Critical Reading & Thoughtful (Communal) Engagement

In order to write effectively in psychology, you need to learn to read critically and to observe how professional psychologists present their research to peers.

Once you have determined that the sources you are reading are solid and worth using (which is quite a challenge in and of itself), your quest becomes the articulation of a research question or working hypothesis that will guide the writing you do subsequently to your reading.

It definitely takes a certain amount of skill to be able to look at a journal article and pick it apart in order to determine things like the significance of the results and/or the soundness of the methodology. That said, it takes all the more skill to be able to take the ideas found in one or more journal articles and turn them into your own words, your own understandings, and your own synthesis of the works engaged.

But skill is not enough. You also need honest and timely feedback from others (e.g., your peers, your instructor, etc.).

Effective writing is done in community, meaning that it is not done in isolation. From start to finish, the more you include the careful scrutiny of your writing by others, the better off you and your writing will be.

For M1: Assignment 3 select one peer-reviewed article related to be your focal/research question.

When you have chosen your article, write a review/critique of the study.

Your review should include the following:

• The main topic and focus or thesis of the journal article.
• The argument the author is making and its relevance to the focal/research question.
• The type of article—published, original research, meta-analysis, or reflection piece.
• The key findings of the study.
• Your opinion about the merits of the study, including future points of interest or research.

Your review should be approximately 100-150 words in length, should contain proper grammar and spelling, and should follow APA format regarding structure (e.g., title page and references page) and citation of sources.

Submit it to the M1: Assignment 3 Dropbox by Wednesday, May 28, 2014.