Journal Article Title: Nascimento, D. (2015) One step forward, two steps back? Humanitarian Challenges and Dilemmas in Crisis Settings, Journal of Humanitarian Assistance.
Text Critique (1000 words) including Bibliography and Referenced
For the first assessment students are required to write a 1000-word critical review of a text. The text should be a journal article, book or book chapter chosen from the additional readings list. A critical review is much more than a simple summary; it is an analysis and evaluation of a book, article, or other medium.
Writing a good critical review requires that you understand the material, and that you know how to analyze and evaluate that material using appropriate criteria. Students should carefully review the ‘Tips for Writing a Critical Text Review’
The Structure required as follows:
1- Introduction (150 words)
The length of an introduction is usually one paragraph for a journal article review and two or three paragraphs for a longer book review. Include a few opening sentences that announce the author(s) and the title, and briefly explain the topic of the text. Present the aim of the text and summarise the main finding or key argument.
Conclude the introduction with a brief statement of your evaluation of the text.
This can be a positive or negative evaluation or, as is usually the case, a mixed response.
2- Summary
Present a summary of the key points along with a limited number of examples. Briefly explain the author’s purpose/intentions throughout the text and you may briefly describe how the text is organized.
The summary should only make up about a third of the critical review
3- Text Assessment Critique (Evaluation and Analysis of the Journal Article attached)
The critique should be a balanced discussion and evaluation of the strengths, weakness and notable features of the text. Remember to base your discussion on specific criteria. Good reviews also include other sources to support your evaluation (remember to reference). You can choose how to sequence your critique.
Here are some examples to get you started:
• Most important to least important conclusions you make about the text.
• If your critique is more positive than negative, then present the negative points first and the positive last.
• If your critique is more negative than positive, then present the positive points first and the negative last.
• If there are both strengths and weakness for each criterion you use, you need to decide overall what your judgement is.
For example, you may want to comment on a key idea in the text and have both positive and negative comments.
You could begin by stating what is good about the idea and then concede and explain how it is limited in some way. While this example shows a mixed evaluation, overall, you are probably being more negative than positive.
• In long reviews, you can address each criterion you choose in a paragraph, including both negative and positive points. For very short critical reviews (one page or less), where your comments will be briefer, include a paragraph of positive aspects and another of negative.
• You can also include recommendations for how the text can be improved in terms of ideas, research approach; theories or frameworks used can also be included in the critique section.
4- Conclusion
This is usually a very short paragraph.
You should:
• Restate your overall opinion of the text.
• Briefly present recommendations.
• If necessary, some further qualification or explanation of your judgement can be included. This can help your critique sound fair and reasonable.
Bibliography and references (6-10 sources) to be used. (Harvard Reference Style)
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