English Career Resources

Key Stage 4: Research

Critical evaluation – "how did I do?"

Teachers can finish with the final article. However, students can be asked to discuss the various information sources they used and how they handled the challenge of synthesising them into one coherent text. Students can be encouraged to think critically about their own writing processes by being asked to draw a 7cm margin down their page. The students use this big margin for jotting down comments,, while they are in the throes of composition. For example, a student who is aware that they have just used a very heavily biased source might note: "Need an alternative point of view." In so doing, students are re-visiting once again that old notion that: "in English you can never be wrong, provided you can justify your position with relevant evidence"!