866 hits

Projects have limited word counts

What to do?

Discovering responses

First steps

The first task for any research project is to be aware of main debates within your field of interest

Go on a library ‘hunt’ to find the most prominent books

Use Google Scholar to find the most cited articles

Use the ‘Summon’ Database to find the newest articles and work backwards

Use sources listed in Wikipedia, particularly ‘official’ organisations

Follow the sources used in existing research

You may need to go beyond Brunel Library by joining the British Library or obtaining a ‘SCONUL’ card

Taking a critical and active attitude to reading is the most important first step in this debate

Once you have identified the parameters of your project, it is vital to read widely

But you are not reading simply to catalogue information, but to find your intervention into the research

From thinking to reading

How do you normally approach academic reading?

Interrogating a text: The SQ3R Process

Survey

Question

Read

Repeat

Review

Why are you reading?

Set goals for your reading

Read quickly: skim or scan

In-depth Critical Analysis

Are your questions answered?

When you have identified the necessary reading, consider how it will be used in your research.

Ask:

Why are you spending time on this text?

Is it key to your research?

Does it play a supporting role?

These considerations may change as you read

Once your purpose is established, develop particular questions to focus on

Identifying your needs

Who are/is the researcher(s)?

Why was the research conducted?

Where in the research can you find the information you require?

Understanding Structure and Context

Find the issue/question/objectives to which the research is responding

Consider the core response to these issues

Both these elements should be located in the introduction and conclusion of academic work

The abstract also contains a map to the research

Identify the Main Argument or Conclusion

Critiquing research requires the application of disciplinary specific critical analysis

Each subject has its own forms of theoretical enquiry and research

Critique tends to be an instinctive process as you find ideas and evidence that you agree with

Nonetheless, there are a number of questions that should be asked

Critical strategies

Identifying Limitations

Academic research is unlikely to be fundamentally

flawed, but it is always limited

The research should not cover your exact research

question

The researchers’ approach to the investigation will

have strong consequences

Assumptions

Each researchers comes from a certain perspective that does not cover some elements of the research issue

This perspective might have assumptions about the way people, or the physical world, behave and are structured (ontology)

Or about the best methods to capture information about the world (epistemology)

Knowing the researchers’ background can help you to identify these perspectives

Methodological Limitations

The methods used to approach a research problem can be flawed – inappropriate or badly applied – but they are more likely to be limited

Qualitative research might capture the experiences of small groups, but might not be generalisable

Quantitative methods may capture a large amount of data, but fail to provide explanations for this data (correlations, not causation)

Is the research relevant to the issue being investigated?

What elements of the issue/problem are omitted?

Does the research cover everything you require?

Are the methods appropriate for the research question(s)? What are the limitations of this approach?

Are appropriate links made between the literature and the results? Are any factors being excluded?

Are there any limitations to the reasoning being used to support the analysis?

On what basis are the conclusions made? Is any evidence excluded that might be relevant?

Reading Activity

Read through the research on the

handout and consider how it might

be critiqued

Key Tip #2

Don’t read,

interrogate

There are two key purposes to your reading:

Remembering key information to be used again (gaining knowledge)

Developing your own intervention into the debate (learning)

It is important to identify these differing purposes when you are reading

Creating reflections

Many readers focus on recording vital information

This is valuable when you are establishing the basic parameters of the research and integrating new information

Often this technique focuses on recording key moments and producing quotations for later use

Alternatively, major sections can be paraphrased

Writing notes

This approach, however, is not the most effective for developing a critique that will lead to your own argument

Instead, be sure to make reflections on the content as you move through

Not ‘what does it say?’ but ‘What do I think?’, ‘Why do I think this?’, ‘So what?’ and ‘How can I use this information?’

Making notes

You will never know more about a text than when you are involved in it

If you have ideas or reflections, write about them – it only takes one moment of clarity to build an idea

By developing extended notes you are able to expand your thinking and link to previous ideas – the building of an argument

These extended notes can often be the basis for your writing

Developing ideas

Key Tip #3

Don’t stop yourself

from thinking

Summarise the main conclusions of the research

Critically note the strengths and flaws of the research What have you learnt?

What do you disagree with?

How will you use this source in your own research?

Summarise your Position

Key Tip #4

Always consider how you will use the research in your

writing

It is vital that you keep a record of your notes and sources

Referencing databases can be an excellent method of organising your research

Microsoft Word

Endnote

Mendeley

Ref Works

Always remember to back up your research and keep hard copies where necessary

Organising Research: Databases

Much of the analysis of research occurs after it has been read when you begin to synthesise the research you have read

Once you have researched an issue, it is vital that you organise this research in order to identify your intervention

Mind-maps can be used to create ideas and establish the key elements of your projects

Mind-maps also allow you to identify the connections between ideas and to synthesise key elements of the research

Organising research: Mind-mapping

Place the question/issue in the middle of the page

Start with the most important issues

Add branches identified with single words or short phrases to represent key ideas

Allow ideas to connect from these branches and between branches

*Let ideas come ‘organically’, rather than pre-planning your map

Mind-Maps: A How-To Guide

Thinking about your project, are you

able to construct a brief mind-map of

the different elements involved?

Mind-mapping practice

Once your ideas are organised, search for conflict and contradictions between them

Where do you find yourself naturally directed?

Are you able to create a synthesis from these ideas in order to respond to the assigned issue?

Creating your Intervention

Summary

Thinking critically is the key to succeeding at university

It is vital to define the parameters of your research

Always ensure that you are reading critically and actively

Identify and critique the main argument, points of explanation and evidence

Find your critical intervention into the research

ASK WEEK Pathways to Success

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Organisations -> Academic Skills -> Workshop Presentations -> ASK Week Spring 2013