Week 10: 

The main difference that stands out for me is that a critical review is of one article or journal. There may be other opportunities to make additions to your critical review through secondary books, journals etc. but the main focus will be on the article. Focusing on the argument that is being put forward by the author and evaluating the author on different components of their writing.  A literature review will be a broader review that covers several different sources to provide support to a research question. It will be an overview of the research you have compiled along with evaluating the sources that you have utilized. With the sources used detailing if they agreed or disagreed with each other will be another difference. Finally drawing a conclusion to what is being said by the sources you have used will help draw the literature review to close. In the case of our second assignment the expected format will be in APA style and the critical review in the MLA. By using the different styles this will provide us to write in a specific manor and present our information different than in the MLA style. 

The suggestion to not read the abstract has a clear meaning of not skewing your idea of what the rest of the article will be about. The reader may draw conclusions of what is to come and formulate their own idea or bias of the article. By reading the abstract first the reader may be inclined to not further read into article and draw from the quick knowledge that is gained through reading an abstract. Taking a short cut in with a small summary may seem enticing when many people feel strapped for time. 

My starting point, depending on the article is to print it off. For whatever reason I am able to process it better by have a physical copy rather than scrolling through on my laptop. Weird for a millennial but I am stuck in my ways. I read the article through once and try to just get a basic understanding of what is happening. Most of the articles I have read have not been topics that I have found interesting or been able to keep my focus throughout the entirety of article. What I have learnt from the critical review was to take into account the strengths and weaknesses of the article. Taking a literal highlighter to those points to add to my outline. I use that in conjunction with identifying reasoning and any evidence used that will be used to support my thesis. Lastly once I have a grasp of the article, I try to formulate what is the article saying and what is the thesis it is supporting. Once I’ve grasped the article entirely, I try to circle it back to the expectation of the assignment. The pieces that I use above are part of bringing it all together. If I am not understanding the main idea and the supporting ideas my critical or literature review will be inadequate. This entire process takes several reads, coffees and highlighters. By breaking it up into these manageable pieces it helps me fit all the puzzle pieces of the article to give a clear picture of it as a whole.