SOC362: Sex, Gender, and Work
Critical Review Guidelines
SOC362: Sex, Gender, and Work
Fall 2020
Aim and Substance.Critical reviews are critical thought pieces to be written in response to the coming session’s readings and in light of the course themes.
These writing exercises are notmeant to summarize the readings assigned for the week. Instead, students must address at leasttwo of the points below in their critical reviews:
- How do theassigned readings relate to one another or to other course readings thus far? In what ways are the readings similar or different from others?
- Discuss the strengths and/or weaknesses of the methodologies used to gather data for the readings. Could an alternative method have been employed? Would you expect to get similar results from the alternative method? Would using an alternative method provide information on different aspects of the problem discussed in the readings?
- What are some of the questions that you have about the topic of the readings which remained unexplored, insufficiently addressed, or poorly explained? Make sure that you do not criticize the author(s) for not doing what they did not set out to do.
- Do you think that the author(s) supported their arguments with ample evidence? If so, give concrete examples. If not, what could the author(s) have done otherwise to be more convincing?
- What counter-arguments did the author(s) fail to consider?
Assessment.Students should engage with all of the readings assigned in the week they are writing a critical review for. You will be marked according to the rubric below:
Comprehension (30 points): Thorough understanding of the key arguments of all the week’s readings demonstrated in the review overall.
Critical Point #1 (30 points): Higher-level thinking skills such as synthesis, analysis, and critique employed. Relevant evidence from the readings used to substantiate the claims made.
Critical Point #2 (30 points): Higher-level thinking skills such as synthesis, analysis, and critique employed. Relevant evidence from the readings used to substantiate the claims made.
Writing Mechanics and Clarity (10 points): Carefully proofread to eliminate problems with style, sentence structure, grammar, and spelling. Organization and argumentation aid in communicating the main points clearly. Adheres to the ASA format for internal citations and works cited.
Length and Format.Critical reviews may be up to 4 double-spaced pages in length (not including the bibliography). Please draft your review as a Word file and be sure to insert page numbers into your document.
Be sure to use in-text citations appropriately to give credit to the words and ideas of others, and to include a list of works cited at the end of the critical review. Both should adhere to the ASA format (see accompanying document).
Deadline and Submission. Critical reviews are due (as a Word file submitted to Turnitin) by no later than 1 pm on the day of the class session for that week. In other words, your critical review will be due before the lecture which covers the assigned readings (ie. if you are writing a critical review for week 3, your review is due by1pm on MondaySeptember28th).
Late assignments will be marked down 10% once the deadline has passed, and an additional 10% will be deducted for every 24 hours that pass beyond that. The last day on which late assignments will be considered for a grade is 6 days after the original due date (ie. if the due date was a Monday, then Sunday of the following week).
Submit your Critical Review on Quercus.
Assigned Weeks. Two reviews are expected from each student over the course of the semester, and each critical review is worth 20% of the course grade. Please see the Table provided in the Critical Review page to see which two weeks you have been assigned.
If you would like to switch the critical review you have been assigned to another week, it is your responsibility to identify another student willing to switch assigned weeks with you. Please notify the professor by email, with a CC to the other student so that they can indicate their agreement.
You may not write a Critical Review during the same week you are presenting an article.
Further Tips.
Don’t forget to include a bibliography in your critical review, as well as in-text citations as necessary. Please use the ASA citation format (see accompanying attachment)
Be sure to review the guidelines regarding plagiarism and how not to plagiarize:
https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/academic-integrity/students/scenarios/plagiarism
Advice and strategies for reading critically and critical reviews can be found here:
https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/accessibility/sites/files/accessibility/public/shared/pdfs/Reading%20Rev%202013.pdf
https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/asc/sites/files/asc/public/shared/pdf/tip_sheets_writing/CriticalReview_v2.pdf
Your TA is a resource for this course. Feel free to send a draft of your assignment for feedback before the submission deadline, or questions about the r
