Critical Reading and Writing for Postgraduates: (Student Success)

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  If you need to engage with published (or unpublished) literature such as essays, dissertations or theses, research papers or oral presentations, this proven guide helps you develop a reflective and advanced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.

Table of Contents:
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

About the Author :
Mike Wallace is a Professor of Public Management at Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University, where he teaches postgraduate courses on research methods. He was formerly an Associate Director of the Advanced Institute of Management Research (AIM), responsible for research capacity building in the management field, and also 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. Most recently, he is lead author of a major monograph Developing Public Service Leaders: Elite Orchestration, Change Agency, Leaderism and Neoliberalization (Oxford University Press 2023). He is co-author of Critical Reading and Writing for Postgraduates (4th edition 2021). Alison Wray is a Research Professor of Language and Communication at Cardiff University. Her research concerns the modelling of lexical storage and processing, particularly in relation to formulaic phrases, and it has been applied to language learning, evolution of language and language disability. Her two monographs Formulaic Language and the Lexicon (Cambridge University Press, 2002) and Formulaic Language: Pushing the Boundaries (Oxford University Press, 2008) are internationally acclaimed. Her current research focusses on dementia communication. Her 2020 book The Dynamics of Dementia Communication won the 2021 book prize of the British Association for Applied Linguistics and came second in the biennial book award of the American Association for Applied Linguistics. She has also published Why Dementia Makes Communication Difficult: A Guide to Better Outcomes (2021), aimed at people with dementia, their families and carers. She has a longstanding commitment to researcher training, including the developing of academic expertise. She is lead author of the popular undergraduate research methods textbook Projects in Linguistics (Hodder, 2012) and co-author of Critical Reading and Writing for Postgraduates (4th edition 2021).

Review :
This book provided invaluable practical help for me in both organising my approach to research and in writing my thesis. A real strength of the book is that it backs up the various approaches it suggests with worked examples of all the points made. As a result, I saw a genuine and marked improvement in the quality of my own writing. A comprehensive and sharp guide to taking your reading, writing, and thinking to the next level. The authors do not only explain the concepts they bring forward, but also show what it can look like in a text. It makes everything much easier to understand! The tools in the book have helped me a lot! This book taught me how to logically structure a piece of work before even starting to write it, which, in my case, took away lots of stress, and made my work much easier to follow. I strongly recommend reading this book!   The best research-skills support I have encountered for social-sciences postgrads. It not only breaks down the anatomy of a research project in detail and with practical examples, but also illuminates theoretical issues such as author bias and reader response.  This book is invaluable, and I find myself turning back to it frequently as I reach the next stage of a project. It will always have a place on my desk!   A must-read for any student looking to develop their reading and writing skills at research level. It delves into how students can develop their critical thinking and research skills before tackling their writing woes. Wallace and Wray will become personal tutors, offering an array of academic knowledge through writing exercises in which students can apply in their research directly. It is one of the few books on the market written with the student in mind, and one in which effectively identifies the steps needed to write a research paper, dissertation, and/or thesis.