Bc2/Critique guide



Guidelines for CRITIQUES of Articles from the Biochemical Literature

Biochemistry II CHE 4320 Spring 2012

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Remember to attach a copy of the article critiqued to the back of your critique so that your assignment can be graded!

What is a Critique?

A critique is a short written piece examining and evaluating a scientific article. This sheet explains the nuts and bolts of how to format and present a critique.

Include all the following information and categories in your written assignment, in the order they appear below. Actually write the terms “Reference,” “Summary,” “Biochemistry Context,” and so on, as headers for your paragraphs for clarity.

Date & Number

Next to your name, write the date you hand in your assignment and the critique number (1st, 2nd, ...) designating the total number of critiques you have written this semester.

Reference

Write the full reference of your article, using the following format:

Author(s). "Article Title," Journal Name Volume No., pages (year).

For example:

Karplus, P.A., M.J. Daniels and J.R. Herriott. "Atomic Structure of Ferredoxin-NADP+ Reductase: Prototype for a Structurally Novel Flavoenzyme Family," Science 251, 60-66 (1991).

Summary

Give a one- or two-sentence summary of the article. See "Notes" below on the last page. Do not use very long sentences; do not give more than 2.

Biochemistry Context

Place your selected paper's topic in context of current biochemical knowledge. Do this by giving a brief introduction (of basic facts) to the field or area addressed by your paper. Use your textbook as your first (and perhaps only) source of information with which to compose your introduction. Imagine that this brief introduction would be understandable and interesting to a friend of yours who is broadly familiar with science in general but not specifically knowledgeable in biochemistry or related field.

Approximate length: 100 words.

Description

Condense and organize the contents of the article. Summarize the interesting parts of the paper in short paragraph descriptions in your own words. Use topic headings liberally. Take care to order your paragraphs to present a tightly organized story. This order could well be different from that of the article itself. Include schematic diagrams, graphs and/or brief tables of data whenever appropriate (do not go overboard on these: include them only when essential to the clarity of your critique).

Approximate length: 300 words.

Comments & Speculations

In this section I invite you to be creative and speculative. Extend the results or implications of the article to a hypothesis; or show how the paper supports a theory in the field (e.g., that aging is caused by oxygen toxicity). Relate your article to the general theme of this course. Comment on facets that strike your fancy.

For a topic about which much remains unknown, distinguish clearly what is known and what remains to be worked out; then clarify what the article adds to our knowledge.

Approximate length: 100-250 words.

Evaluation

Evaluate the article:

(1) Give the article a letter grade (A+, A, A-, B+, B, ... F).

(2) Justify your grade. Use the following criteria: clarity, organization, logical relationship of conclusions to experimental evidence provided, usefulness of diagrams and/or tables, importance of topic to human knowledge.

Approximate length: 100 - 150 words.

Example of an Evaluation

The following evaluation (of "Interleukin-2," Scientific American 261, 50-57 (March 1990)) is longer than it needs to be but makes several clear, critical comments (both positive and negative) and gives specific evidence for each of these comments.

"The grade for this article is A-. Since the author and his research team discovered interleukin-2, he deserves an A. Since there is some arrogance and confusion in the article, however, the specific grade is an A-.

The author uses certain terms, such as "dogmas"(p.53) and "heresies"(p.54), in an inappropriate manner. Basically, he calls those who did not believe in a mystery growth factor narrow-minded. That resistance among his colleagues appears to have been justified at the time, and it even spurred on Dr. Smith and his team to learning about interleukin-2.

There is also some confusion in the article. On p. 51, lymphocytes are described as predominant in the lymph nodes, yet certain lymphocytes are found in bone marrow (B cells) and others mature in the thymus (T cells). It is unclear from the article whether or not B and T cells originate in the lymph nodes and then migrate to their respective organs. Both types of cells eventually are in direct contact with blood. On p. 52, it is unclear how cytotoxic T cells identify infected cells. On p. 56, there is no explanation of how NK cells can identify undesirable cells when they have no antigen receptors. A few other points are left dangling as well, denying the reader the satisfaction of knowing if such questions have been at least partially answered.

Otherwise, the article is well-written. It is generally clear and well-organized, the conclusions usually follow from the evidence, and the drawings are useful. On the one hand, Scientific American appears to require a certain format that enhances readability. On the other hand, articles are too short to go into many of the interesting side issues. The confusions noted above may have been caused in part by the heavy hand of an editor."

Glossary

Provide a glossary of terms new to you before you read the article, with brief definitions. If you found no new words, state "Glossary: no new words."

Important Reminders

Summary vs. Abstract

An abstract gives details; a summary gives generalizations. See the handout entitled "Guidelines for Research Paper" for more discussion about this distinction. Use the summary to tell the reader what the article is about in general. Avoid using the summary to answer specific questions: thus, avoid phrases beginning with "because." Don't forget to limit your summary here to 1 or 2 sentences.

Quotations

Do NOT use direct quotations to convey information. See discussion under "Your Own Voice" in the handout entitled "Guidelines for Research Paper."

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