The Complete Dissertation Critique Plan

A dissertation critique can be a great exercise ahead of your own dissertation writing project. Not only will you gain knowledge and information by reading others’ dissertations, looking at them critically will hone your analytical skills.

However, writing a critique is not an easy task either, as you will need to consider the dissertation in question thoroughly and comment on each and every part of it, including its structure and content.

In this guide we will show you how to approach your dissertation critique.

Instructions

1

Analyzing the introduction

When you go through a dissertation’s introduction you need to look for the problem statement and then assess whether the author has presented it in a convincing manner.

You should consider the following:

-Is the problem well defined and clearly stated?
-Does the problem merit further research?
-Has the author covered the issue in its entirety?
-Does he have a sound plan for research?
2

Evaluating the literature review

The literature review forms a big chunk of any dissertation and when you review it you need to assess both the quantity and quality of the literature chosen by the author.

You also need to consider whether the following:

-How and why the author has chosen texts to review?
-Does the reviewed literature support the dissertation’s topic?
-Is the literature relevant (Geographically, technically, chronologically)?
-Has the author skipped any important works in his review?

An author might just fill up the literature review section with the most prominent or easy to find texts, and this should negatively affect his/her dissertation’s evaluation. However, don’t just criticize an author for selecting popular works if they are relevant to the study.
3

Assessing the research methodology

The author would have stated his/her research methodology and when assessing it, you need to keep the discipline in mind as well as its standard academic research criteria.

For instance, the research methods for a scientific dissertation differ from those of a literary dissertation. In the former, the author formulates a hypothesis and suggests experimentation models after collecting data and empirical evidence. In the latter, emphasis is usually on interpretation of existing literature and its application or meaning.
4

Viewing the conclusion

The dissertation’s conclusion should be an effective summary, giving a brief outline of the problem statement, its analysis, process of literature review, methods of research and the conclusion reached.

The author should have reached a clear conclusion supported by arguments and evidences.
5

Write your own conclusion

Once you are done assessing a dissertation you will need to put your critique in words. Create a conclusion of your own, highlighting how you evaluated certain aspects of the dissertation and the strengths and weaknesses you discovered.

Your final comments should be on whether the dissertation solved or did justice to the issue it set out to address and is it a valuable addition to existing literature on the subject.