Academic Skills Advice

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MA and MSc: Critical Analysis in Writing

This workshop will:

− Give you a detailed overview of key features of sound

critical

− Provide an understanding of both macro- and micro-

structure for extended pieces of writing

− Tips on writing about your results

− Provide information on how to use sources discursively

Teaching points:

1. The relationship between critical analysis, thinking and reading 2. Features of good critical writing 3. Macro-structure of critical writing 4. Micro-structure of critical writing: paragraphs 5. Micro-structure of critical writing: phraseology 6. Differences between reporting and discussing your results 7. An alternative use for sources

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1. The relationship between critical analysis, critical thinking and reading critically

In essence, critical analysis is….

Something that happens before writing takes place Engaging in analytical thinking

− by looking at something (whether tangible or conceptual) before you start your reading for your initial impressions.

− Breaking it down into its constituent parts and closely observing those points individually and in relation to each other and the whole.

Employing critical thinking by… − Asking questions of the origins of ideas, the assumptions behind the

ideas, and the applicability of the ideas you find when critically reading relevant literature.

− Evidencing your evaluative conclusions and findings from this questioning process.

− Keeping an open mind about the application of this knowledge to address a problem or answer a question.

Is not linear as can be seen by the graphic below

As postgraduates, you are expected to…

“…think critically and be creative…organise [your] thoughts, analyse, synthesise and critically appraise. This includes the capability to identify assumptions, evaluate statements in terms of evidence, detect false logic or reasoning, identify implicit values, define terms adequately and generalise appropriately”

(QAA 2015: 10)

Task

Conclusions and evidence

Start developing

your first draft

Critical analysis cycle

Critical deep

questions

Text Gap in understanding

Reading to

close gap

Analytical breakdown

Shallow questions

Further research

Initial impression

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2. Features of good critical writing

Critical writing can be used either when:

reviewing literature (articles, reports, monographs, etc.) in your field, so you need to show…

− a clear and confident refusal to accept the conclusions of other writers without evaluating the arguments and evidence that they provide

− a balanced presentation of reasons why the conclusions of other writers may be accepted or may need to be treated with caution

OR

discussing your own research project in a dissertation or report (self-critical writing), and so present…

− a clear presentation of your own evidence and argument, leading to your conclusion

− a recognition of the limitations in your own evidence, argument, and conclusion.

Self-critical writing involves you changing roles from author/creator to tutor/critic; all the questions or concerns you may have with another writer’s text (a journal article, book chapter, report, etc.) you apply to your own work. Any limitations, weaknesses or gaps should be dealt with to ensure you provide the written content your supervisor/marker wants to see.

First, together we will read the content of the boxes on the left hand side which refer to what you need to do when ‘writing about literature’ or writing about what other people have written within the sphere of your research subject. Then we will decide what you need to do when undertaking ‘self-critical writing’ or writing about your own research project; please fill in the boxes in the right-hand column with answers.

When writing about literature, you need to….

Self-critical writing: when writing about your own research project,

you need to…

State what the authors are aiming to achieve, and whether explicit or implicit

State clearly what you are trying to achieve

Identify the structure (or lack thereof) of the argument, and discuss if it is easy to follow

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Identify any main claims made

Evaluate whether the authors’ claims are supported by appropriate evidence

Assess the backing for any generalisations made

Check how the authors define their key terms and whether they are consistent in using them, (if not, state if this causes any issues)

Discuss what underlying values/agenda may be guiding the authors and influencing their claims

Point out any instances of irrelevant or distracting material, and the absence of any necessary material

Summary

You need to assess the extent to which authors have adequately justified their claims and conclusions – this depends on what they have told you AND your relevant knowledge and experience, and inferences you make

Table adapted from Wallace and Wray (2011)

Activity 1: Assessing text for critical writing features

Read the text below and, with a neighbour or in a small group, answer the questions based on the table above.

In the reading text, the five children who were taught to read using phonics performed better overall than the five children taught using the whole word method. This shows that the phonics method is a better choice for schools.

What the authors are aiming to achieve?

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What is the structure? Is it appropriate? What does it include? What are the main claims? Are the authors’ claims supported by appropriate evidence? Assess the backing for any generalisations made Do the authors define their key terms and do they use them consistently? What underlying or hidden values/agenda may the authors have? Are there any instances of irrelevant or distracting material and what are they, or has any necessary material been left out?

