Academic writing: Writing critically

Learn how to show critical analysis in academic writing and write critically.

Critical analysis
Writing critically
Writing a critique (or critical review)

Critical analysis

What does the term “critical analysis” mean in the context of academic writing? Showing critical analysis in academic writing could mean:

Demonstrating your understanding of reading/evidence (“this appears to demonstrate that…”; “this implies…”; “this could result in…”).
Showing reasoning and conclusions from your reading/reflections (“therefore…”; “as such…”).
Considering questions such as “why”, “what if” and “so what”.
Showing you understand how different ideas/evidence/perspectives relate to each other (“this is linked to Smith's concept of X…”; Building on Jones (2012), Green (2016) suggests…”).
Demonstrating an understanding of how theories or research apply in your practice/context.
Identifying possible limitations of research/theory and how these relate to your own arguments or own context (“in the context of international development…”; “in terms of learning in the Science classroom…”).
Identifying how something could be interpreted or done differently (in relation to your reading and/or practice).

Writing critically

Criticality?

If you have been told your writing is not critical enough, it probably means that your writing treats the knowledge claims as if they are true, well-supported, and applicable in the context you are writing about. This may not always be the case.

In these two examples, the extracts refer to the same section of text. In each example, the section that refers to a source has been highlighted in bold. The note below the example then explains how the writer has used the source material.

Example a: "There is a strong positive effect on students, both educationally and emotionally, when the instructors try to learn to say students' names without making pronunciation errors (Kiang, 2004)". This is a simple paraphrase with no critical comment. It looks like the writer agrees with Kiang. This is not a good example of critical writing, as the writer has not made any critical comment.

Example b: "Kiang (2004) gives various examples to support his claim that 'the positive emotional and educational impact on students is clear' (p.210) when instructors try to pronounce students' names in the correct way. He quotes one student, Nguyet, as saying that he 'felt surprised and happy' (p.211) when the tutor said his name clearly. The emotional effect claimed by Kiang is illustrated in quotes such as these, although the educational impact is supported more indirectly through the chapter. Overall, he provides more examples of students being negatively affected by incorrect pronunciation, and it is difficult to find examples within the text of a positive educational impact as such". The writer describes Kiang's (2004) claim and the examples which he uses to try to support it. The writer then comments that the examples do not seem balanced and may not be enough to support the claims fully. This is a better example of writing which expresses criticality.

Writing a critique (or critical review)

A critique (or critical review) is not to be mistaken for a literature review. A “critical review”, or “critique”, is a complete type of text (or genre), discussing one particular article or book in detail. In some instances, you may be asked to write a critique of two or three articles (e.g. a comparative critical review). In contrast, a “literature review”, which also needs to be “critical”, is a part of a larger type of text, such as a chapter of your dissertation. Most importantly: read your article/book as many times as possible, as this will make the critical review much easier.

Read and take notes

To improve your reading confidence and efficiency, visit our pages on reading. After you are familiar with the text, make notes on some of the following questions.

Choose the questions which seem suitable:

What kind of article is it (for example does it present data or does it present purely theoretical arguments)?
What is the main area under discussion?
What are the main findings?
What are the stated limitations?
Where does the author's data and evidence come from? Are they appropriate/sufficient?
What are the main issues raised by the author?
What questions are raised?
How well are these questions addressed?
What are the major points/interpretations made by the author in terms of the issues raised?
Is the text balanced? Is it fair/biased?
Does the author contradict herself?
How does all this relate to other literature on this topic?
How does all this relate to your own experience, ideas and views?
What else has this author written? Do these build/complement this text?
(Optional) Has anyone else reviewed this article? What did they say? Do I agree with them?

Organise your writing

Summary

You first need to summarise the text that you have read. One reason to summarise the text is that the reader may not have read the text.

In your summary, you will:

Focus on points within the article that you think are interesting.
Summarise the author(s) main ideas or argument.
Explain how these ideas/argument have been constructed. For example, is the author basing her arguments on data that they have collected? Are the main ideas/argument purely theoretical?

In your summary you might answer the following questions:

Why is this topic important?
Where can this text be located? For example, does it address policy studies?
What other prominent authors also write about this?

Evaluation

Evaluation is the most important part in a critical review. Use the literature to support your views. You may also use your knowledge of conducting research, and your own experience. Evaluation can be explicit or implicit.

Explicit evaluation

Explicit evaluation involves stating directly (explicitly) how you intend to evaluate the text, e.g. "I will review this article by focusing on the following questions. First, I will examine the extent to which the authors contribute to current thought on Second Language Acquisition (SLA) pedagogy. After that, I will analyse whether the authors' propositions are feasible within overseas SLA classrooms."

Implicit evaluation

Implicit evaluation is less direct. The following section on Linguistic features of writing a critical review contains language that evaluates the text. A difficult part of the evaluation of a published text (and a professional author) is how to do this as a student. There is nothing wrong with making your position as a student explicit and incorporating it into your evaluation. Examples of how you might do this can be found in the section on Linguistic features of writing a critical review. You need to remember to locate and analyse the author's argument when you are writing your critical review. For example, you need to locate the authors' view of classroom pedagogy as presented in the book/article and not present a critique of views of classroom pedagogy in general.

