Article Critique: General Guidelines
Pick an article from https://www.gangrule.com and critique using the following questions as help.
An analytic or critical review of an article is not primarily a summary; rather, it comments on and evaluates the work in the light of specific issues and theoretical concerns. Keep questions like these in mind as you read, make notes, and write the review.
– What is the specific topic of the article? What overall purpose does it seem to have? For what readership is it written? (Do not overlook facts about the author’s background and the circumstances of the article’s creation and publication.)
– Does the author state an explicit thesis? Does he or she noticeably have an axe to grind? What are the theoretical assumptions? Are they discussed explicitly? (Again, look for statements in the introduction and follow them up in the rest of the work.)
– What exactly does the work contribute to the overall topic? What general problems and concepts in criminal justice and organized crime/victimless crimes does it engage with?
– What kinds of material does the work present (e.g., primary documents or secondary material, literary analysis, personal observation, quantitative data, biographical or historical accounts)?
– How is this material used to demonstrate and argue the thesis? (As well as indicating the overall structure of the work, your review could quote or summarize specific passages to show the characteristics of the author’s presentation, including writing style and tone.)
– Are there alternative ways of arguing from the same material? Does the author show awareness of them? In what respects does the author agree or disagree?
– What theoretical/practical issues and topics for further discussion does the work raise?
– What are your own reactions and considered opinions regarding the work?
– Some reviews summarize the article’s content and then evaluate it; others integrate these
functions, commenting on the article and using summary only to give examples. Choose
the method that seems most suitable.
To keep your focus, remind yourself that your assignment is primarily to discuss the
article’s treatment of its topic, not the topic itself. Your key sentences should therefore
say: “This articleshows…the author argues” rather than “This happened…this is the
case.”
