Article Critique

Article Critique Assignment:  Week # Student Name Here Walden University Article Critique Assignment:  Week # Write the APA formatted reference of this article here.  Make sure it is completely APA formatted.  (Make sure you are usin" rel="nofollow">ing the article assigned for the week!!) Introduction Write a one paragraph summary of the article in" rel="nofollow">includin" rel="nofollow">ing why the research was done, what they found, and implications for social change (no more than 1 page). Critique of Article/Research Study In paragraph form, write a 2-3 page critique of the article you were assigned to read for the assignment.  In this section you should consider the items asked in" rel="nofollow">in the directions for the assignment but do not copy and paste the questions in" rel="nofollow">into your paper and answer them one after another.  A critique is not a summary (retellin" rel="nofollow">ing) of the article and what the authors did.  A critique is a combin" rel="nofollow">ination of a short summary of what you are critiquin" rel="nofollow">ing and then a critique of it (Was what they did appropriate?  Why or why not?  What would you have potentially done differently?  Why? Did they follow best research practices?  How do you know?). Here are some of the thin" rel="nofollow">ings you should consider when critiquin" rel="nofollow">ing a research article (do not just copy and paste these questions in" rel="nofollow">into the critique—this is just to give you an idea of what types of thin" rel="nofollow">ings to address—you don’t have to address everythin" rel="nofollow">ing but should have 2-3 pages of critique in" rel="nofollow">in this section—double spaced): Critique of Literature Review •    Was the problem clearly articulated and was ample evidence provided to support the problem bein" rel="nofollow">ing addressed? •    Was the theoretical or conceptual framework present, was its relationship to the present study described, and was it appropriate to the problem bein" rel="nofollow">ing addressed? •    Was the literature cited appropriate to the topic? •    Was the literature primarily from current sources (within" rel="nofollow">in 5 years of the article publication date)? •    Did the author choose citations judiciously, or were did it appear that quantity of citations was emphasized over quality? •    Does the literature review present a clear and non-biased approach to the topic? •    Were the research questions and / or hypotheses clearly stated? Do they logically derive from the literature review? Critique of Methods/Research Design •    Were the participants adequately described in" rel="nofollow">in terms of population, in" rel="nofollow">inclusion and exclusion criteria, and samplin" rel="nofollow">ing strategy? •    Is the sample representative of the population? •    Is there support that the sample size ensures adequate statistical power? •    Was there a statement in" rel="nofollow">indicatin" rel="nofollow">ing that IRB approval was obtain" rel="nofollow">ined? •    Were procedures for protectin" rel="nofollow">ing participant rights in" rel="nofollow">included? •    Were the procedures for executin" rel="nofollow">ing the design carefully described in" rel="nofollow">in a way that you or other scientists could replicate the study? •    Is the role and activity of the researcher in" rel="nofollow">in the data collection settin" rel="nofollow">ing/sites described? •    Were reliability and validity measures of questionnaires, scales, or other measurement in" rel="nofollow">instruments presented? Do measures exhibit adequate reliability and validity? •    Were in" rel="nofollow">instruments used in" rel="nofollow">in populations for which they may not have been normed? Was there effort made to ensure reliability and validity in" rel="nofollow">in the study sample? •    Was the design appropriate to test the hypothesis(es) or address the research questions? •    Was random assignment used? If not, what are the potential flaws to in" rel="nofollow">internal and external validity? Critique of Results Section •    Are the important characteristics of the sample described? •    Are participation rates (and attrition rates in" rel="nofollow">in longitudin" rel="nofollow">inal studies) described? For longitudin" rel="nofollow">inal studies, was differential attrition determin" rel="nofollow">ined? •    Were key descriptive statistics provided for all variables? •    Do the results address the hypotheses under question? •    Are tables and figures used effectively? Were tables not used when they would have been very helpful to the reader? •    Are effect sizes and p-values reported for all in" rel="nofollow">inferential fin" rel="nofollow">indin" rel="nofollow">ings?  Were they appropriate? Critique of Discussion Section •    Are the results discussed in" rel="nofollow">in the context of the research presented in" rel="nofollow">in the literature review section? •    Are methodological limitations adequately addressed? Thin" rel="nofollow">ink in" rel="nofollow">in terms of sample representativeness, generalizability of results, and potential threats to in" rel="nofollow">internal and external validity. •    Are implications for further research described? •    Are implications for practitioners described? •    Is the contribution/significance to the field in" rel="nofollow">in relation to the contin" rel="nofollow">inuum of in" rel="nofollow">inquiry clear? You do not need to cite the article you are critiquin" rel="nofollow">ing but you do need to cite any materials that you use in" rel="nofollow">in critiquin" rel="nofollow">ing the article from other sources.  If you do cite other resources you will need to add an APA formatted reference list on the last page of the paper. Make sure that you are not givin" rel="nofollow">ing non-human thin" rel="nofollow">ings human characteristics in" rel="nofollow">in your paper.  This means thin" rel="nofollow">ings like “this study concluded”.  A study cannot conclude somethin" rel="nofollow">ing but you can say thin" rel="nofollow">ings like “these authors concluded”.  In addition, when you talk about research that has been done in" rel="nofollow">in the past or published materials you need to talk about them in" rel="nofollow">in the past tense. Conclusion In your conclusion write a paragraph about what your overall thoughts about the article were and if you found the article to be useful as well as why or why not. Also in" rel="nofollow">include if you thin" rel="nofollow">ink this article would be helpful to another researcher and why/why not. References Include any references you used in" rel="nofollow">in your paper other than the article you critiqued in" rel="nofollow">in APA format.