Critiquing a Scholarly Article

When reading a published article students often make the mistake of assuming that the information they’re reading must be the truth.  Such assumptions are dangerous because historians, like everyone else, are affected by their own history/their own experiences/their own training.  Any time you read a historical article (or any article for that matter) you should approach it with a critical eye.  Think carefully about what the author has written and ask yourself whether or not he or she has done a good job of supporting his or her argument.

You should select a scholarly article from a historical journal -- an article that interests you.  The article you select must conform to the following criteria: Article selection is perhaps the most important part of this assignment.  Many students get in hurry and select the first article they find that satisfies the four criteria.  This usually proves to be a big mistake because they end up with a confusing article that is of little or no interest to them.  A better approach would be to browse and find a couple of topics that interest you.  Once you have identified a couple of topics then you can begin looking for an article that makes sense and will hold your interest (but don’t forget about the above criteria).

Your short paper should include:

A complete citation of the article following the standards for history (Chicago Manual of Style) Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations ...

and paragraphs build around the following topics:

  1. The main purpose of this article is . . ./The key question that the author is asking is . .
  2. The most important information in this article is/concerns . . .
  3. The main conclusion[s]/inference[s] in this article is/are . . .
  4. The main assumptions underlying the author’s thinking are . . .
  5. If you accept the author’s line of reasoning, the implications are . . .
  6. If you reject the author’s line of reasoning, the implications are . . .
  7. When writing this article, the author’s point of view may have been influenced by . . .
*The statements are an adaptation from The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking Concepts and Tools by Richard Paul and Linda Elder.

The most important pages in a scholarly article are usually the first 2-3 pages and the last 2-3 pages.  In fact the answers to many of these questions will be found at the beginning and/or end of the article.  Thus, before you delve into the article, spend a few minutes reading the first couple of pages and the last couple of pages (don’t worry about spoiling the ending, unlike literary writers, scholars seldom finish their works with a big surprise).  The important thing is that you understand what the author is trying to say; you can then read the full article and determine for yourself whether he or she has done an adequate job of arguing the point.

Format