Talk:Psycholinguistics/Neural Components of Speech Production

When sources were used they were most often relevant and usually recent and interesting research, but there were quite a few instances where citations are needed and were not used. For example when you are talking about the research that has shown that “patients with right hemisphere localized strokes or brain damage have a disrupted ability or inability to maintain or initiate normal speech prosody”, there is no source used, which also occurs on a number of other occasions. Just make sure that any information you state has been backed up fully by support which allows the reader to see where your information is coming from. I thought the sources you used in supporting both research on Broca’s area and speech production and the Wernicke-Geschwind model was intriguing and pertinent. As a suggestion I would perhaps include supplicant, current research for the disorders of speech production and maybe add to the PET imaging studies section. Also don’t forget that titles of Journals in your research section need to be italicized.

There is an apparent logical flow to your chapter but at times the writing can seem a bit “choppy” because the sentences don’t seem to move into each other. There are just a few points in which you will be talking about one subject and the next sentence will be very different from the previous topic. So just make sure to use transitional sentences between your information and between headings. However the organization of your information seems to be well done, especially with the physiological production of sound section considering the complexity of the material. One small recommendation would be to change the order a bit in this section by just switching the phonetics information with the evolution information. I think you should cover the basics first of physiological and then introduce further information. But in general the content of your topic seems to be in logical order as you move from first introducing the physiology of speech and then eventually move on to things such as disorders associated with speech production and recent models of speech production.

For the most part you have answered the question as to what the neural components of speech production are but I think that maybe you should briefly outline what topics you will cover in the introduction just so the reader knows what to expect from your chapter. You only really give an introduction of speech production in general but don’t really mention anything about the neural components of speech production in your introduction. I do appreciate the fact that you have also included other areas besides Broca’s and Wernicke’s in the involvement of speech production but it would be better if you expanded the information even more with recent research which you didn’t really do in your chapter. There is a lacking of supportive research to confirm the role of other areas of the brain in speech production in the chapter as well. However, your chapter does contribute to the reader’s understanding of the neural components of speech production but would again help to include a clear outline.

There are a few spelling errors and in some sentences there are minor words missing such an “a” or “the” and at times the sentences can be just slightly hard to understand. Sometimes your sentences can be really short or incomplete but really there are only minor spelling errors and your verb tense and tone were pretty good. Also watch your punctuation (vs. : etc.) but the APA formatting was well done. I have a few suggestions just for things like formatting such as making your heading font a bit bigger so it is easier to follow, adding pictures beside the physiological production of sound if you can find one because it would help in the understanding and maybe a picture also beside the context describing Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas for those who don’t know where it is located in the brain. You might want to also add a subheading for Wernicke-Geschwind Model.

Overall well done but make sure to watch the flow of your chapter, add your sources and also make sure to edit very critically! Megan J Mac Donald 23:34, 26 February 2011 (UTC)