21W.732: Perspectives on Medicine and Public Health       Spring 2010
                                                                                   

Perspectives on Medicine and Public Health.
Critical Review Assignment—

This next assignment requires that you take on an unfamiliar task.  The only similar assignment that most of you have completed is a book review.  In this case, however, you need to educate yourself before you can write your review.  You will also need to expand the range of features that you consider in your review since all four of the documents that I have assembled involve visual elements.  I have put together a list of three documentaries and one website that focus on recent discoveries in sleep science.  All four were designed with the intention of engaging and edifying the general public.  You will eventually need to choose just one of these productions as the focus of your critical review.  While these materials were originally presented in four different venues, you can now view all of them on the web.  Spend ten minutes or so viewing or exploring each of them before you decide on your focus.   Do not just look for your favorite; look instead for a production that intrigues you or bothers you, one that seems likely to provide a compelling focus your critical review.

            I have also posted on the Stellar site a list of recent scientific journal articles on sleep.  Once you have chosen the focus of your critical review, look for three or more articles that might help you evaluate your central document (video or website).   Most of the scientists interviewed or cited in the documentaries and on the website have co-authored at least one of these articles.   If you find some of these articles difficult to understand, you may want to read the review article by Diekelmann and Born (published in Nature Reviews Neuroscience)—also posted on Stellar.

            Begin by reading or viewing all of your materials.  Start this process promptly so that you have time to change your mind.  Before you begin planning out your critical review, study all of your documents carefully and compare their approaches, logic, evidence, and strategies.  Be sure to pay attention to the publication date of each document.  Your next task is to develop a structure for your critical review that will allow you to explore the key distinctions between a work designed for the general public and works written by academic scientists and social scientists for professional colleagues.  Help your readers understand the significance of the differences that you discern.  Keep in mind that you will need to draw upon specific evidence from the documents in your critical review.  Your thesis will only make sense to your readers if you are able to root your observations and analysis in the specifics of your chosen documents.

Objective of the critical review:  To evaluate a document (either video or website) that draws upon recent scholarship in its effort to enlighten the general public.

Once you have completed your preparation, take time to organize your thoughts.  You may find it useful to break your initial analysis of the documents into three distinct parts: observation, explanation, and evaluation.

• Observation: What are the distinctive features of your key document?  In what ways is it different from the scholarly articles on this topic?
• Begin with the obvious and inevitable difference: it is less technical.
• Look for other, less obvious and less inevitable differences.
• Explanation: How can you account for the differences you have noticed? 
• What seem to have been the creator/author’s objectives?
• What assumptions has the creator/author made about the audience?
• Evaluation: How do you assess the resulting document/exhibit? 
• How well does it achieve its intended objectives? 
• Is there an unintended cost to the transformation or filtering of knowledge in this field?

Once you have completed this analysis of your material, you should be almost ready to write a coherent critical review of your central document.  Before you begin writing, take a step back from the analytic process and ask yourself where your thoughts have taken you.  How can you help your own readers understand the distinctive process whereby scientific knowledge is translated into terms that make sense to a general audience?  The critical review that you write should have a clear objective.  It should not just present a summary of features that you have noticed in your documents.  Make sure that you have something to say to your readers.
Proofread and edit your critical review; then, make four copies to bring to class on March 10th.  You should also bring four copies of a letter addressed to your readers commenting on the state of your critical review.  Let your readers know something about your plans for revision.  Point your readers to the issues that concern you. 

            Post the first version of the critical review along with your status report before class on March 10th.

Assignment for Wednesday, March 3rd:
Before this Wednesday’s class, you must decide on your documents.  Once you are confident of your choice, write up some basic information about each document.  Identify the writer/producer/director of each document, the publication (or venue) in which the document appeared, the intended audience, and the publication date.  The academic writers can be identified by field and institution (e.g. William Ripple, Ecologist, Oregon State University).  If possible, identify more fully the creators of your primary document (the focus of your critical review).  Provide some indication of their expertise on the topic you have chosen.  Post all of this material on the Stellar site.
            Come to class prepared to describe your materials.

Assignment for Monday, March 8th:
Briefly describe central idea for your critical review (½ page); then, create a tentative outline for your critical review.  Post on Stellar site.  Come to class prepared to discuss your outline.