Article Review:
In addition to mainstream media sources (NY Times, WSJ, etc.) that occasionally feature articles on operations management, there are many more specialized print and online publications that focus on various business disciplines. These publications frequently feature articles on operations management. Your task for the article review is to find an interesting, and recent, article or two featuring a topic from our course, and analyze it for this review. Your job is to convey, in 2 to 3 pages, what the development was as described in the article(s) in a concise and organized manner. Turn in both article review and a copy of the article reviewed.
Written work must be prepared in a professional manner. All submissions must be clearly written, employing proper structure, syntax, grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Furthermore, all written work must be generated with word processing software and printed as hard copy in single-sided format. All reports must include page numbers, section headings, in-text source citations, and a comprehensive bibliography. Email submissions will be allowed only in exceptional circumstances and used to verify completion by the deadline.
Critical Thinking Questions
Routinely ask questions that probe your understanding of the content. Questions such as:
- Focusing on purpose: What is the purpose of this article? How does it relate to this course?
- Focusing on question: What questions are emerging for you as you think your way through this issue? What is the key question in this article? How does it relate to this course?
- Focusing on information: What information did the author(s) use in coming to these conclusions? How can you check to see if this information is accurate? How was the information obtained?
- Focusing on inference: What can you logically conclude based on the information presented in this chapter? What conclusions did the author(s) reach? Were these conclusions justified given the evidence? Is there a more reasonable interpretation of the evidence than the conclusions these "experts" have reached?
- Focusing on assumptions: What, if any, do these author(s) take for granted in reasoning through this issue? Should these assumptions be accepted or questioned?
- Focusing on concepts: What are the key concepts presented in the article (or in the text as a whole)? How would you elaborate your understanding of the concepts under discussion?
- Focusing on implications: If you accept or reject the author(s) reasoning, what conclusions must you reach?
- Focusing on point-of-view: What is the author(s) focus in this article, and how are they seeing it? What point of view do you bring to this reading? To what extent does one's point of view reflect the way he/she interprets problems, questions and issues?