3. Macro-structure of critical writing

Postgraduate dissertations and reports, like other written work, must have a starting point (an introduction), a logically structured argument or debate (via a literature review, and methodological and method discussion), and a finish line (conclusion and recommendations). However, unlike undergraduate work which tends to be linear, i.e. moving from one point to the next to build an argument, postgraduate work does this AND has recurring themes and theories running through the whole piece. This means that whilst undergraduate essays and reports have a simple line of reasoning…

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…postgraduate work has a spiral of reasoning …

If this concept doesn’t work for you, think about your dissertation or report like a building, with your abstract as your foundation and your conclusion as the top floor, with your themes running throughout like lift shafts:

Themes and Theories run throughout

Conclusion

Data, Analysis, Findings, Discussion

Methodology and Methods

Literature Review

Introduction

Abstract

Theme/ theory 1

Theme/

theory 2

Theme/ theory 3

Theme/

theory 4

Theme/ theory 1

Theme/

theory 2

Theme/ theory 3

Theme/

theory 4

Visual adapted from Wisker

(2008)

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4. Micro-structure of critical writing: paragraphs

Before we look in detail at paragraph structure, we will discuss what constitutes an argument. This is because paragraphs help you to build your argument as each makes one in a series of themes. There are two parts to an argument – a conclusion or the claims that are made and its warranting or its justification (evidence) for why the claims should be accepted.

ARGUMENT = CONCLUSION + WARRANTING/JUSTIFICATION So, if you are critically analysing a text, you decide if the author has provided an appropriate warrant or justification (evidence) for coming to his/her conclusion. In the same way, when you are writing critically about your own research, you must ensure you provide the appropriate warrant or provision of evidence for coming to your conclusion. Having an opinion with no supporting evidence is not an argument (Wallace and Wray 2011).

Activity 2: Identifying an appropriate argument

Read the paragraph below and identify the claim and the warrant/justification (evidence), and whether the latter is sufficient to support a point in the overall argument of the authors (space is available after the text). This extract is from a research report into the quality and extent of training experienced by researchers employed on academic research. The participants completed online questionnaires. Fowler, Proctor and Stevens. ‘Mapping the ripples: and evaluation of Teaching and Learning Research Programme’s (TLRP) research capacity building strategy’.

A range of outcomes were valued by research staff. For example, one practitioner researcher commented that “I think that my TLRP experience was very, very positive. It caused me to reflect back on where I was and to accept that I am really happy in FE, that I don’t want to be a lecturer in HE.” Building research capacity is not just about building the next cohort of professors and senior academics, it can also relate to the building of one’s own personal capacity to engage with research and practice.

Claim is? Warrant/justification (evidence) is? Is the warrant/justification/evidence sufficient?

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The paragraph is your main building block to constructing your argument, point by point. A golden rule is:

1 idea: 1 paragraph

Any more than this and your reader could become confused which, in the worst case scenario, could lead to lost marks. You will be glad to hear that creating critical paragraphs is straightforward. There are five elements to constructing your argument ‘block’ and they generally come in the following order:

1. Introduction

2. Explanation and detail necessary

3. The idea in your line of reasoning

4. The evidence which supports your idea and any

further critical analysis of that evidence

5. The conclusory sentence that states the importance/relevance of the idea to the question/brief/problem and/or links forward to the idea ahead.

You might feel that repeating this order will become boring for your supervisor; if you must, change the order of points 2, 3 and 4 but make sure you include all five elements. This is a conventional way of presenting the themes that build up your argument, so your supervisor may be expecting this format. The benefits to you are that he/she can allocate marks easily because they can find your themes easily.

Activity 3: Identifying the 5 points in a paragraph Read the following paragraph and decide whether or not it contains all the five elements in the structure above. Highlight where they are in the text. Sometimes a sentence can do more than one job.

Browning (2005) found that children taught to read using phonics did better in a reading test than children taught using the whole word method. However, the study was small, the test rather limited, and the subjects were not tightly matched either for age or gender. An examination of Browning’s test scores reveals that, although the mean score of the phonics groups was higher, two of the highest scorers in the test were whole word learners. Since this indicates that the whole word method is effective for some learners at least, Browning is perhaps too quick to propose that “the phonics methods is a better choice for schools” (89).

Idea 1

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We will return to this structure later. Sometimes it may be difficult to move directly from one paragraph with a specific theme, i.e. a substantive paragraph, to another as there is no apparent connection between the two. This means you will have to include a bridging paragraph which does what you might expect. It…

Offers a link when there is no easy-to-establish signpost to what is coming up

next

Can be shorter than regular paragraphs

May be descriptive rather than substantive

May still contain citations to reference any material used to establish a new

‘direction’.

If you have used bridging paragraphs in your undergraduate writing, you may find you need them more often at postgraduate level.

