How to summarize an Article

Summarizing a journal article is the process of highlighting and presenting a focused overview of completed research studies. A journal article summary provides potential readers with a short descriptive commentary, giving them some insight into the article's focus.

Writing and summarizing a journal article is a common task for college students during their several years of study. Completing a journal article summary requires skill and practice. Here are some helpful hints and suggestions for developing your expertise in summarizing a journal article.

Steps:

1. Read the initial abstract located at the very beginning, which is usually in the form of a short paragraph. The abstract is a short summary of the content of the journal article that will provide you with important highlights of the research study.

2. Scan and continue reading through the various segments of the journal article, highlighting main points discussed by the authors. Focus on key concepts and ideas that have been proposed.

3. Realize that separate areas of focus within a journal article generally include sub-section titles that target a specific step or development during the course of the research studies. The titles for these sub-sections are usually bold and are in a larger font than the remaining text.

Circle or highlight each individual portion of the journal article, focusing on the sub-section titles. These segments will usually include an introduction, methodology, research results and a conclusion in addition to a listing of references.

4. Continue the process by creating a rough draft for summarizing a journal article. You will be writing several, short paragraphs that summarize each separate portion of the journal article.

5. Show the relationships among the ideas presented by the authors within the journal article. The primary objective of the summary is to present a brief overview of the authors' essential points to the reader.

6. Refrain from using direct quotations of text from the journal article. Quotations are more often used when writing a college paper and not a journal article summary. Focus more on paraphrasing the ideas when writing a journal article summary without losing focus of their meaning and intended content.

7. Start by focusing on the introduction. This section briefly discusses the focus of the research study and what the targeted objectives were for conducting the research.

8. Move on by discussing the methodology used by the authors. This portion discusses the research tools and methods used during the study.

9. Write a brief overview of their research results and what the authors accomplished as a result of their work. Were the authors successful and did they meet their objectives for conducting the research?

10. Conclude in discussing closing statements made by the authors. This section usually focuses on what was accomplished and learned during the research and how the work may benefit others within the same field of study.

11. Review your rough draft. Go back and compare the focus and content of what you have written to see that it 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 about a particular topic.

Date: 2015-12-24; view: 959