1. Marion McAllister Critical Analysis / Appraisal:
A Guide for the Academic Components of the GCRB Portfolio
Marion McAllister
Senior Lecturer in Genetic Counselling
Centre for Medical Education
School of Medicine
Cardiff University
AGNC, 24 April 2017

2. Steps in writing your academic work
Understand the task
Understand the criteria against which your work will be judged
Find appropriate sources
Evaluate those sources
Plan your writing
Make sure you synthesise the research literature

3. Steps in writing your academic work
Understand the task
Understand the criteria against which your work will be judged
Find appropriate sources
Evaluate those sources
Plan your writing
Make sure you synthesise the research literature

4. Academic elements of GCRB portfolio
Understand the task:
Academic elements of GCRB portfolio
Case studies:
Ethical
Counselling
Scientific
Essay

5. Understand the task: Assignment brief Case studies: Essay
Ethical: should focus on an ethical issue, and should demonstrate the applicant's awareness of the ethical issues surrounding genetic counselling, and the principles that underpin practice
Counselling
Scientific
Essay

6. Understand the task: Assignment brief Case studies: Essay
Ethical: should focus on an ethical issue, and should demonstrate the applicant's awareness of the ethical issues surrounding genetic counselling, and the principles that underpin practice
Counselling
Scientific
Essay

7. Understand the task: Assignment brief Case studies: Essay Ethical
Counselling: should demonstrate the applicant's knowledge and understanding of counselling theory and its application to practice. The rationale for the application of a particular counselling approach should be justified.
Scientific
Essay

8. Understand the task: Assignment brief Case studies: Essay Ethical
Counselling: should demonstrate the applicant's knowledge and understanding of counselling theory and its application to practice. The rationale for the application of a particular counselling approach should be justified.
Scientific
Essay

9. Understand the task: Assignment brief Case studies: Essay Ethical
Counselling
Scientific: should demonstrate the applicant's knowledge and understanding of the scientific principles that inform practice in clinical genetics. This may focus on a specific element of practice, but should be accompanied by a clear explanation of the underlying science. The use of diagrams is encouraged and these will not be included in the word count.
Essay

10. Understand the task: Assignment brief Case studies: Essay Ethical
Counselling
Scientific: should demonstrate the applicant's knowledge and understanding of the scientific principles that inform practice in clinical genetics. This may focus on a specific element of practice, but should be accompanied by a clear explanation of the underlying science. The use of diagrams is encouraged and these will not be included in the word count.
Essay

11. Understand the task: Assignment brief
Essay: The applicant is required to submit an essay, article or other scholarly piece of work on a topic directly related to genetic counselling and/or its operational context. This should demonstrate ability to critique and synthesise the scientific and professional literature on the topic and evaluate its relevance to practice. There is an absolute minimum word limit of 3000 words and a maximum upper word limit of 5000 words (not including references and appendices). As a general guide, in a piece of work of words, you would be expected to use references from current literature.
If the applicant is the first author on a published paper, this can be submitted in place of the essay. This will be assessed using the same criteria as other essays. There is no word limit for a published paper. The paper must have been ACCEPTED for publication within three years of submission of the Intention to Register Form.
A piece of work written for a course may also be used, but the word limit applies in this instance. The work must have been written within three years of submission of the Intention to Register and must demonstrate its relevance to current practice.
Essay proforma
Where the submitted piece of work has NOT been specifically written for Registration, ALL sections of the proforma should be completed to indicate the context of the piece of work i.e. the purpose for which it was first written and the implications for genetic counselling practice.

12. Understand the task: Assignment brief
Essay: The applicant is required to submit an essay, article or other scholarly piece of work on a topic directly related to genetic counselling and/or its operational context. This should demonstrate ability to critique and synthesise the scientific and professional literature on the topic and evaluate its relevance to practice. There is an absolute minimum word limit of 3000 words and a maximum upper word limit of 5000 words (not including references and appendices). As a general guide, in a piece of work of words, you would be expected to use references from current literature.
If the applicant is the first author on a published paper, this can be submitted in place of the essay. This will be assessed using the same criteria as other essays. There is no word limit for a published paper. The paper must have been ACCEPTED for publication within three years of submission of the Intention to Register Form.
A piece of work written for a course may also be used, but the word limit applies in this instance. The work must have been written within three years of submission of the Intention to Register and must demonstrate its relevance to current practice.
Essay proforma
Where the submitted piece of work has NOT been specifically written for Registration, ALL sections of the proforma should be completed to indicate the context of the piece of work i.e. the purpose for which it was first written and the implications for genetic counselling practice.

