Literature review critical analysis - 4 steps to do it well

Critical analysis is essential in your literature review, and there are 4 things you need to do to do it properly. I'll be sharing my 4-step critical analytical process with you in this video.

This video is Part 3 of a four-part series on how not to mess up your literature review, so be sure to check out the other parts - links below!

I know critical analysis can be frustrating, and that’s often because no one ever sits us down to explain what it is, or exactly how to do it.

It almost feels like it’s some big secret that you’ll never get let in on, unless you stumble across the answers yourself.

It gets even more awkward when you get to masters or PhD level. Everyone around you just ASSUMES you’ll be able to do it, because, well – you just SHOULD know this stuff by now, right?

Side note: I most certainly did NOT know how to do critical analysis properly when I was a postgraduate at Aston Business School in the early noughties!

You get to a point where you believe that some people can ‘do’ critical analysis, and other people (i.e., you!) can’t. As if it’s some innate ability.

It is most certainly NOT an innate ability.

It’s something you can learn, and quite simply, it has four stages: description; interpretation; evaluation; synthesis.

I’ll take you through each of them, drawing on examples as we go.

Here’s a little more about each of the stages.

Description: Whilst we’re told to avoid being descriptive, description is actually the basic foundation of critical analysis. If you can’t describe what you’re looking at, you certainly can’t critically analyse it! The trick is to be super concise and relevant to your own thesis.

Interpretation: This is about considering how something applies to what you’re doing. What are its implications for your research? If you accept what its arguing, what does that mean for your thesis?

Evaluation: Here, you’re making a judgement about the value of something for your thesis. What does it contribute? Are its arguments based on solid evidence? What are its strengths and weaknesses.

Synthesis: Now, you need to look at how different items of literature come together around your thesis, or specific questions you’re asking in your thesis. How does the literature work together to help answer your questions, or raise new questions? Is there a good degree of coverage in specific areas, but others are a little sparse? When you knit it all together, where are the holes?

Chapters:
0:00 1:16 Introduction and overview
1:17 - 1:45 About critical analysis
1:46 - 3:00 Describe
3:01 - 5:52 Interpret
5:53 - 8:20 Evaluate
8:21 - 9:37 Synthesise
9:38 - 10:07 Conclusion

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[jyoti]

I have to submit my literature review in 2 weeks and this video just reduced a lot of my stress, thank you so much!!

[charlycollings]

This is unbelievably helpful! I’ve been pulling my hair out, thank you so much

[novita]

Thank you so much for these useful videos and phrases. That leads to my question on how you assess literature review work and what are indicators for excellent literature review. Thank you.

[youcefarchi]

Best explanation ever about critical review analyses.🎉🎉🎉god blesse you dr

[nivedhasankaran]

The best explanation I have ever seen. Thank you

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