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An article review is a paper that contains a critical, constructive evaluation of literature in a given field. A meaningful and exciting article review follows four steps, which are summary, classification, analysis, and comparison. At times, students do not have to rely on articles as their primary source. Preferably, the teacher might require them to write a quality review based on the scholarly, academic, or scientific article. The student has to conduct and incisive article research to come up with the best review. This demands the student to know about writing an article summary.
Other than the academic world, experts review the work of their colleagues and peers for originality, clarity and their contribution to the study discipline. When faced with an article review, one must understand the evaluation and analysis depth that the instructor is seeking. Therefore, from the above argument, it is easy to deduce that an article review is a high standard of professional writing containing in-depth presentation or arguments.
The principal goal of the article review is to review the topic, summarize its contents, and present a clear understanding of the topic that you have worked on. A student is supposed to use database research in the article review. The review has two elements, which are a theoretical and objective discussion. Among the skills that this process adds to a person is the ability to explore and assess information as well as sharing critical personal opinions. These skills are essential in developing one’s career.
The target audience for an article review is mostly those who are conversant with a given field of knowledge. This piece of writing is supposed to follow the official English language. At this point, the student must reflect and evaluate the author’s main arguments. The process of working on the article review goes as outlined below:
- Article summary, classification, in-depth analysis, article critique, and contrast
- The author is supposed to use related theories, main arguments, and conduct extensive research.
- A single article is inadequate to analyze and prepare full content
- An article review is a response to the writer’s piece, not an introduction of new information on the researched topic.
If you want to write a masterpiece article review, you must carry out pre-writing. This helps the student in getting organized and arranging his thoughts accordingly. Prewriting assists in making the writing process easy. You can consider the summary of the main points before you start composing your article review irrespective of the topic you have chosen.
Define your target audience
Your peers and professionals are not the same. People have different ways of perceiving and interpreting information. You have to know and understand the kind of audience you are targeting with your paper. For instance, you can write for a fellow expert skipping key explanations and deal with difficult concepts, but include details and caveats that the normal reader would not fathom.
You have to think of the reader who is not an expert, someone who is, for instance, a graduate of your department studying different system. You can write your review for this person using simple language and define key terms and concepts. Remember that this person will give you immediate feedback regarding your draft review. Using relatable examples to relate your complex concepts is important in your article review. The audience feels included in the piece.
Present the objectives of your researched article
You have to know exactly what you want to achieve with your paper. Ensure that you have all the necessary sources.
Provide the background information of the article
If you want to write a good article review, you must provide background content that assists the audience in understanding the argument. They might also want to continue with their research.
Give a convincing reason as to why you have that specific article
You must give an explanation of why the journal or the article you are reviewing is credible. Publication and the publisher data is important since it will be helpful in determining if the information is trustworthy.
You can analyze previous research studies before carrying out your article review. This gives you the gist of how other reviewers did their work and how you can approach your review.
You have to identify the course
It is imperative for you to identify is your article review is empirical or conceptual. Every article review or critique has the similar purpose. You have to substantiate the writer’s argument.
To write an effective article review, you have to develop a good outline. It should contain every important detail that is relevant to your review. Stress the quotes or sentence that you intend to use. Critical facts and statistics are essential for the article review. You also have to show the contribution of the author’s research.
To create objectivity, you must include the opposing views of the writer judgment. Feel free to review recent debates concerning the topic and write all the strengths and weaknesses you find. The evaluation of your article must have the weak sides of the contents for the reader to decide whether specific content warrant his attention. Personal thoughts are not essential in article reviews; instead, objectivity is their premise. This is how an outline for an article review looks like:
- Pre-title page according to APA format of referencing, this is mandatory
- Optional details of the author
- Running head, only if you are using the APA format of referencing
- Abstract. This should not be confused with the introduction. An abstract is a summary of the main points while the introduction mentions the main argument or thesis statement.
- The body paragraphs
- The conclusion.
