Critical Reading and Writing for Postgraduates

Mike Wallace, Alison Wray

SAGE, Apr 30, 2016 - Language Arts & Disciplines - 296 pages

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If you need to engage with published (or unpublished) literature such as essays, dissertations or theses, research papers or oral presentations, this proven guide helps you develop a reflective and advanced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!

Contents

• CHAPTER 1 WHAT IT MEANS TO BE CRITICAL: 3
• CHAPTER 2 MAKING A CRITICAL CHOICE: 14
• INTERROGATING ABSTRACTS: 28
• CHAPTER 4 GETTING STARTED ON CRITICAL READING: 34
• CHAPTER 5 GETTING STARTED ON SELFCRITICAL WRITING: 51
• CHAPTER 6 CREATING A COMPARATIVE CRITICAL SUMMARY: 61
• PART TWO DEVELOPING AN INDEPTH ANALYSIS: 73
• CHAPTER 7 A MENTAL MAP FOR NAVIGATING THE LITERATURE: 75
• CHAPTER 8 TOOLS FOR THINKING AND WAYS OF THINKING: 84
• CHAPTER 9 REASONS FOR CONDUCTING THE RESEARCH: 99
• CHAPTER 10 KNOWLEDGE CLAIMS AND THEIR KEY CHARACTERISTICS: 106
• CHAPTER 11 DEVELOPING A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF A TEXT: 123
• CHAPTER 12 A WORKED EXAMPLE OF A CRITICAL ANALYSIS: 133
• CHAPTER 13 DEVELOPING YOUR ARGUMENT IN WRITING A CRITICAL REVIEW OF A TEXT: 150
• PART THREE PUTTING YOUR CRITICAL REVIEWS TO WORK: 163
• CHAPTER 14 FOCUSING AND BUILDING UP YOUR CRITICAL LITERATURE REVIEW: 165
• CHAPTER 15 INTEGRATING CRITICAL LITERATURE REVIEWS INTO YOUR DISSERTATION: 182
• CHAPTER 16 CRITICAL LITERATURE REVIEWS IN ALTERNATIVE DISSERTATION STRUCTURES: 203
• CHAPTER 17 TOOLS FOR STRUCTURING A DISSERTATION: 214
• CHAPTER 18 USING THE LITERATURE IN RESEARCH PAPERS AND ORAL PRESENTATIONS: 232
• GLOSSARY: 244
• ABRIDGED ARTICLE ONE WORD OR TWO? WRAY AND STACZEK 2005: 250
• ABRIDGED ARTICLE SHARING LEADERSHIP OF SCHOOLS THROUGH TEAMWORK WALLACE 2001: 261
• INDEX: 276

About the author

Mike Wallace is a Professor of Public Management at Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University. He is an Associate Director of the Advanced Institute of Management Research (AIM), responsible for research capacity building in the management field. He is also the Economic and Social Research Council's Strategic Adviser for Researcher Development. Mike is series editor of the Sage Learning to Read Critically series of books. His own research on managing change in the public services is reported in many books and academic journals. 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 is into dementia communication. 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).

Bibliographic information

• Title: Critical Reading and Writing for Postgraduates; Student Success
• Authors: Mike Wallace, Alison Wray
• Edition: 3, unabridged
• Publisher: SAGE, 2016
• ISBN: 1473968046, 9781473968042
• Length: 296 pages
• Subjects: Education / Essays; Language Arts & Disciplines / Writing / Academic & Scholarly; Study Aids / Study & Test-Taking Skills; Study Aids / Study Guides