Posted: September 17th, 2017

working hard or hardly working

INSTRUCTIONS
Provide a critical evaluation of ONE empirical article, making sure to draw upon the concepts and issues from the class material when it is appropriate. Your critical evaluation of the article should discuss the following:

(a) the method of data collection used and a critical evaluation of how they used this method
(b) the method or methods of data analysis used and your critical evaluation of these methods
(c) the findings presented, and what they mean in plain language

Questions you might want to ask in evaluating the assignment include:

(a) Was the method used by the authors the most appropriate method for studying the phenomena?

(b) Are there any issues of reliability and/or validity?
(c) Does the research identify with a particular social science paradigm? If so, can you suggest how this may affect the author’s interpretation of the results?

(d) Has there been any subsequent research improving on these findings? If so, find ONE good example of research that has attempted to build on the earlier findings, and explain how it does this (Scholars Portal allows you to look up subsequent research that has cited these papers, but I also find Google Scholar can be more current and comprehensive). Regardless, what additional research, methods, and analytical techniques could you suggest to improve the findings?

You are not required to have an elaborate thesis statement. Just clearly introduce in a few sentences what the article is about, the main methodological problems you are going to discuss, why they are important, how others have improved on this research, (if applicable), what sort of improvements you are suggesting, and why.