The article review should be organized in the best way possible. The review can be written in separate parts with discussions of separate arguments, each on its own. Your thoughts should be organized into coherent sections. When reading, you can write important facts, contradictions, or contributions. By now, you should identify the strengths and weaknesses of your review. An article review must have the introduction, body, and conclusion parts. If you have an outline, consider incorporating any information relevant to the three parts in your outline. These are the constituent part of an article review;
Pre-title page
This contains the type of the article under review, its title, all the contributing authors, author’s affiliation (institute, city, department, country, email, ID, position)
Optional conforming details of the author
You can have his name, address, phone number, fax number, and email.
Summary page
This is optional, but it depends on the instructions of the supervisor. This summary should not exceed 800 words. It is written in simple language and should not contain verbatim repetition of text or references. You are supposed to give relevant background information, explain why the work was done, summarize the results and elucidate on the method.
Title page
Give the whole title, ab abstract with not more than 250 words subsequently followed by “Keywords” which should range between 4 to six. The abstract must combine the information from the introduction and the conclusion.
The introduction
You have to introduce the topic you are dealing with at this point. This is done using a thesis statement. Be precise since the audience has to understand the context in which your review is based on. You also must hook your reader’s attention by using interesting facts or statistics that the writer might have mentioned in his original article.
Body
his should include the headings and subheadings of your arguments regarding the article you are reviewing.
References
This is a list of the source materials that you have used in your review. It should follow the referencing format that the instructor recommended.
Optional suggested reading page.
An important aspect to understand is the format of referencing that the instructor has recommended. The in-text citations should be done accordingly. You can use direct in-text citations for the text you have extracted from the article you use in your review. Any other information you have used to support your argument should also be cited according to the guidelines of the referencing format that your instructor has recommended.
The objective or subjective critique section of your review should have definitions of failure in research, content disparities, opposing perspectives, and questions that have no answers.
A good article review should have a results section where you can summarize the information and the essence of what you find vital.
When it comes to article reviews, you should know and understand, what your topic is, but it’s equally imperative to know what the topic is not. When you sit down to write this review, you already have the general information about the topic, making it hard sometimes to omit a fascinating fact or detail.
You need to understand the audience is relying on o your ability to curate information for him. You will deviate from the topic if you incorporate irrelevant details, slowing down the pace of your review and thereby losing the reader’s interest. Sometimes it is safe to say less is truly more.
Summarize the article by revisiting what the author was talking about. Identify all the facts and findings of the article and include his conclusions
This section should reconsider the significant points in your piece, the article findings, and your critique. The validity, accuracy, and results relevance should also be included in this section. You can open the door for future research on the article on the field of study it has dwelt on.
Once you have finished writing your draft, you can give it to someone who can go through it and give you critical feedback. You do not have to show it to your peers; it is important you use someone else who can give feedback on what was not clear. Please understand that the feedback might vary depending on whom you give your draft for review. They might give you strong or contradiction opinions. Take them as suggestions, balancing them with your objective for the paper and remain true to what you intend to achieve with it.
In the world of academic writing, originality is held in high regard. Plagiarism is not allowed at any cost. Any form of writing that contains information from other sources must show acknowledgment. In article reviews, the writer is supposed to check for plagiarism before even thinking of submitting the paper. Those writers that are fond of copy pasting should know that there are special plagiarisms tracking systems that will identify any text that has not been attributed to its source. The article review must be polished according to the format of referencing that has been recommended by the instructor, failure to which the paper will be thrown out.
- When reading your articles, you have to highlight the major points. This assists in identifying the major argument and the evidence used to support that argument.
- When writing your article review, it is imperative to use evidence from the sources to make and validate your point. This can best be achieved when direct quotations have been used. Quotes should be used sparingly.
- Make an adequate selection of the quotes and supporting evidence. You must take enough time to analyze your articles.
- When referencing an article or a direct quotation, it is crucial to use a parenthetical citation. This averts chances of accidental plagiarism in your article review. Read strategies to avoid plagiarism.
- Proofread your article once you have finished the writing process to weed out grammar and spelling mistakes. It also helps in monitoring the flow of information.
- Get a second opinion on your paper.
Article reviews are not supposed to introduce new information about the topic they are dealing with. Instead, they are supposed to show the strengths and weaknesses of the text under review. Writers must, therefore, understand the topic and the purpose of the write-up. It becomes easy to achieve its objective.
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