A focused overview of a completed research study that is published in a peer-reviewed, scholarly source is presented in the process of summing up a journal article.Potential readers can get some insight into the article's focus by reading the journal article summary.College students and research assistants alike often write and summarize journal articles.You can learn to read the article effectively with an eye for summary, plan a successful summary and write it to completion with a little practice.
Step 1: Look at the abstract.
An abstract is a short paragraph written by the author.Most academic journals usually have no more than 100-200 words in the abstract.The highlights of the research study are provided in the abstract.The purpose of an abstract is to allow researchers to see if specific research articles are applicable to the work they are doing.If you're collecting research on immune system responses in rodents, you will be able to know in 100 words whether or not the research is in your field, but whether the conclusions back up your own findings, or differ from it.An article summary that looks like the abstract is not a good summary.An abstract is very short and can't give the same level of detail as a summary can.
Step 2: Understand how the research is being done.
If the article is written in response to another article on the topic, make sure you know what specifically the authors will be discussing or analyzing.By doing this, you will be able to pick out the arguments, quotes, and data in your summary.
Step 3: You should skip the conclusion.
To find out where the proposed research ends up, you should skip ahead to the conclusion.It is easier to comprehend the information if you read the researchers' conclusions first.If the research is still relevant, you need to go back and read the article again.If you're looking for opinions other than your own, you don't need to digest another source.
Step 4: The main argument of the article should be identified.
If you want to avoid having to read through the whole thing twice, make sure you get it right the first time.Take notes as you read.The beginning of the article is important.The author will most likely give a thesis for the entire article here.Determine the main argument or idea that the author or authors are trying to prove with the research by figuring out what the thesis is.Clues about which sentence is the thesis can be found by looking for words like hypothesis, results, typically, or clearly.The main argument of the research is in the margins.You can connect the rest of the article back to the main point if you keep your focus on it.Sometimes it's difficult to get a clear and concise thesis for an article in the humanities because they are often about complex, abstract ideas.To understand the author's ideas and what they're attempting to prove with their analysis, try to articulate it for yourself.
Step 5: Scan the arguments.
The main points discussed by the authors are highlighted in the various segments of the journal article.The authors have put forward a main idea in the beginning of the article, so focus on key concepts and ideas that have been proposed, trying to connect them back to that idea.Different areas of focus within a journal article will usually be marked with sub-section titles that target a specific step or development during the research study.The titles for these sub-sections are bolder than the rest of the text.Academic journals can be dry reading.Is it necessary to read through the author's 500 word proof of the formulas used in the research study?Maybe, but probably not.If you're picking out the main idea and why the content is there, then you don't need to read research articles word-for-word.
Step 6: While you are reading, take notes.
It's important to get the most out of your research and collection of information from academic journals.As you look through the material, read it.The journal article can be circled or highlighted to focus on the sub-section titles.The segments will usually include an introduction, methodology, research results, and a conclusion.
Step 7: A brief description of the research is what you should write down.
In a quick free write, describe the academic journey of the article, listing the steps taken from start to finish, describing methodology and the study undertaken, and that's what the actual summary will be for.When you're first starting, it's a good idea to turn off your filters and write down what you remember from the article.The main points needed to summarize will be discovered by these.
Step 8: Decide which parts of the article are most important.
These are the main supporting ideas of the article.These may be marked clearly, but they may require more work to uncover.The main argument of the author needs to be supported by major points in the summary.It is possible to describe the theoretical background of the research.In scientific writing, it's important to clearly summarize the hypotheses the researchers outlined before undertaking the research, as well as the procedures used in following through with the project.You should summary any statistical results with a basic interpretation of the data.It's a good idea to summarize the fundamental assumptions and school of thought from which the author comes, as well as the examples and the ideas presented throughout the article.
Step 9: Key words to use in the summary.
Make sure the majorKeywords used in the article are included in your summary.It's important that you understand the meanings of the more complex terms so that your summary reader can read them.The author coins need to be included in your summary.
Step 10: To keep it short.
Journal summaries don't have to be very long.The purpose of the summary is to give a brief description, either for use by the primary research collector or to help you digest the information at a later date in the research process.For most academic articles, you can make one paragraph per main point, ending up with no more than 500-1000 words.For most journal summaries, you'll be writing several short paragraphs that summarize each separate portion of the journal article.
Step 11: Do not use personal pronouns.
Step 12: As much as possible, keep the tone objective.
You are giving an overview of the article.
Step 13: The research question needs to be defined.
The focus of the research study should be discussed by the authors at the beginning of their article.The summary should begin here.In your own words, describe the main argument the authors hope to prove.The background for the experiment or study is usually the first thing you see in a scientific article.It will be followed by the development of a research question and testing procedures that will dictate the rest of the article.
Step 14: Discuss the methods used by the authors.
The research tools and methods used during the study are discussed in this portion.You need to explain how the authors came to their conclusions with first-hand research or data collection.The specifics of the testing procedures don't need to be included in your summary in their entirety, they should be reduced to a simple idea of how the research question was addressed.raw, pre-process data will sometimes accompany the results of the study.The summary should only include the processed data.
Step 15: The results should be described.
The summary needs to describe what the authors accomplished as a result of their work.Did the authors meet their objectives for conducting the research?What conclusions have been drawn from this research?What are the implications of this research?The conclusions and how those results were achieved should be covered in your summary.These are important parts of the article.
Step 16: The main ideas in the article need to be connected.
The relationships among the ideas presented by the authors should be shown in some summaries.The main purpose of the summary is to give a brief overview of what the authors have to say, making it important that you unpack those arguments and explain them in your own words.Clarify the research and summarize it briefly by filling in the blanks and assumptions.This is important in summaries of humanities articles.The author seeks to humanize Herbert by discussing his daily routines as opposed to his philosophies, so it might be helpful to unpack dense arguments about poet George Herbert's relationship to the divine with more pedestrian summaries.
Step 17: Don't draw conclusions of yourself.
Unless explicitly stated in the assignment, a summary of an article shouldn't offer your own interpretations of the data.The point of a summary is to summarize the authors' points.This can be difficult for some inexperienced research writers, but remember to keep the "I" out of it.
Step 18: Don't use direct quotations of text from the journal article.
For a journal article summary, quotations are less important than when writing a college paper.When writing a journal article summary, be careful not to lose focus of the meaning and intended content.
Step 19: The present tense can be used.
When discussing the contents of a scholarly article, always use the present tense.You will be able to maintain a parallel structure throughout.
Step 20: Make your draft better.
Good writing happens in revision.You can compare the focus and content of what you have written to see if it matches the context of the journal article.Potential readers of a journal article that has been summarized will get a short review, which is important when they are looking for information about a particular topic.