5. Micro-structure of critical writing: phraseology

For all the effort you put into structuring your dissertation/report as a whole and developing your argument via paragraphs, you also need to write your sentences using critical phrasing. This means you will write with ‘authority’, and enhance its readability by being more interesting and having a smooth ‘flow’ to your work. One mistake to avoid when evaluating a study is to use adjectives that are ‘comparative’, i.e. you need something else to compare them to. For example…

good excellent poor bad …compared to what? Some appropriate evaluative adjectives to use could be… Comprehensive Detailed Thorough Timely Ground-breaking Limited Small-scale Another issue for students is when to be definitive and when to be tentative. You can use the former when discussing and introducing questions, problems and limitations of theories, methods and/or practices. Some suggestions include…

A major criticism of Smith’s work is that… Smith’s analysis does not take account of X, nor does she examine… One major drawback of this approach is that… However, such explanations tend to overlook that…

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However, you need to be more cautious when…

explaining your results, e.g., A possible explanation for these results may be the lack of adequate…

discussing the implications of your study, e.g., The findings of this study suggest that…

making recommendations for future research, e.g., Strategies to enhance X might involve…

trying to avoid over-generalisation based on your results, e.g., Ozone is toxic to certain types of living organisms.

advising how to interpret your findings, e.g., These findings cannot be extrapolated to all patients.

Extract adapted from Morley (2015)

Activity 4: Creating a critical paragraph Using the space below, write a critical paragraph either on a theme relating to your research project or using the bullet points below, which use the structure provided earlier, and appropriate phrasing. When you have finished, swap with your neighbour so see how they have constructed and worded their paragraph. Do not use the examples from above. If you choose to write about your own project, create bullet points first on the 5 points that will constitute your paragraph before writing it out in full. The fictional dissertation/report deals with the causes of a reduction in applications to HE. The research method involved 250 final year A-level students in Bradford completing on-line questionnaires.

1. HE loan Introduction 2. 1997 student loans introduced; grants still available Additional detail 3. Applications dropped Main theme 4. 40% taking out a loan might affect decision to apply; “worried about being in

debt as soon as I leave university” Evidence 5. Up to you! Conclusion or link to next sentence

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One last tip is not to rely on your readers’ memory: they have a lot to take in and may forget a key point you have made four pages earlier that you now wish to connect with another. So, repeat key points by including summaries in sections or sub-sections.

6. Differences between reporting and discussing results

Being in separate sections will remind you that the styles you use to write up your findings and then discuss them are very different.

Reporting: Finding and Results sections

Discussing: Discussion and/or Conclusion

sections

‘Straight’ presentation of your data Interpretation or analysis of your data, i.e. comment on your data

Supported by visual aids Written only

No connections made to any aspect of research or other topic

Link to research questions and others’ literature

Objective words and phrasing: do not reveal your feelings and attitude towards the topic

Example: 26% reported knowing how to perform emergency procedures, such as mouth-to-mouth resuscitation

Example: This finding shows how unprepared Singaporeans are in emergencies and illustrates that efforts to provide emergency training may need to be improved.

In the discussion section:

make sure it is clear what has been done by you and by others, and the connections and disconnects between them.

there is no need to discuss every finding – just focus on those that are the most salient and interesting.

remember the order you discuss your findings will have an impact on your reader: capture their attention by focusing on the most significant first followed by others that are less important.

do not introduce new findings.

Extract and table adapted from Chan (2015), Journal of Pediatric Psychology (2009) and Learning Support (2009).

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7. An alternative use for sources

Postgraduates use sources in two ways:

as supporting evidence for your argument/s (as we have seen in the paragraph structure above)

AND

as critical discursive points The second of these is when you find a resource that links to your research but acts as a catalyst for you to look into one aspect further. For example, my research was on student engagement with a study skills service. So, finding an article suggesting that students who have a low level of engagement in learning sessions (lectures, tutorials, seminars, etc.) also have a low level of engagement with study skills spurred me to look for other studies connected to this one (I would first look in the bibliography). This then lead to a discussion which might help me to make sense of my results or have an impact on choosing participants.

