Summarising is not critiquing, and the weekly log makes the difference easy to hide. A summary restates what the authors claim. A critique tests whether the evidence they present actually supports it. Students who have only ever summarised arrive at their own proposal defence unable to say why a method was chosen over its alternative, because they have never once asked that question of somebody else’s paper.
The Purdue OWL annotated bibliography samples already linked in WR1. It covers the form — summary, evaluation, reflection. It does not cover how to evaluate evidence, which is the mechanic.
None.
Three questions, in this order, on one paper close to your own work:
Then: what would you have done differently, and what would it have cost? The cost clause is what separates a critique from a complaint. Every alternative is more expensive in some dimension, and naming it is how you demonstrate you understood the constraint the authors were under.
WR entry, 300–500 words.
This replaces your reading entry for the week you do it. Submit it to that week’s WR assignment in Canvas — the same one you would have submitted anyway. It is not an extra piece of work on top of the log.
You do not submit anything to the milestone yet. When all five skills in M3 are done, submit the M3 — Reading and Reasoning assignment, which is just an index saying which week each one went in.