Critical Reading and Writing for Postgraduates

Bursting with tools for analysing texts and structuring critical reviews, this book builds the reader s skills and confidence with critical reading and writing.

Reading critically, and writing using critical techniques, are crucial skills you need to apply to your academic work. If you need to engage with published (or unpublished) literature such as essays, dissertations or theses, research papers or oral presentations, this proven guide helps you develop a reflective and advanced critical approach to your research and writing.

New to this edition:

• Two new chapters on basic and advanced writing skills
• More advice on self-bias and perception
• Updates and additional examples throughout

• Updated online resources providing additional support.
  A Companion Website provides additional resources to help you apply the critical techniques you learn. From templates and checklists, access to SAGE journal articles and additional case studies, these free resources will make sure you successfully master advanced critical skills.

  Autorentext

  **Mike Wallace* is a Professor of Public Management at Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University. From 2009 to 2012 he was the Economic and Social Research Council's Strategic Adviser for Researcher Development. His research on managing change in the public services is reported in many books and academic journals. He is co-author, with Eric Hoyle, of the book Educational Leadership: Ambiguity, Professionals, and Managerialism (Sage, 2005), lead editor, with Michael Fertig and Eugene Schneller, of the book Managing Change in the Public Services (Blackwell, 2007), and lead co-author, with Michael Reed, Dermot O Reilly, Jonathan Morris, Michael Tomlinson and Rosemary Deem, of the book Developing Public Service Leaders: Elite Orchestration, Change Agency, Leaderism, and Neoliberalization* (Oxford University Press, 2023). His contribution to teaching at Cardiff centres on the design of postgraduate research programmes incorporating research methods training.

  Inhalt

  Part One: Becoming a Critical Reader and Self-Critical Writer
  Chapter 1: What it Means to be Critical
  Chapter 2: Making a Critical Choice
  Chapter 3: A First Look: Interrogating Abstracts
  Chapter 4: Getting Started on Critical Reading
  Chapter 5: Getting Started on Self-Critical Writing
  Chapter 6: Creating a Comparative Critical Summary
  Chapter 7: Developing Your Writing Skills to Communicate Effectively
  Part Two: Developing an In-Depth Analysis
  Chapter 8: A Mental Map for Navigating the Literature
  Chapter 9: Tools for Thinking and Ways of Thinking
  Chapter 10: Reasons for Conducting the Research
  Chapter 11: Knowledge Claims and Their Key Characteristics
  Chapter 12: Developing a Critical Analysis of a Text
  Chapter 13: A Worked Example of a Critical Analysis
  Chapter 14: Developing Your Argument in Writing a Critical Review of a Text
  Part Three: Putting Your Critical Reviews to Work
  Chapter 15: Focusing and Building up your Critical Literature Review
  Chapter 16: Integrating Critical Literature Reviews into your Dissertation
  Chapter 17: Critical Literature Reviews in Alternative Dissertation Structures
  Chapter 18: Tools for Structuring a Dissertation
  Chapter 19: Using the Literature in Research Papers, Oral Presentations and Posters
  Chapter 20: Developing Advanced Writing Skills