How to Summarize and Critique a Peer Reviewed Article

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Summarizing a journal article is the process of presenting a focused overview of a completed inquiry study that is published in a peer-reviewed, scholarly source. A journal article summary provides potential readers with a brusque descriptive commentary, giving them some insight into the article's focus. Writing and summarizing a journal commodity is a common job for college students and enquiry assistants akin. With a piddling practice, you can larn to read the article effectively with an eye for summary, plan a successful summary, and write it to completion.

1. i

   Read the abstract. Abstracts are short paragraphs written by the author to summarize research articles. Abstracts are usually included in almost bookish journals and are generally no more than 100-200 words. The abstract provides a brusque summary of the content of the journal commodity, providing you with of import highlights of the research study.

   • The purpose of an abstract is to allow researchers to rapidly browse a journal and run across if specific inquiry manufactures are applicative to the work they are doing. If you're collecting research on allowed arrangement responses in rodents, you'll exist able to know in 100 words not only whether or not the research is in your field, just whether the conclusions back up your ain findings, or differ from it.
   • Recollect that an abstract and an commodity summary are two different things, so an article summary that looks just like the abstract is a poor summary.^[1] An abstract is highly condensed and cannot provide the aforementioned level of detail regarding the research and its conclusions that a summary can.^[2]

2. 2

   Sympathise the context of the research. Make sure you know what specifically the authors will be discussing or analyzing, why the research or the topic matters, whether or non the commodity is written in response to another commodity on the topic, etc. By doing this, you lot'll acquire what arguments, quotes, and data to pick out and analyze in your summary.

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3. 3

   Skip to the decision. Skip alee to the conclusion and find out where the proposed research ends up to acquire more about the topic and to sympathise where the complicated outlines and arguments will be leading. Information technology's much easier to cover the information if you read the researchers' conclusions showtime.

   • You nonetheless demand to get dorsum and actually read the article subsequently coming to the conclusion, only only if the research is however applicable. If you're collecting research, you may not need to digest another source that backs upwards your own if you're looking for some dissenting opinions.

4. 4

   Identify the chief statement or position of the article. To avert having to read through the whole affair twice to remind yourself of the main idea, make sure you go it right the first time. Accept notes as y'all read and highlight or underline main ideas.

   • Pay special attention to the first paragraph or two of the article. This is where the writer will almost likely lay out their thesis for the entire article. Figure out what the thesis is and make up one's mind the master argument or idea that the author or authors are trying to bear witness with the inquiry.
     • Look for words like hypothesis, results, typically, mostly, or clearly to requite you hints about which sentence is the thesis.
   • Underline, highlight, or rewrite the master statement of the enquiry in the margins. Keep yourself focused on this main point, and then you'll exist able to connect the residual of the article back to that idea and see how it works together.
   • In the humanities, information technology'southward sometimes more hard to get a clear and curtailed thesis for an article because they are often almost circuitous, abstract ideas (like class in post-modern poetics, or feminist film, for example). If information technology's unclear, try to articulate information technology for yourself, every bit best as you tin sympathise the author's ideas and what they're attempting to prove with their analysis.

5. 5

   Browse the statement. Continue reading through the various segments of the periodical article, highlighting main points discussed past the authors. Focus on central concepts and ideas that have been proposed, trying to connect them dorsum to that main idea the authors take put forrard in the offset of the commodity.

   • Unlike areas of focus within a journal article will commonly be marked with sub-section titles that target a specific footstep or evolution during the course of the inquiry study. The titles for these sub-sections are usually bold and in a larger font than the remaining text.
   • Continue in mind that bookish journals are often dry out reading. Is information technology absolutely necessary to read through the writer's 500 word proof of the formulas used in the glycerine solution fed to the frogs in the inquiry study? Maybe, simply probably non. It's usually non essential to read enquiry articles give-and-take-for-give-and-take, as long as you're picking out the chief idea, and why the content is there in the first place.

6. 6

   Take notes while you lot read. Efficiency is primal when you're doing research and collecting information from academic journals. Read actively as y'all comb through the cloth. Circle or highlight each individual portion of the journal article, focusing on the sub-section titles.^[3]

   • These segments volition usually include an introduction, methodology, inquiry results, and a determination in addition to a listing of references.

