Writing a Critical Review: Reflections on Literacy Practices

Abstract

This paper analyses the first author's experiences in writing a critical review at the beginning of postgraduate study in Australia. Utilising the first author's position as both a researcher and the researched, the paper provides a narrative account of her stage-by-stage progress in writing a review, followed by an interpretive analysis from a social point of view. The social activities around writing the review are interrelated in a complex manner as she tackled difficulties at each stage of the task. The solutions she found contributed not only to her preparation and composition of the final text but also to her gradual understanding of a social practice view of language learning. Implications for teaching the writing of a critical review include the usefulness of self-reflection as a tool for raising critical awareness of what we do with language.

Keywords:

• English for academic purposes
• socialisation
• literacy practices
• community of practice