critical analysis and strategic analysis

[travelforthesoul]

Doing BA (year 1)and need to critically analyse for some reports/essays and in others do a high level strategic analysis.

So far I have got good marks, but the feed back is to critically analyse better.

Please give me your hints and tips on how to do this better for future. I dont think this comes naturally to me. I can write about the subject academically, but obviously I struggle to question.

Hi, OP -

This is the sort of thing we as personal tutors /academic advisors are very pleased to help students with at university. I would be delighted if one of my tutees reached out to me with a similar question (adjusted to our discipline) and I suspect your PT will be, also. You can bring some samples of your work to ground the conversation, which will make it much more effective than anything said abstractly here.

In the unlikely event that your PT is too busy to help, most unis have a Writing Centre where you can book free appointments for bespoke tuition - again, much more effective than abstract help provided here.

If you have better rapport with the lecturer(s) who gave the assignment(s) it is also perfectly appropriate to book an appointment with (one of) them for such a discussion. But going to your PT or the Writing Centre more clearly separates the discussion from any consideration of marks, so it may feel a bit more relaxing.

Many Y1 students find it difficult to be in a position where they need or just want help for the first time. But now you are surrounded by disciplinary experts. Some may be world leaders in the field. One of their two main roles (if they also have a research focus) or their chief role (if they do not) is to help you. Taking advantage of that is a sign of strength, not weakness.

Very best wishes.

For the Masters I am currently doing it is about critiquing theories or frameworks that you might have applied to a situation and giving the reasons that they might not apply to this situation, or why they might have been superseded by other, better approaches.

The OU open learn course on ‘preparing for postgraduate study’ is really good on this and has some nice diagrams too. It’s free and I found it really useful.