13. Understand the criteria against which your work will be judged:
Assessment rubrics: Case studies

14. Understand the criteria against which your work will be judged:
Assessment rubrics: Case studies

15. Understand the criteria against which your work will be judged:
Assessment rubrics: Essay

16. Understand the criteria against which your work will be judged:
Assessment rubrics: Essay

17. Evaluating published research
Validity
Reliability
Generalisablility

18. Validity VALIDITY is an indication of how sound the research is
Applies to the design and the methods
Validity in data collection means that the findings truly represent the phenomenon the authors are claiming to measure

19. Validity INTERNAL VALIDITY: Are there flaws within the study itself?
Subject variability
Sample size (data saturation)
Time given for the data collection or experimental treatment
History & maturation
Attrition
Instrument/task sensitivity

20. Validity
EXTERNAL VALIDITY: Can findings be generalized to a larger group or other contexts?
Sample vs population characteristics (subjects)
Interaction of subject selection and research
The effect of the research environment
Researcher or experimenter effects
Data collection methodology
The effect of time

21. Reliability
The idea behind RELIABILITY is that any significant results must be more than a one-off finding and be inherently repeatable
Have the findings been replicated in other studies?
If the study were to be done a second time, would it yield the same results? 
Did observers rate certain aspects? If so, was inter-rater reliability assessed?
Was the sample size sufficiently large?

22. Reliability
RELIABILITY also refers to the degree to which an assessment / measurement tool produces stable and consistent results
Has test-retest reliability been assessed?
Has internal consistency reliability been assessed?
Both should be around

24. Some good questions to ask:
Did the authors use an appropriate method to answer the research question?
Was the sample appropriate and of satisfactory size?
Were the correct methods used to analyse the data?
Do you think the results justify the conclusions of the authors?
GCRB “General Tips on Academic Writing” (H Skirton)

25. Hierarchy of evidence

26. Hierarchy of evidence
Qualitative research sits about here

27. You can then:
Use your conclusions to make comments within the essay/case study.
‘White et al. (2010) suggested that genetic counsellors are not well educated in the United Kingdom (UK). However, those authors used a small sample of only five genetic counsellors working in one genetic centre and there is therefore some doubt about the generalizability of the results. In contrast, Black et al. (2009) conducted a survey of 198 UK genetic counsellors from seventeen centres and found that almost all had been educated at Master’s level.’
GCRB “General Tips on Academic Writing” (H Skirton)

28. Consider using critical appraisal checklists
Critical appraisal checklists are available from:
CASP (Critical Appraisal Skills Programme) checklists/c18f8
Centre for Health Evidence: tools.aspx
National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence rces/developing-nice-guidelines-the-manual- appendix-h
and cover:
Systematic reviews
Randomised controlled trials; trials without randomisation
Cohort (longitudinal) studies
Case-control studies
Cross-sectional studies
Qualitative research
Cost-effectiveness studies

30. Breaks the task down
Identifies key themes and arguments
Identifies gaps
Builds your confidence
Helps you plan your writing

31. Plan your writing
At MSc level, the focus of your writing should be on the arguments you want to present in response to the assessment task, rather than a description of the topic.
Descriptive writing is of course still necessary to:
set the scene
provide background information, evidence or context for your critical arguments
give signposts to your reader.

32. Plan your writing DO
Draw on your critical reading and decide on the key arguments you want to present to support your argument.
Use your own voice where possible. Avoid simply re-writing or re-phrasing what you've read. Show what you understand from what you have read.
Succinctly synthesise ideas and theories to support the arguments which you will use to respond to your assignment task and draw a reasoned conclusion.

33. Plan your writing DON’T
Over-describe the ideas and theories you've read about or spend a long time on the same concept.
Under-explain by using long quotes to avoid putting the ideas into your own words.
Simply rewrite or rephrase what you've read.
Include unsubstantiated arguments or generalizations.

34. Writing the academic pieces
Features of descriptive writing include:
Presentation of facts and data
Description or summary of an event, organisation, case study, experiment
Background setting information

35. Writing the academic pieces
Features of descriptive writing include:
Presentation of facts and data
Description or summary of an event, organisation, case study, experiment
Background setting information
Whereas, critical writing:
Open-mindedly reviews and objectively critiques the evidence provided
Suggests an alternative view, supported by evidence

36. Synthesis The aim is to demonstrate that you can balance evidence
weave together information from different sources into your argument

37. Synthesis The aim is to demonstrate that you can balance evidence
weave together information from different sources into your argument
Synthesising allows you to:
combine information and ideas from multiple sources to develop and strengthen your argument(s)
demonstrate that you have read widely on the topic.
use and cite multiple sources.

38. Synthesis: Example
It is not enough to make a list of descriptive statements such as:
‘Bloggs et al. (2008) found that people with genetic conditions were worried about their children. Jones et al. (2010) found that people at risk of autosomal dominant conditions were most concerned about passing on the condition to their children. Parents carrying recessive conditions were also worried about their children being carriers (Smith, 2005).’
GCRB “General Tips on Academic Writing” (H Skirton)

39. Synthesis: Example
To show you can synthesise, you could work these statements together:
‘While some authors found that people with genetic conditions were concerned mainly about passing the condition to their children (Jones et al., 2010; Bloggs et al., 2008), Smith (2005) suggested that parents who carried recessive conditions were also worried about their children being carriers.
GCRB “General Tips on Academic Writing” (H Skirton)

40. Further help
Writing at Postgraduate Taught Level: A series of online tutorials for postgraduate taught students.
Publicly available here:

41. Further help
Greenhalgh T. How to read a paper: the basics of evidence-based medicine. 5th ed. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2014
Gough D. et al. An introduction to systematic reviews. London: SAGE, 2012

42. Further help Excellent recent article in The Guardian .
Publicly available here:

43. Thank you!