The purpose of an article critique is to provide students an opportunity to conduct a thorough review of an empirical article related to the topic identified in the Topic Selection assignment (such as the occurrence of sexual abuse among homeless adolescents). 

Select two empirical articles (one quantitative & one qualitative) from one or more professional journals available through MU’s Libraries, and different from the articles included in the Topic Selection assignment part 1. 

 For each article critique, students will provide a piece of writing, which can be written in 1st person (cover page, 2-3 pages of text, & reference list) addressing the following information: 

• Problem or theory – summarize your response to the following questions:
  • What specifically is the problem being examined in the study?
  • Why is it important and how is it a problem?
  • If a theory is being tested, what is it and why is it relevant?
  • What is the hypothesis of the study?
• Literature review – summarize the literature or other relevant studies in the areas that are covered by the author
• Data collection – summarize your response to the following questions:
  • What kind of sample was used?
  • How was the data collected? Was the process explained clearly enough where you could replicate the study (with the author’s permission)?
  • Did the data collection methods seem appropriate to the hypothesis?
  • Does this data collection plan help to advance the knowledge in the field based on previous studies and their data collection methods?
  • How many people participated? Is the sample large enough to represent the population? Did they sign an informed consent?
  • Could other data collection instruments be used?
• Findings and conclusions – summarize your response to the following questions:
  • How was the data analyzed?
  • What did the author discover in the analysis?
  • What conclusions are reached?
• Evaluation of the study
  • How useful is the study presented in the article?
  • What are the limitations and criticisms of the study?
  • Did the author(s) accomplish what they intended to do?
  • Was there any researcher bias present?
• How would you put the findings of this study to use in your professional world?