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1. i

   Write down a cursory description of the research. In a quick gratis write, depict the academic journey of the article, listing the steps taken from starting point to concluding results, describing methodology and the form of the study undertaken.There is no demand to be too specific; that's what the actual summary will be for.

   • When you're beginning getting started, information technology's helpful to turn your filter off and merely quickly write out what you call back from the commodity. These will help you discover the primary points necessary to summarize.

2. two

   Decide what aspects of the article are most of import. You might refer to these as the main supporting ideas, or sections, of the article. While these may be marked clearly with subheadings, they may require more than work to uncover. Anything that's a major indicate used to support the chief statement of the author needs to be present in the summary.

   • Depending on the inquiry, you lot may want to draw the theoretical background of the research, or the assumptions of the researchers. In scientific writing, information technology's important to conspicuously summarize the hypotheses the researchers outlined before undertaking the research, also as the procedures used in following through with the project. Summarize briefly any statistical results and include a rudimentary interpretation of the information for your summary.
   • In humanities manufactures, information technology's usually adept to summarize the primal assumptions and the school of thought from which the author comes, also as the examples and the ideas presented throughout the article.

3. 3

   Identify central vocabulary to utilize in the summary. Brand sure all the major keywords that are used in the article make it into your summary. It's important that you fully examine the meanings of these more complicated terms so that your summary reader can grasp the content as yous move forrad with the summary.

   • Any words or terms that the author coins need to be included and discussed in your summary.

4. iv

   Aim to keep it cursory. Journal summaries don't need to exist anywhere close to the length of the articles themselves. The purpose of the summary is to provide a condensed merely separate description of the research, either for use for the principal inquiry collector, or to help you redigest the information at a later engagement in the enquiry process.

   • As a general dominion of thumb, y'all can probably make one paragraph per main point, ending upwardly with no more than than 500-grand words, for nigh academic articles. For nigh journal summaries, you'll be writing several short paragraphs that summarize each split up portion of the journal article.

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1. 1

   Practice not use personal pronouns (I, you, u.s.a., we, our, your, my).

2. 2

   Keep the tone as objective every bit possible. You're not critiquing the article, you're giving an overview of it.

3. three

   Commencement by defining the research question. Toward the outset of the article, possibly in the introduction, the authors should discuss the focus of the inquiry study and what the targeted objectives were for conducting the research. This is where your summary should begin. Describe, in your own words, the primary argument the authors hope to prove with their research.

   • In scientific manufactures, normally there is an introduction which establishes the background for the experiment or written report, and won't provide you with much to summarize. Information technology will be followed by the development of a research question and testing procedures, though, which are central in dictating the content for the remainder of the article.

4. 4

   Hash out the methodology used by the authors. This portion discusses the enquiry tools and methods used during the study.^[4] In other words, you demand to summarize how the authors or researchers came to the conclusions they came to with first-hand enquiry or information drove.

   • The specifics of the testing procedures don't usually demand to exist included in your summary in their entirety; they should be reduced to a uncomplicated idea of how the research question was addressed. The results of the study volition usually exist processed data, sometimes accompanied by raw, pre-process data. Only the candy information needs to be included in the summary.

5. 5

   Draw the results. One of the most important parts of the summary needs to be describing what the authors achieved as a result of their piece of work.^[v] Were the authors successful and did they meet their objectives for conducting the research? What conclusions accept the authors drawn from this research? What are the implications of this research, as described in the article?

   • Make certain your summary covers the inquiry question, the conclusions/results, and how those results were achieved. These are crucial parts of the commodity and cannot be left out.

6. 6

   Connect the master ideas presented in the article. For some summaries, information technology'due south of import to show how the relationships among the ideas presented by the authors develop over the grade of the article. The primary objective of the summary is to present a brief overview of the authors' essential points to the reader, making it important that y'all unpack those arguments and explicate them in your own words. Fill in the blanks and assumptions, helping to clarify the research and summarize it briefly.

   • This is sometimes more of import in summaries dealing with manufactures in the humanities. For example, it might be helpful to unpack dumbo arguments about poet George Herbert'southward human relationship to the divine with more pedestrian summaries: "The author seeks to humanize Herbert by discussing his daily routines, every bit opposed to his philosophies."

