16 March,2024
Table of Contents
An article review is also known as review of literature or literature review. It involves survey of the existing literature. It must give an overview of the current thinking in the context of the topic. The main objective and purpose of writing an article review is to develop a synthesis of the best resources that are readable and available in the existing literature for the current area of research and important research question. It is specialized form of writing with the help of which the reviewer engages with the scholarly article, generally an academic book and a journal article. Through reporting the main ideas, positions, claims and reasoning of the article, the reviewer provide support to the question on hand.
The article review is important as it provides the comprehensive details about the existing studies in relation with the research topic. Such reviews can help in identifying new research areas to explore and draw new conclusion from the existing data on a particular topic. A good article review provides a foundation for future research. A good article review can help in explaining apparent contradictions, clarify the state of knowledge, create a consensus, identify the needed research and it can help in advancing the career.
The word skimming refers to the reading technique which implies rapid eye movement to move quickly through the text in the article for slightly different purposes. It involves reading of the article rapidly to gain an understanding about the overall idea of the article. It is done to identify specific facts. While performing the skimming process, you should deliberately skip the texts that contain detailed data, stories or any other form of elaboration. You should focus on chapter summaries, introduction, opening and closing sentences of paragraphs, text features and bold words to gain on overview of the topic.
You should read the article carefully and focus on taking notes of important points or facts specified in the article in an efficient manner. In order to take notes, you should check sources against each other and look for agreements and inconsistencies, read the abstract first and then the introduction and the conclusion, take notes on items that are in connection with the topic, think along with reading the article and ask yourself a question about the article – Can you restate the main points of the article?
This can be done by starting to look at the title followed by reading the abstract, heading and opening sentences of each paragraphs and the conclusion. You should then focus on reading the first few paragraphs and then the conclusion. It will help you in identifying the main arguments made by the author’s in the article and the main points. It was then you should read the article completely.
The authors typically present their main objective or the thesis statement in the introduction or the first sentences of the body paragraphs. In order to evaluate the authors thesis, you should read the abstract at first and then the introduction. Most of the authors reflect their purpose on the first few sentences of the article.
In the article review, the authors argument summaries can be identified in the abstract, introduction and the conclusion. In order to assess the author’s supportive evidence and argument, you should use the following questions to answer them:
Writing a critical review of the article does not only involve presenting the summary of the article but also evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of the article. The strengths of a good article lies in its replicability, reproducibility and transparency. The replicability of the research article is important as it provide the opportunity to other researchers to test the findings of the study.
The weaknesses in the article may be identified in the form of too-broad thesis statement, a poorly formulated thesis, unfocused on inadequate topic sentences, writing off subject, failing to identify objections and inadequate conclusion.
Before writing a review article, it is important for you to organize the arguments and main points to be presented in the review. The outline of the review paper should include the title of the your paper, your name, the date, the course number and the days and time. It also must contain the headings for Abstract and the conclusion. The outline structure of the article review could be developed through identification of the thesis statement or the topic, deciding which points to be discussed, putting the points in logical and numerical order and explaining the transitions between the paragraphs.
While writing an article review, it becomes important for the writer to identify, evaluate and summarize the information and the ideas presented by the author. The main points of the article can be identified through reading carefully the abstract, introduction and the conclusion. The abstract gives a quick glance on the paper brief and the results of the article. You should identify the main points from these sections and select the most important ones to be discussed in the article review.
The article review writing requires high level of in-depth analysis and well-structured presentation. The order and flow of arguments that can be followed include the summarization, analysis, classification, critiques and comparison. Setting up a well-defined argument requires intense skills. The most important aspect in deciding the order and flow is to link actual words, clauses, phrases and ideas. The transitions indicate the relationships between different ideas.
The introduction should focus on expanding the abstract and set the scene for the review paper. The introduction should end with the description of the article’s aim, scope and structure. It lets the reader to know what to expect from the article. If it is possible, you should re-iterate the theme and the main message of the article.
The introduction of the review article should contain the main argument or thesis. You must clearly state the thesis statement. The thesis statement reflects the main idea of writing assignment and controls the idea within the paper. It reflects the opinion about the writer has made about reading or personal experience.
The last part of the introduction is to preview the main ideas to be discussed in the article review. Previewing the main points is important for activating prior knowledge and helping the readers to construct meaning from text and make sense of new information. It enables better concentration, critical thinking, storing and processing the information about the topic.
The main motive of the article review is to convey the topic or certain idea through evidence and arguments. While writing the summary, you should identify the main idea of the article and put the information in your own words. In order to identify the main ideas, you should be willing to read the article several times. In the first reading, you should understand what the article is trying to say. Then you should write down the first impression, it is mainly the thesis or main idea of the article.
