Guidance on Reading
Penal Policy
LAWS3074
Dr Harry Annison
In this module we will draw on a range of materials, including:
textbook chapters
journal articles
policy reports
blog pieces
While you may be familiar with many of these resources already, it may be useful to offer
some guidance on how to engage with the readings for Penal Policy. This may be particularly
useful in relation to journal articles that have their foundations in social theory, sociology,
politics, socio-legal studies and other approaches with which you may be less familiar.
Reading a journal article
This guidance is provided for journal articles, but similar principles can be applied to
reading any of the materials we will encounter during this module.
When reading a journal article, it is useful to ask yourself – and base your notes around – the
following prompts:
What is the article about?
oWhat is its focus? (topic, geographical area, existing literature)
oWhat approach does it take? (for example: is it based on analysis of legal
judgments, interviews with policymakers, theoretical analysis of existing
literature)
oAre there particularly important concepts used? If so, how are they defined?
oWhat is the author’s argument? (ie what is the point of the article)
In responding to these prompts, it is usually best first to read the abstract (if available),
introduction and conclusion of the article. This should give you a good overall sense of the
article. You can then navigate the paper using the headings (if provided), in order to answer
the above prompts.
Critical analysis
oDo you find the author’s argument intuitively persuasive? Why?
oWhat are the stronger aspects of the article?
oWhat are the weaker aspects of the article?
oHow does this article ‘interact’ with other materials you have read?
These prompts are encouraging you to engage critically with the article. When we speak
about its ‘stronger’ and ‘weaker’ aspects, this could relate to its methodological rigour (eg the
research just hasn’t been conducted very well, or alternatively is clearly very rigorous) or the
persuasiveness of the argument. When we speak about the article ‘interacting’ with other
