Sage Study Skills Series

Critical Reading and Writing for Postgraduates

by Mike Wallace and Alison Wray

Published 20 April 2006

'A systematic, coherent approach to developing critical reading and writing skills that are applicable to a range of different levels of analysis and types of reading and writing tasks. The authors are to be commended for the clarity of their writing and the way scaffolded advice and tasks are integrated into the text. The book could form the core text for a course on critical reading and writing and a useful reference tool for the academic recently entered upon writing for publication.' - Educate Journal

'A very clear, accessible introduction

that will be invaluable to

postgraduate students trying to

engage with reading and writing in a

critical way' - R.M. Lee, Professor of Social Research Methods, Royal Holloway University of London

This guide to critical reading and self-critical writing is a 'must-have' resource for postgraduate students and early-career academics. Packed with tools for analysing texts and structuring critical reviews, and incorporating exercises and worked examples drawn from the social sciences, the book offers step-by-step advice on how to:

" read any text critically and analyse it in the depth appropriate to one's project

" develop a self-critical approach to one's own academic writing

" ask questions in order to evaluate authors' arguments

" keep a review manageable by using focused review questions

" structure a comparative review of multiple texts

" build up a convincing argument

" integrate critical literature reviews into a dissertation or thesis

" make the transition from postgraduate to professional academic writer

Essential reading for novice researchers, the book will also be invaluable for supervisors, methods course tutors, and academic mentors who teach and support the development of critical reading and self-critical writing skills.