It is at this point that the writer should read the article again to see the supporting arguments, the reasons the author gives for the main point. You should use the complete sentences to good transition words, be sure not to use same words, phrases or sentence structure.
While summarizing, you should ensure that the summary should not contain excessive quoting from scholarly articles, instead you should rely on your own words. Writing someone else work’s is at times known as paraphrasing which is an important skill to produce original work free from plagiarism. It is certain that the more you present in your own words the more you understand. Also, writing in own words help in avoiding the possibility of plagiarism.
After writing the introduction of the article review, the strengths and weaknesses lies in the study design, research question, sources of evidence, the study conducted and the justification in the conclusions. The strengths of the article can be identified in the population to be investigated, data used for several years to ensure the accuracy and the methods of choosing randomly. You should also check whether the author has followed the design or not.
The key to writing an article review is the critical thinking. It requires the student to critically read and reflect on the topic discussed by the author. It is important for the writer to assess the strong and weak sides of the article and evaluate how well the author has presented his viewpoints. In order to critique the author’s argument you should first read the article thoroughly and then collect the proof by checking the cited sources.
After presenting a review on the literature utilized by the author in the article, you should focus on developing own insights and perspectives. This can be done by starting with an overview of the topic with relevant context. Then, you should focus on understanding the main points of the author arguments and identify their weaknesses.
The conclusion section of the article review is intended to enable the readers to understand the importance of the article for them. It is not merely a summary of all the points but a synthesis of all the key points. In most of the cases, the conclusion summary is presented in one paragraph. Although, the conclusion can be presented in two to three paragraphs.
While writing the conclusion, you should restate the overall evaluation of the article by reflecting on the most important strengths and weaknesses. Meanwhile, larger emphasis should be given on the thesis statement and the results of the study conducted. You should also demonstrate the importance of ideas and introduce new possible ways to expand the research problem.
At last, you should present the final thought or recommendation on the topic of the article and the method adopted by the authors to conduct the study. It does not require to refer to the new information but offer creative approaches and insights for contextualizing and framing the research problem based on the results of the study.
After completing the article review, it is important for you to proof read and rectify any serious mistakes. The main motive of proofreading is to ensure that there are no lingering mistakes which improves the quality of the paper and correcting writing inconsistencies and generalized discourse errors. You should ensure a well-defined communication goal. The paper should be analyzed for mechanical correctness such as spelling, grammar, omitted words, punctuation, repeated words, typographical errors, spacing and format.
After assessing for the grammatical and spelling errors, you should ensure clarity and coherence in the writing. It is important that the article review should be clear and coherence. The clarity is important for writing as it ensures that the reader understands what is actually conveyed in the paper. Clear writing helps in communicative the ideas without any confusion or ambiguity. The clarity in writing involves appropriate style and tone of writing.
After checking the grammar and spelling errors, you should ensure clarity and coherence in writing through evaluating transitions between the paragraphs. You should now make any necessary changes in the article review to improve the quality and correctness. It was at this time when you should make any revisions in the review report.
After completing the proofreading and ensuring the clarity of the report, you should focus on formatting the review according the guidelines required. It may relates to the font, font size, alignment and other writing requirements. Proper formatting of the article can facilitate clear communication and provide signal to the readers about how you communicate in your field. It also displays the degree of professionalism. Formatting is merely a general arrangement of data which makes a worksheet neater and more legible outlook. It can create hierarchy of relative importance and emphasize on certain data among different elements of data.
The citations are not only to provide plagiarism but also used to acknowledge the work of other researchers and writers. The article review must contain proper citation and the reference list at the end. It is a way of giving credit for using certain material in the review from another source. The readers also get information about the source to verify the claims and arguments made in the review. It also provide a roadmap to the research process. The citation reflects the reader about the original source of generating idea by the author for information, image or ideas which is presented in the review.
After the completion of all the steps specified above, it is now time for you to double check the elements of review. Submitting a high quality work requires you to double check the entire work to ensure that it free from any types of grammatical or spelling errors. Also, the citations are used for acknowledging the work of others. A qualified article review writer must provide the reader with interpretation and analysis that demonstrates the value of the article.
Hi, I am Mark, a Literature writer by profession. Fueled by a lifelong passion for Literature, story, and creative expression, I went on to get a PhD in creative writing. Over all these years, my passion has helped me manage a publication of my write ups in prominent websites and e-magazines. I have also been working part-time as a writing expert for myassignmenthelp.com for 5+ years now. It’s fun to guide students on academic write ups and bag those top grades like a pro. Apart from my professional life, I am a big-time foodie and travel enthusiast in my personal life. So, when I am not working, I am probably travelling places to try regional delicacies and sharing my experiences with people through my blog.
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