Your Critical Reading Response needs to be as long as it takes to fully address a summary, critical analysis, and conclusion as detailed below.
- If you cite other books, essays, articles, etc., include a reference or works cited section.
SUMMARY
- Summarize the reading by describing its overall arc as well as its most central details.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS
- Identify the primary thesis, argument, issue, or research questions presented in the reading.
- Identify and briefly summarize a primary theoretical orientation that the author/s use.
- Explicate how the author/s apply theory to their topic to support their thesis and critical analysis.
- Explicate at least two key examples (ethnographic, statistical, media, current event, etc.) that the author/s use to support their primary argument and critical analysis.
- Explicate any counterarguments to the primary arguments that the author/s address (not all readings will do this).
- Critically analyze how effective their work is – provide a few specific examples of its strong and weak points.
CONCLUSION
- Describe and critically analyze an element of the reading that particularly impacted you.
- Explain how the work in your chosen reading contributes to psychological anthropology.
