Learning Connection
The purpose of an article review is to provide readers with an informed and succinct analysis of one or several articles so that they can decide whether the article/s is useful to them. The review:
Article reviews may be as short as 300 words or as long as 1000 words. They are often set as early assessment tasks at university as a way of introducing you to the literature in your field of study. They also provide valuable information about your knowledge of the content area, ability to understand and interpret what you read and your writing skills. First year students may find that lecturers have very specific requirements for a review to allow for limited knowledge of the field. For example you may or may not be required to refer to other literature. Always be sure to check the requirements of the task as described in the course outline.
Staff setting article reviews usually require that you:
or
As a reviewer you are usually expected to draw on a broad knowledge of the content area for each article under review.
Article reviews have three main parts or stages
The summary and critique follow one another without the use of subheadings. More information about summarising and critiquing is given below.
Steps in writing an article review
When preparing to write an article review you undertake a number of different activities:
Before you begin reading your article/s you need to start thinking about yourself as a reviewer. This means you must have a clear idea about your purpose so that you can approach the article and the related readings with useful questions in mind. You may need to allow quite a lot of time for thinking about the topic, reading and analysing the article, and reading more widely.
Brainstorming the topic can be a good starting point before you start your detailed reading. To brainstorm you use a piece of paper to jot down all that you know about the topic and all your questions about it. Ask yourself whether you know about alternative views that have been presented on this topic. This can help you to identify the strengths and gaps in your knowledge and it may prompt questions that will guide your initial reading of the article as well as your wider reading.
Some of the following questions might be helpful in your reading of the article/s:
Clearly some of these questions will be addressed through your wider reading on the topic.
Your notes provide a record of your thinking and they will help in writing your review. Notes on the main article/s should include an outline of the author’s argument and the framework of the overall article/s for this forms the basis of your summary. Noting the relevant bibliographic details about all sources (author, date, title, publisher etc) ensures that you have the information you need when you start writing.
Remember that you are writing for an audience that is interested in your assessment of the article/s.
Provide the required bibliographic information at the beginning: author, title, year of publication, name and number of journal. Inform the reader in clear and concise terms that you are writing about a particular article by a particular author.
A good summary demonstrates that you understood the article well. In the summary you provide readers with:
The critique is your evaluation of the article based on your reading and analysis of the article/s and the related literature. If you take up and critique each of the points made in the summary your critique will mirror the organisation of the summary. As you write about the strength or weakness of the article you need to be explicit about your reasons for forming your views. You need to show your reader evidence that influenced you. For example if you consider that the author presented a biased point of view you need to provide examples of bias from the article.
Sometimes it is appropriate to offer recommendations. For example you may decide that the article has valuable ideas but they are difficult to find because the article is not well organised. You might want to recommend another author’s work on the same topic. You can do this as long as you support your point of view. This enables your readers to make their own decisions about the article in the light of the evidence that you have presented.
As with all written work at university you need to allow time for revision between the completion of the first draft and the final version. Some students find it useful to use this time to seek comment on their first draft. You could ask someone to give you feedback on whether:
Note that your assignment has to represent your work—in seeking feedback you should not ask another person to amend or rewrite any part of your work, but you can use their comments as a basis for refining your work.
Use feedback from previous assignments to inform your current work. Staff may indicate your strengths and weaknesses—make good use of the feedback that you receive.
If you are writing your first article review you may wish to read a review that someone else has written. Most professional journals for your course have a review section where you can read published reviews on issues relevant to your studies. See the journals recommended by your lecturer or use the Library to locate relevant periodicals.
When you look at a review that could serve as a model, you need to consider the review’s purpose, structure, organisation, and use of language. What does it set out to do and how well does it do it?
