This critique is to be emailed to Rodger Marion on or before the date specified in the Schedule (Click on the button at the top to go back to the Assignments page where the menu has a link to the Schedule). A sample critique is presented in Step 4. Write your critique with a word processor. Follow the critique outline shown below, and the sample critique in Step 4. Definitions of terms and examples can be found in the Glossary or in The Whole Art of Deduction Chapters 1 through 5.

Once everyone has turned in their practice critiques, we will publish a Reference or "Gold Standard" example critique for you to compare your work against. The web address to this example will be posted on the Notices page.

A sample Reference or Gold Standard critique and the full text of the original article in PDF format for your review and to use as an example.

Critique Outline

• Critiques are submitted as email attachments and must be done using Microsoft Word (if you use another word processing program you are responsible for converting the file to Word format or insuring that the file can be read by your instructors using MS Word). Ten percent will be deducted for critiques turned in late (10% of 30 points). Critiques are due at 6 PM on the date specified in the Schedule. Grading criteria are in Step 4.
• Critiques are to be written following exactly the subheadings below. Identify each section using the words in CAPITAL LETTERS. Do not further sub-divide your paper into sub-headings. You must write complete sentences. This is a report, not an outline.
• Try to limit yourself to two pages.
  1. RESEARCH QUESTION - State the research question.
  2. VARIABLES - Define the variables studied using operational definitions. Your study may not have all types (Independent, dependent, control, extraneous, etc.); just define the ones that are present. Remember operations definitions tell how the variable was used to define groups or how it was measured. You will lose points if you just describe the concept behind the variable. For example: Anxiety is a concept. One possible operational definition of anxiety is a person's score on a self-assessment scale of anxiety. Every study produces a unique operational definition of the variable. You will lose points if you do not provide operational definitions.
  3. HYPOTHESES - Write one hypotheses for each combination of IV and DV defined above. The researchers may or may not have stated hypotheses, but regardless your write your own based on the variables studied.
  4. RESEARCH DESIGN
     • Identify the research design(s) used and provide a diagram of the design(s). Diagrams of designs are found in both the Whole Art of Deduction (WAD), Chapter 5 and in the Research Methods Knowledgebase, Types of Designs.
     • Discuss the validity and reliability of the dependent variable(s).
     • Discuss the internal validity of the study
  5. POPULATION AND SAMPLE
     • Define the population to which the authors expected the study to generalize to and describe how the sample they studied was selected from the population.
     • Discuss the external validity of the study.
  6. DATA GATHERED - Describe the data gathered for each of the experimental groups in terms of the summary information presented, e.g., means, standard deviations, frequencies, percentages. Also, if there are statistical tests, did they indicate if groups were different? . . . if relationships were meaningful?
  7. RESULTS - Discuss the degree to which you feel the data gathered supported or did not support the hypotheses.

Part 2 - Scoring the Practice Critique. Maximum = 30 if emailed on-time and includes all elements of an acceptable critique. Everything must be spelled correctly and composed in correct technical English. There are seven parts to a complete critique (See the outline). If you wrote something about each part, you get full credit. Leave off a part, or part of a part, and you lose 3 points. Example: The section on research design has three components, name and diagram of the research design, validity and reliability of the DVs, and internal validity. You need to have said something about each for full credit. You need not be perfectly correct. Partial credit is awarded as appropriate. Five points will be deducted for glaring errors of English usage (specially watch verb tenses and plurals). Late -10% of 30 points.