Template for Autumn Term Critical Interrogation of two published texts

(you may customise this for your responses)

Basic Information
 Give the full details of each item, as it would appear in a bibliography.
Authorship and Context
 Where does this piece of research fit in the author’s body of work?
 Do they appear to be authoritative in this area? You might need to use search
engines to ascertain this.
 Is this piece of writing typical of their work? Is it recent or an earlier example?
 Does this example build on other research they have completed? What other main
authors are cited/mentioned?
 Does the writer clearly outline their position in relation to existing work in this
area?
 What gaps in existing research does it fill?
Audience
 Who do you think is the intended audience for this piece of writing (general
reader, informed reader, specialist)?
 How can you tell to whom the writing is directed?
Rationale
 What is the purpose of the article? Is it to persuade, to inform, to challenge, to
report or a combination of these?
Research question/s
 What is the author’s main thesis or research question/s?
 Has the author successfully answered and shed light on this?
Methodology
 What approach or method does the author use? Is it appropriate?
 What kind of evidence is used in support of this?
Originality
 Is the work original?
 Are claims of originality justified? What evidence supports this?
Structure
 How has the writing been structured (introduction, context, thesis, claims,
evidence, conclusion)?
 Is the narrative clear?
Limitations
 What limitations of this writing are identified?
 What limitations have not been identified?
 Does the writer exhibit any obvious bias or make any assumptions? What are
these?
Strengths and weaknesses
 What are the strengths in the author’s argument?
 Are there any gaps, weaknesses or assumptions made? You may be aware of
these through you own practice and/or research.
Response
 What is your opinion on the issues discussed in the article?
Citation
 Choose a short passage of less than 20 words and present it as a footnote.