Critical Review Assignment

Mgmt 650: Statistics for Managerial Decision Making

Critical Review Assignment

Below is the Critique Assignment for this semester of MGMT 650.  Much of this material was originally written by Dr. Traci Allotey for her MGMT 650 class and has been cut and pasted into this section. 

Classroom instructors will provide students with the choice of articles for this assignment.  This is not a group project and it must be done independently.  All critiques must be submitted to Turnitin and the Turnitin results provided when you submit the assignment to the grade book.  No Critique will be graded that has a Turnitin score greater than 25%.  Read through this outline carefully.  When your instructor grades your submission, they will be looking to see if you followed the provided format: you can lose points if you do not.  If you have any questions about what to do or need interpretation of the instruction, please post them in the Tutoring Conference breakout room so that all students can benefit from the information.  Mastery of statistics involves not only the ability to generate sound statistical data, but also the ability to critically evaluate the statistical analysis of others.  The latter is the focus of the Critical Review assignment in MGMT 650.  A review, or critique, is not a summary or a simple retelling of the major findings in a research article.  It is much more.  It assesses how well the researcher carries out the required steps in the research process.

 Article 

To be assigned by Instructor 

Elements of the critique 

 Summary of the article (Discuss what the article is about)

• Research Topic
  • What question is the researcher trying to answer?
• Research Methodology
  • How did the researcher study the topic?  Survey?  Experiment?  Statistical Analysis?  Briefly answer who, what, where, and when, and how.
• Major Conclusions
  • What does the author conclude? What recommendations does he make?

This section should not be very long, one page at most.  Remember that the primary purpose of the critique is not to summarize the paper, but rather, to give an assessment of how well the research was conducted.

In-depth critique of the article (Discuss how well the research is conducted)   

Write a brief paragraph for each of the following listed elements:

• Purpose
  • Is the research problem clearly stated?  Is it easy to determine what the researcher intends to research? 
• Literature Review
  • Is the review logically organized?  Does it offer a balanced critical analysis of the literature?  Is the majority of the literature of recent origin?  Is it empirical in nature?
• Objectives/hypotheses
  • Has a research question or hypothesis been identified?  Is it clearly stated?  Is it consistent with discussion in the literature review?
• Ethical Standards Applied
  • Were the participants fully informed about the nature of the research?  Was confidentiality guaranteed?  Were participants protected from harm? 
• Operational Definitions
  • Are all terms, theories, and concepts used in the study clearly defined?
• Methodology
  • Is the research design clearly identified? Has the data gathering instrument been described? Is the instrument appropriate? How was it developed? Were reliability and validity testing undertaken and the results discussed? Was a pilot study undertaken?
• Data Analysis/Results
  • What type of data and statistical analysis was undertaken? Was it appropriate? How many of the sample participated? Significance of the findings?
• Discussion
  • Are the findings linked back to the literature review? If a hypothesis was identified was it supported?  Were the strengths and limitations of the study including generalizability discussed?  Was a recommendation for further research made?
• References
  • Were all the books, journals and other media alluded to in the study accurately referenced?
• Conclusion
  • Considering all of the evaluation categories, is the article well or poorly researched?

The following online article may be helpful to you.  Step-by-step guide to critiquing research. Part 1: quantitative research 

http://lancashirecare.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/step-by-step-guide-to-criti-research-part-1-quantitative-reseawrch.pdf

 Layout of your paper and other writing requirements 

Your final report should be organized in the following format:

• Title page
  • Include name and author of article you critique
  • Include your name and MGMT 650 section number
  • Include your Turnitin score

• Brief summary of article

• In-depth critique of article
• Bibliography

Follow these additional writing requirements:

• Submit your paper as a Word document.  No PDF files.
• Double-space
• Use 12 point Times New Roman font and 1 inch margins
• Use section headings to identify the different components of your discussion
• Number all pages after the title page
• Use APA format for citations and bibliography
• Do not use quotes from the article, paraphrase
• Keep the tone formal – write like a researcher.   Avoid the use of first person pronouns such as I, we, me, us, etc.
• Check for spelling, punctuation and grammatical errors
• Keep your paper to 3-5 pages, not including the title page
• Submit to Turnitin.  You must have a similarity score less than 25%.
• When submitting to LEO, incorporate your name in the filename that you use.  For example, Smith_critique.docx
• Normal late penalties apply