7. seven

   Don't draw your own conclusions. A summary of an article shouldn't editorialize, or offer your ain interpretations of the data, unless explicitly stated as part of the assignment. In full general, the point of a summary is to summarize the authors' points, non to offering your own additions and editorials.

   • This tin can be difficult for some inexperienced enquiry writers to get the hang of at first, but call back to continue the "I" out of information technology.

8. 8

   Refrain from using directly quotations of text from the periodical article. Quotations are more oftentimes used when writing a college paper or essay, and are less important for a journal article summary. Focus more on paraphrasing the ideas when writing a journal article summary without losing focus of their pregnant and intended content.

9. 9

   Employ present tense. Always utilize the present tense when you are discussing the contents of a scholarly article. This will help you maintain a parallel grammatical structure throughout.

10. 10

    Revise your draft . Good writing happens in revision. Go back and compare the focus and content of what you have written to come across that information technology matches and supports the context of the journal article. A journal article that has been properly summarized provides potential readers with a short review, which is important when they are browsing and searching for specific information nigh a detail topic.

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Sample Summaries

Add New Question

• Question

  How do I summarize a referee journal commodity?

  

  A "refereed" journal article is the same as a peer-reviewed journal commodity. This only ways that all of the content has been fact-checked by a console of experts before being canonical for publication. All of the above steps apply.

• Question

  Pace half dozen says to take notes while I read. Is it a good thought to take notes while scanning or should I just take notes after?

  

  Daniela Alvarez

  Customs Answer

  Take notes while scanning to recall what interested y'all the almost. Afterwards, go back, if the commodity will be used, to empathize those topics better and so that if you lot had to explain it to someone, you could without a trouble.

• Question

  How tin can I write a summary of multiple articles?

  

  Taqi Anwar

  Community Answer

  Read all articles and write separate summaries. Then summarize the like summaries one time over again; hence you will get two to three similar drafts. Now finally write the primary points of these narrowed down drafts in one commodity.

• Question

  When summarizing, should I be objective, or follow what the author says?

  

  Davit639

  Community Answer

  It is preferable to exist subjective during summarizing, as you need to draw conclusion from the information provided only by the author(s) of the commodity.

• Question

  Is there any limit for summary? If 20-30 manufactures are reviewed, then how can I sum them up?

  

  Summarize a unlike article in each paragraph, and try to make each summary smaller if possible. Then, find a style to mash up all the summaries in one. There is no limit but the shorter the unabridged summary is, the ameliorate.

• Question

  How exercise I write highlights of articles?

  

  Article highlights consist of brusk bullet points that convey the cadre findings of an article and provide readers with a quick textual overview. Specific journals accept dissimilar requirements so information technology is best to bank check the guide to authors section of the periodical website to ensure you lot keep within discussion limits.

• Question

  Should a journal synopsis have a championship?

  

  Yes. I recommend titling it as "Summary of (commodity name italicized)"; this way, the title is straight to the betoken. If yous are summarizing multiple articles, title the folio with the field of study you are writing about (be specific!).

• Question

  The article says that I need to include my main supporting ideas. Where do I include those in the writing?

  

  The main supporting ideas are generally going to be thought of every bit the meat of your article paragraphs. You tin include them as headers of the sections, or you tin but use them as inspiration for the section'southward content.

• Question

  Are summaries supposed to have encompass pages included forth with them?

  

  If it is for a school assignment, that depends on the instructor. Some instructors require cover pages, while others exercise non.

• Question

  Do I need to have sub topics in my summary?

  

  Information technology all depends on what or who your summary is about. Calculation a sub topic is important in some topics that yous are doing, as it often helps the person who is reading the summary to gather, analyse, and process a scrap of germination on what is beingness presented to them. If information technology helps requite a little scrap of information that would allow you to make a logical determination near the summary, then do and so.

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Article Summary X

To summarize a periodical article, start by reading the author's abstract, which tells you lot the main argument of the commodity. Next, read the article advisedly, highlighting portions, identifying cardinal vocabulary, and taking notes as yous get. In your summary, define the research question, point the methodology used, and focus mostly on the results of the research. Use your notes to help you stay focused on the main argument and ever keep your tone objective—avert using personal pronouns and drawing your own conclusions. For tips on how to read through the journal commodity thoroughly, such every bit starting with the conclusion, continue reading!

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