Article Critiques

Article critiques are a special form of an article review. Much more than just an article summary, our writers know what is needed to provide you with an article critique that stands up against the toughest scrutiny.

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What is an Article Critique?

Article critiques are an essential part of graduate research. The first part of the critique is at the knowledge/comprehension level. The second part of the critique includes analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the study, identification of logical linkages among component parts of a study, and evaluation of the study’s quality and usefulness for practice.

The following is a basic format for an article critique:

Identify the following elements of the study/article in the Abstract:

• Present and describe a refined map (model) of the framework.
• Present and discuss the design model. Present a flow diagram of data collection.
• Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the study, such as strengths of the design and threats to design validity of the study.

In the body of the article critique:

1. Compare the steps in the study with published research sources(s) and document these sources.
2. Discuss the logical links of the steps of the research process in the article. Be sure to discuss the links as they are found in the study and not as they should be. Document statements.
3. Develop a final summary evaluation of the quality of the study. Do not just restate strengths and weaknesses.
4. Discuss your confidence in the study findings, consistency of this study’s findings with the findings from other studies, readiness of findings for use in practice, and contribution of the study to nursing knowledge. Document statements.

Here is an example of an article critique

Natalie Fasnacht’s article “`It's Not About Race’: Making Whiteness Visible in the Interpretation of Rap Music” is part of an anthology of eighteen different articles that each attempt to provide better insight into the complexities surrounding multicultural environments on American college campuses. Like the others, Fasnacht approaches her topic through a qualitative research approach focusing on a small number of white students attending a private college. Through interviews and behavioral observation, Fasnacht draws conclusions about the perceptions not only of how whites interpret rap music, but how that perception is refocused through an ideological lens that is almost ironically distanced from the ideology of the rap music they enjoy.

The main thrust of the article rests on Fasnacht’s conclusion that development of genuine perception of identity and diversity is severely curtailed by these young white students because their ideological mindset has been based on environmental factors that even today place obstacles. Interestingly, despite the fact that rap music was the focus of interpretation, these students persisted in downplaying the racial differences inherent between most rap singers and themselves. The justification that rap has been mainstreamed and normalized into everyday discourse is also being used to justify the idea that racial inequalities have been mainstreamed.

What may be at the center of Fasnacht’s conclusion is that rap music—by being taken away from its primal position as a coded form of communication between peoples of a certain ethnicity, much as jazz was in its beginning—no longer has the power to serve as a racial divide. The upshot of this transformation is that African-Americans are denied another cultural totem that defines their struggles to the white community. By taking this way, the perception among people like the students in Fasnacht’s article, is that there is no need to confront identity based on socio-cultural differences because there are no socio-cultural differences. The mainstreaming of rap music has lent further credence to the ideas that class and racial barriers no longer exist in America; that America has finally achieved its mythic dream of being a melting pot where everyone has the same opportunity to become a millionaire, either by becoming a rap star or a corporate executive.

The reader is left feeling that insulated members of society at all levels have naturalized their existence to the point where the very idea of diversity is meaningless because minds remain closed with little chance of ever being opened.