References

Chan, P. (2015) Reporting research findings. Singapore: National University of Singapore. http://www.nus.edu.sg/celc/research/books/cwtuc/chapter04.pdf Accessed 23 January 2015. Drotar, D. (2009) How to write an effective results and discussion. Journal of Pediatric Psychology. 34 (4) 339-343. http://jpepsy.oxfordjournals.org/content/34/4/339.full Accessed 23 January 2015. Fowler, Z., Proctor, R., and Stevens, M. (2008) Mapping the ripples: An evaluation of TLRP’S research capacity building strategy. Teaching and Learning Research Briefing. Nov. (62) http://www.tlrp.org/pub/documents/fowlerRB62final.pdf Accessed 4 February 2015. Learning Support. (2009) Discuss your findings. Victoria: Monash University. http://www.monash.edu.au/lls/hdr/write/5.9.html Accessed 23 January 2015. Morley, J. (2015) Being cautious. Manchester: University of Manchester. http://www.phrasebank.manchester.ac.uk/using-cautious-language/ Accessed 5 February 2015. Morley, J. (2015) Being critical. Manchester: University of Manchester. http://www.phrasebank.manchester.ac.uk/being-critical/ Accessed 5 February 2015. Student Learning Development. (2015) What is critical writing? Leicester: University of Leicester. http://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/ld/resources/writing/writing-resources/critical-writing Accessed 3 February 2015.

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The Quality Assurance Agency. (2015) Subject benchmark statement: master's degrees in business and management: draft for consultation. Gloucester: The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education. http://www.qaa.ac.uk/en/Publications/Documents/SBS-consultation-masters-business-management.pdf Accessed 3 February 2015. Wallace, M. and Wray, A. (2011) Critical reading and writing for postgraduates. 2nd ed. London: Sage Publications Ltd. Wisker, G. (2008) The postgraduate research handbook. 2nd ed. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Answers

Self-critical writing

When writing about literature Self-critical writing

State what the authors are aiming to achieve, and whether explicit or implicit

State clearly what you are trying to achieve

Identify the structure (or lack thereof) of the argument, and discuss if it is easy to follow

Create a logical structure to help you develop your argument and help the reader follow it

Identify any main claims made Clearly state your main claims

Evaluate whether the authors’ claims are supported by appropriate evidence

Support your claims with appropriate evidence, so that a critical reader (supervisor/marker) will be convinced

Assess the backing for any generalisations made

Avoid making sweeping generalisations

Check how the authors define their key terms and whether they are consistent in using them, (if not, state if this causes any issues)

Define the key terms and use them consistently

Discuss what underlying values/agenda may be guiding the authors and influencing their claims

Make explicit the values/agenda guiding what you write

Point out any instances of irrelevant or distracting material, and the absence of any necessary material

Sustain focus throughout, avoid irrelevancies and digressions, and include everything relevant

Summary

You need to assess the extent to which authors have adequately justified their claims and conclusions – this depends on what they have told you AND your relevant knowledge and experience, and inferences you make

You need to convince your readers to accept your claims through the effective communication of adequate reasons and evidence for these claims

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Activity 1: Assessing text for critical writing features

What the authors are aiming to achieve? To find out which teaching method, phonics or whole world, is best for children in schools

What is the structure? Just methods and conclusion - inadequate

What are the main claims? That phonics is best for all school children

Are the authors’ claims supported by appropriate evidence? No – 10 is not enough children to make such a judgement

Assess the backing for any generalisations made See above

Do the authors define their key terms and do they use them consistently? No, - don’t know what ‘phonics’ or ‘whole word’ teaching systems mean, but they do use the same terms throughout.

What underlying values/agenda may the authors have? Unknown but possibly could be marketing or sales workers for a company producing phonics materials or a teacher who likes this system or…

Are there any instances of irrelevant or distracting material and what are they, or has any necessary material been left out?

No irrelevant or distracting material but a great deal left out, e.g. methodology and methods, what the field’s literature tells us, no analysis of the strengths or limitations of the author’s research, no recommendations for further research, etc.

Activity 2: Identifying an argument Claim is? The final sentence: there is more to building research capacity than just making everyone a top expert; it is also about helping individuals to gauge their own potential and ambitions. Warrant is? The quote where a researcher reveals their research experience resulted in a recognition of the work they wanted to do in the future. Is the warrant sufficient? Yes; a quote is one kind of evidence that can be used in warranting. It is an appropriate form of evidence to use in this instance as it is taken from the questionnaire.

Extract adapted from Wallace and Wray (2011)

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Activity 3: Identifying the 5 points in a paragraph

.

Browning (2005) found that children taught to read using phonics did better in a reading test than children taught using the whole word method. However, the study was small, the test rather limited, and the subjects were not tightly matched either for age or gender. An examination of Browning’s test scores reveals that, although the mean score of the phonics groups was higher, two of the highest scorers in the test were whole word learners. Since this indicates that the whole word method is effective for some learners at least, Browning is perhaps too quick to propose the “the phonics methods is a better choice for schools” (89).

Note that in this case, the beginning of the last sentence is the ‘Theme’ and the second half is the

Conclusion.

Idea

Evidence

Conc

Explanation

Intro