Reading critically, and writing using critical techniques, are crucial skills you need to apply to your academic work. Practical and engaging, Critical Reading and Writing for Postgraduates is bursting with tools for analysing texts and structuring critical reviews, helping you to gradually build your skills beyond undergraduate level and gain confidence in your ability to critically read and write.
New to this 3rd edition:
Introduces a technique for developing critical thinking skills by interrogating paper abstracts
Additional diagrams, exercises and concept explanations, enabling you to more easily understand and apply the various approaches
A glossary, to help with understanding of key terms.
Also new for this edition, a Companion Website provides additional resources to help you apply the critical techniques you learn. From templates and checklists, access to SAGE journal articles and additional case studies, these free resources will make sure you successfully master advanced critical skills.
If you need to engage with published (or unpublished) literature such as essays, dissertations or theses, research papers or oral presentations, this proven guide helps you develop a reflective and advanced critical approach to your research and writing.
The Student Success series are essential guides for students of all levels. From how to think critically and write great essays to planning your dream career, the Student Success series helps you study smarter and get the best from your time at university. Visit the SAGE Study Skills hub for tips and resources for study success!
Critical Reading and Writing for Postgraduates
Description
Table of Contents
Becoming a Critical Reader and Self-Critical Writer
What it Means to Be Critical
Making a Critical Choice
A First Look: Interrogating Abstracts
Getting Started on Critical Reading
Getting Started on Self-Critical Writing
Creating a Comparative Critical Summary
Developing an In-Depth Analysis
A Mental Map for Navigating the Literature
Tools for Thinking and Ways of Thinking
Reasons for Conducting the Research
Knowledge Claims and their Key Characteristics
Developing a Critical Analysis of a Text
A Worked Example of a Critical Analysis
Developing your Argument in Writing a Critical Review of a Text
Putting your Critical Reviews to Work
Focusing and Building up your Critical Literature Review
Integrating Critical Literature Reviews into your Dissertation
Critical Literature Reviews in Alternative Dissertation Structures
Tools for Structuring a Dissertation
Using the Literature in Research Papers and Oral Presentations
Author Description
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 Council’s 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).