Reading a Research Paper Assignment
Reading a Research Paper Assignment
A ready-to-use assignment where students read one study in three passes, apply a critical reading checklist and compare it with other research.
In this ready-to-use assignment, students pick one original study and read it using the three-pass method from Dr. Benita Olivier’s guide How to Read a Research Paper. They work through a nine-question critical reading checklist, noting where in the paper they found the evidence for each answer. Then they compare the study with two others in Consensus and give their own verdict on its validity, importance and applicability, ending with a rewrite of the authors’ main claim to match the evidence. A 50-point rubric is included.
Download the PDF to hand out as is, or download the editable Word version to adapt it for your course. For example, you could require a specific study design, such as randomized trials in nursing or qualitative studies in education, or add a discipline-specific appraisal tool, such as a CASP checklist. Both versions are designed to meet accessibility standards.
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