Composition I - ENGL 1301

Okay, yes.... Attempting to read a scholarly research article for the first time may seem overwhelming and confusing.  We'll break down the parts of a scholarly research article in a bit but first, lets cover the dos and don'ts of reading research.

• Don't Approach the Article Like a Textbook: Aka don't read from beginning to end of the chapter or article without pause for reflection or criticism.
• Do Take Notes As you Read: Highlight and take notes as you move through the article. Taking notes will keep you focused on the task at hand and help you work towards comprehension of the entire article.
• Do Note Any Unfamiliar Terms: These can be helpful not only in gaining a better understanding of the article, but also your topic and even your coursework!

1. Skim the article. This should only take you a few minutes. You are not trying to comprehend the entire article at this point, but just get a basic overview. You don’t have to read in order; the discussion/conclusions will help you to determine if the article is relevant to your research. You might then continue on to the Introduction. Pay attention to the structure of the article, headings, and figures.
    
2. Grasp the vocabulary. Begin to go through the article and highlight words and phrases you do not understand. Some words or phrases you may be able to get an understanding from the context in which it is used, but others may require a subject-specific dictionaries.
    
3. Identify the structure of the article and work on your comprehension. Most journals use an IMRD structure: An abstract followed by Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion. If you learn to look for these features you will begin to read and comprehend research articles more quickly. You can read the article in any order, but the library recommends the following:
   • Introduction: Purpose or rationale of study (why they did it)
     • The introduction gives background information about the topic and sets out specific questions to be addressed by the authors. You can skim through the introduction if you are already familiar with the paper’s topic.
   • Discussion: Conclusion (what it means)
     • The discussion is the authors’ opportunity to give their opinions. Keep in mind that the discussions are the authors’ interpretations and not necessarily facts. It is still a good place for you to get ideas about what kind of research questions are still unanswered in the field and what types of questions you might want to explore in other sources.
   • Results (what they found)
     • The results are the meat of the scientific article and contain all of the data from the experiments. You should spend time looking at all the graphs, pictures, and tables as these figures will contain most of the data.
   • Methodology (how they did it)
     • The methods section gives technical details of how the experiments were carried out and serves as a “how-to” manual if you wanted to replicate the same experiments as the authors. This is another section you may want to only skim unless you wish to identify the methods used by the researchers or if you intend to replicate the research yourself.
        
4. Read the bibliography/references section. Reading the references or works cited may lead you to other useful resources. You might also get a better understanding of the basic terminology and main concepts of your research topic..
    
5. Reflect on what you have read and draw your own conclusions. As you are reading jot down any questions that come to mind. They may be answered later on in the article or you may have stumbled upon something that the authors did not consider. Here are some examples of questions you may ask yourself as you read:
    
   • Have I taken time to understand all the terminology?
   • Do I have any reason to question the credibility of this research?
   • What specific problem does the research address and why is it important?
   • How do these results relate to my topic or to other works which I have read?
      
6. Read the article a second time in chronological order. Reading the article a second time will reinforce your overall understanding. You may even start to make connections to other articles that you have read on this topic.