A Detailed Guide to Critique A Qualitative Research Article

Alex Hales

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qualitative research article

Like appraising qualitative research, critiquing a qualitative research article is also a way to examine the quality of information present in a scholarly document. As per the oxford dictionary, the literal meaning of the word ‘critique’ refers to the method of detailed analysis and assessment of a process, event, or document, especially to find the flaws. Broadly, it is the method of discussing someone else’s work to highlight both the good and bad about it. Literally, when it comes to qualitative research, critique refers to the final assessment made in the light of philosophy or political theory. In this article, we will discuss the ways to critique a qualitative research article.

Critiquing a qualitative research article- A brief introduction:

Critiquing a qualitative research article is simply the art of practising criticism. Moreover, qualitative and quantitative research both exhibit an entirely different picture of research; thus, even while critiquing, they must not be treated likewise. Qualitative research articles are usually considered a bit more difficult to critique as compared to quantitative studies. The most probable reason behind it is the subjective nature of responses, questionnaires, and opinions gathered in the former one. Sometimes, a written piece of information does not convey the message that you conceive, thus, imposing a number of challenges in the critique of qualitative research. However, it is only difficult, not impossible. The following is a brief but practical guide that you can follow to make your critique a bit easier.

Browse the abstract of an article:

The abstract of an article is the first thing to consider when you are aiming to critique a research article, either qualitative or quantitative. The abstract presents the big picture showing all essential elements together. In qualitative studies, abstracts help you get the essence of a study, and you can directly jump onto the results to make a judgment.

Recall the objectives of your qualitative research:

To critique someone else’s work, especially scholarly, it is important that you have previously gathered all basic information to understand it. Sample size, methods, and even scope of the study are some points that the majority of the researcher raises during critique. If you are planning to adopt a similar trend, you must first be very clear about your research objective.

Try to conceive the exact meaning of the author:

What an author really wants to discuss is the main point that imposes challenges in critiquing scholarly research or qualitative research article. The moment you miss the point or fail to understand what an author actually means, you become biased in knowing the bad or good about a study. Thus, critiquing a scholarly work is one of the academic tasks that demand researchers be very wise while interpreting qualitative data. Thereby, at this point in time, you must focus on the written sentences and words or phrases a writer used in a research article.

Make a thesis statement:

Even if you are not a good reader, you can also make notes to find your thesis statement. Like all other academic writing tasks, making a thesis statement is also crucial to critique a qualitative research article. In the thesis, the only task is to decide something bad or good about the information you have just read.

Decide the strengths and weaknesses:

In literary tasks, critiquing is not the only task to show the dark side. However, your efforts will be more appreciated if you try to develop a balanced argument showing both sides of the picture. For this, you must first make a list of strengths and weaknesses. In this way, you can eliminate all potential chances of interpreting biased results.

Mastering a critiquing process by following the above-mentioned steps is not a difficult thing to do. After following each step, you will find yourself closer to your final destination. Still, if you need guidance for your specific research project, you must use your gadgets to pave your path.

Final thoughts:

Criticism, though, seems hard to face, but it aims to suggest improvements in whatever already exists. In literature or research, it also helps the researcher to make decisions based on quality. It asks researchers not to accept what others have said; rather, they can challenge anything that seems unethical or invalid. Thus, this article has described all the important steps that can help you in critiquing a qualitative research article.

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