Here is the format that should be used for your journal critique when you post to the discussion board as a discussion leader.
Part I: Article Identification
The full citation of the article (in APA format) should be listed first.
Part II: What was found
This section should contain the following information in no more than three paragraphs:
• The rationale behind the study (the broad area that was being studied)
• The objective of the study (what did the researchers set out to find?)
• The method(s) used in the study
• The findings of the study
• The authors’ conclusions
Part III: Your response
This section should address the following issues:
• Was the paper well-written or was it difficult to follow? Note that stating that the paper was hard to follow because of vocabulary is not a valid response for this assignment. If you do not understand a word or term it is up you to rectify the situation.
• What were pros and cons of the research method(s) that was/were used?
• How could the method(s) have been improved?
• What problems do you see with the obtained results? Are there confounding variables or other issues that weren’t taken into account when the study was designed?
• Do you agree or disagree with the authors’ conclusions based on their results?
• What questions remain unanswered?
• Could these aforementioned questions have been answered in this study with a better research design?
• What research logically follows from the current study (What is the “next step”) ?