Linguistic features of a critical review

The following examples come from published critical reviews. Some of them have been adapted for student use.

This article/book is divided into two/three parts. First...
While the title might suggest...
The tone appears to be...
[Title] is the first/second volume in the series [Title], edited by... The books/articles in this series address...
The second/third claim is based on...
The author challenges the notion that...
The author tries to find a more middle ground/make more modest claims...
The article/book begins with a short historical overview of...
Numerous authors have recently suggested that... (see [Author, Year]; [Author, Year]). [Author] would also be one such author. With his/her argument that...
To refer to [Title] as a... is not to say that it is...
This book/article is aimed at... This intended readership...
The author's book/article examines the... To do this, the author first...
The author develops/suggests a theoretical/pedagogical model to…
This book/article positions itself firmly within the field of...
The author in a series of subtle arguments, indicates that he/she...
The argument is therefore...
The author asks "..."
With a purely critical/postmodern take on...
[Topic], as the author points out, can be viewed as...
In this recent contribution to the field of... this British author...
As a leading author in the field of...
This book/article nicely contributes to the field of... and complements other work by this author...
The second/third part of... provides/questions/asks the reader...
[Title] is intended to encourage students/researchers to...
The approach taken by the author provides the opportunity to examine... in a qualitative/quantitative research framework that nicely complements...
The author notes/claims that state support/a focus on pedagogy/the adoption of...remains vital if...
According to [Author, Year] teaching towards examinations is not as effective as it is in other areas of the curriculum. This is because, as [Author, Year] claims that examinations have undue status within the curriculum.
According to [Author, Year]… is not as effective in some areas of the curriculum/syllabus as others. Therefore, the author believes that this is a reason for some schools…

This argument is not entirely convincing, as...furthermore it commodifies/rationalises the...
Over the last five/10 years the view of... has increasingly been viewed as “complicated” (see [Author, Year]; [Author, Year]).
However, through trying to integrate... with... the author...
There are difficulties with such a position.
Inevitably, several crucial questions are left unanswered/glossed over by this insightful/timely/interesting/stimulating book/article. Why should...
It might have been more relevant for the author to have written this book/article as...
This article/book is not without disappointment from those who would view... as...
This chosen framework enlightens/clouds...
This analysis intends to be... but falls a little short as...
The authors rightly conclude that if...
A detailed, well-written and rigorous account of...
As a Korean student I feel that this article/book very clearly illustrates...
The beginning of... provides an informative overview of...
The tables/figures do little to help/greatly help the reader...
The reaction by scholars who take a... approach might not be so favourable (e.g. Author, Year).
This explanation has a few weaknesses that other researchers have pointed out (see [Author, Year]; [Author, Year]). The first is...
On the other hand, the author wisely suggests/proposes that... By combining these two dimensions...
The author's brief introduction to... may leave the intended reader confused as it fails to properly...
Despite my inability to... I was greatly interested in...
Even where this reader/I disagree(s), the author's effort to...
The author thus combines... with... to argue... which seems quite improbable for a number of reasons. First...
Perhaps this aversion to... would explain the author's reluctance to...
As a second language student from ... I find it slightly ironic that such an Anglo-centric view is...
The reader is rewarded with...
Less convincing is the broad-sweeping generalisation that...
There is no denying the author's subject knowledge nor his/her...
The author's prose is dense and littered with unnecessary jargon...
The author's critique of...might seem harsh but is well supported within the literature (see [Author, Year]; [Author, Year]; [Author, Year]). Aligning herself with the author, [Author, Year] states that...
As it stands, the central focus of [Title] is well/poorly supported by its empirical findings...
Given the hesitation to generalise to... the limitation of... does not seem problematic...
For instance, the term... is never properly defined and the reader is left to guess as to whether...
Furthermore, to label... as... inadvertently misguides...
In addition, this research proves to be timely/especially significant to... as recent government policy/proposals has/have been enacted to...
On this well-researched/documented basis the author emphasises/proposes that...
Nonetheless, other research/scholarship/data tend to counter/contradict this possible trend/assumption... (see [Author, Year]; [Author, Year]).
Without entering into details of the..., it should be stated that [Title] should be read by... others will see little value in...
As experimental conditions were not used in the study the word “significant” misleads the reader.
The article/book becomes repetitious in its assertion that...
The thread of the author's argument becomes lost in an overuse of empirical data...
Almost every argument presented in the final section is largely derivative, providing little to say about...
She/he does not seem to take into consideration; however, that there are fundamental differences in the conditions of…
As [Author, Year] points out, however, it seems to be necessary to look at…
This suggests that having low… does not necessarily indicate that… is ineffective.
Therefore, the suggestion made by [Author, Year]… is difficult to support.
When considering all the data presented… it is not clear that the low scores of some students, indeed, reflect…

Overall, this article/book is an analytical look at... which within the field of... is often overlooked.
Despite its problems, [Title] offers valuable theoretical insights/interesting examples/a contribution to pedagogy and a starting point for students/researchers of... with an interest in...
This detailed and rigorously argued...
This first/second volume/book/article by... with an interest in... is highly informative...

An important note

We recommend that you do not search for other university guidelines on critical reviews. This is because the expectations may be different at other institutions. Ask your tutor for more guidance or examples if you have further questions.