A systematic, coherent approach to developing critical reading and writing skills that are applicable to a range of different levels of analysis and types of reading and writing tasks. The authors are to be commended for the clarity of their writing and the way scaffolded advice and tasks are integrated into the text. The book could form the core text for a course on critical reading and writing and a useful reference tool for the academic recently entered upon writing for publication. - Educate Journal
A very clear, accessible introduction
that will be invaluable to
postgraduate students trying to
engage with reading and writing in a
critical way - R.M. Lee, Professor of Social Research Methods, Royal Holloway University of London
This guide to critical reading and self-critical writing is a must-have resource for postgraduate students and early-career academics. Packed with tools for analysing texts and structuring critical reviews, and incorporating exercises and worked examples drawn from the social sciences, the book offers step-by-step advice on how to:
" read any text critically and analyse it in the depth appropriate to ones project
" develop a self-critical approach to ones own academic writing
" ask questions in order to evaluate authors arguments
" keep a review manageable by using focused review questions
" structure a comparative review of multiple texts
" build up a convincing argument
" integrate critical literature reviews into a dissertation or thesis
" make the transition from postgraduate to professional academic writer
Essential reading for novice researchers, the book will also be invaluable for supervisors, methods course tutors, and academic mentors who teach and support the development of critical reading and self-critical writing skills.
Recenzijas
A very clear, accessible introduction that will be invaluable to
postgraduate students trying to
engage with reading and writing in a
critical way - R.M. Lee, Professor of Social Research Methods, Royal Holloway University of London
| How to use this book |
|
vii | |
| Author biographies |
|
xi | |
| Acknowledgements |
|
xiii | |
|
Part One: Becoming a critical reader and self-critical writer |
|
|
1 | (58) |
|
What it Means to be Critical |
|
|
3 | (12) |
|
|
|
15 | (11) |
|
Getting Started on Critical Reading |
|
|
26 | (13) |
|
Getting Started on Self-Critical Writing |
|
|
39 | (9) |
|
Creating a Comparative Critical Summary |
|
|
48 | (11) |
|
Part Two: Developing an in-depth analysis |
|
|
59 | (68) |
|
A Mental Map for Exploring the Literature |
|
|
61 | (10) |
|
Components of your Mental Map |
|
|
71 | (20) |
|
Developing a Critical Analysis of a Text |
|
|
91 | (9) |
|
A Worked Example of a Critical Analysis |
|
|
100 | (15) |
|
Developing your Argument in Writing a Critical Review of a Text |
|
|
115 | (12) |
|
Part Three: Constructing a critical review of the literature |
|
|
127 | (56) |
|
Focusing and Building up your Critical Literature Review |
|
|
129 | (18) |
|
Integrating Critical Literature Reviews into your Dissertation |
|
|
147 | (19) |
|
Tools for Structuring a Dissertation |
|
|
166 | (11) |
|
Building your Academic Career on Critical Reading and Self-Critical Writing |
|
|
177 | (6) |
|
|
|
183 | (39) |
|
Abridged article: `One word or two?' (Wray and Staczek) |
|
|
185 | (10) |
|
Abridged article: `Sharing leadership through teamwork' (Wallace) |
|
|
195 | (14) |
|
Blank form for the Critical Analysis of a text |
|
|
209 | (10) |
|
Checklist: developing a logical overall argument in a dissertation |
|
|
219 | (3) |
| Index |
|
222 | |
Mike Wallace is a Professor of Public Management at Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University, where he teaches postgraduate courses on research methods. He was formerly an Associate Director of the Advanced Institute of Management Research (AIM), responsible for research capacity building in the management field, and also the Economic and Social Research Councils Strategic Adviser for Researcher Development. His research on managing change in the public services is reported in many books and academic journals. Most recently, he is lead author of a major monograph Developing Public Service Leaders: Elite Orchestration, Change Agency, Leaderism and Neoliberalization (Oxford University Press 2023). He is co-author of Critical Reading and Writing for Postgraduates (4th edition 2021). Alison Wray is a Research Professor of Language and Communication at Cardiff University. Her research concerns the modelling of lexical storage and processing, particularly in relation to formulaic phrases, and it has been applied to language learning, evolution of language and language disability. Her two monographs Formulaic Language and the Lexicon (Cambridge University Press, 2002) and Formulaic Language: Pushing the Boundaries (Oxford University Press, 2008) are internationally acclaimed. Her current research focusses on dementia communication. Her 2020 book The Dynamics of Dementia Communication won the 2021 book prize of the British Association for Applied Linguistics and came second in the biennial book award of the American Association for Applied Linguistics. She has also published Why Dementia Makes Communication Difficult: A Guide to Better Outcomes (2021), aimed at people with dementia, their families and carers. She has a longstanding commitment to researcher training, including the developing of academic expertise. She is lead author of the popular undergraduate research methods textbook Projects in Linguistics (Hodder, 2012) and co-author of Critical Reading and Writing for Postgraduates (4th edition 2021).
