Critiquing the literature

This course will show you how to critique academic texts. Critiquing academic texts is crucial to improve your grades and enhance the quality of your academic work. All the techniques that I will show you are tried and tested.

The objectives for this course are:

You will learn how to critique a wide range of academic texts

You will be aware of what to look for when critiquing academic texts

You will gain the confidence to critique scholars directly

We will achieve these objectives by undermining academic texts. This word ‘undermine’ means to secretly weaken a structure; gradually erode the foundation of an argument; render unstable by digging or mining at the foundation. Historically, the word ‘undermine’ was a form of attack instead of attacking the castle directly, an army would dig or mine underneath the castle - destabilizing the castle, so that the castle would come crashing down to the ground. This was a very effective technique. Likewise, we will not attack a text directly, we will undermine it, we will erode its foundation.

This course consists of five lectures. Each lecture is based on five critical undermining questions. Is this academic text too general? (L1) Is this academic outdated? (L2) Is this academic text bringing something new? (L3) Is this academic text engage with issues on race, class or gender? (L4) Does the academic text mention its limitations (L5)

After each lecture, you will be asked to complete an activity sheet. The five activity sheets are based on the content of the five lectures. So, when you complete these activity sheets, it will test your knowledge and give you a deeper understanding of the content. Also, when you complete the course you will receive a certificate of completion.