Engl105 Scholarly Articles 101 How To Read A Scholarly Article

Leo Migdal

-Dec 12, 2025, 9:16 AM

engl105 scholarly articles 101 how to read a scholarly article

Scholarly articles can be very intimidating! They are written by experts for other experts in a field, so they can be filled with technical, confusing jargon. Studies that are measuring something might have long strings of complicated statistics or equations. How are we supposed to get through all of that and figure out what the article is saying? Here are some tips that can help make scholarly articles a little more approachable. The purpose of an abstract is to act as a preview for the rest of the article.

Usually the abstract will touch on the importance of a topic, the methods used and results found (if a study was involved), and the conclusions the authors reached. All of this should let you know if the article will be a good fit for you and whether you should dedicate more time to reading the entire article or not. The introduction will give you a lot more background information on the topic of the article. The conclusion will tell you what actually happened in the study, as well as the author's interpretation of these results and ideas for future areas of study. Taking the time to read and understand these two sections toward the beginning of your reading process should make the additional sections of the article a little easier to comprehend. Looking at tables, charts, or graphs can often make more sense than reading sentences with long strings of statistics or other numbers.

Try to draw some conclusions from this data and then compare your ideas with the author's own conclusions. You should have a little more knowledge of the ideas the article is discussing and it should be a little easier to understand using that context. As you read, it can often be helpful to take notes, either directly on the article or in your notebook, especially if there are quotes you may want to reference in your project! Skipping around is encouraged when reading a scholarly article: Skimming these sections first will allow you to quickly determine if the article is relevant to your research and if you should do an in-depth reading. The abstract previews the entire article, makes it easier to judge whether it is relevant.

Learn more about the topic of study and what the authors learned through their research. Applies to both sciences and humanities: This page will focus on reading scholarly articles — published reports on original research in the social sciences, humanities, and STEM fields. Reading and understanding this type of article can be challenging. This guide will help you develop these skills, which can be learned and improved upon with practice. Describes who is responsible for this work.

May be one person, a group, or an institution. Make note of authors and institutions you see repeatedly during your search process. Describe the content in quick words or phrases. Help you place the work in context with other literature. Good for quick reference! P laces the research in context with prior work.

Analyzes important contributions that the author(s) believe are relevant and that the article builds upon to create new knowledge. Sometimes includes a theoretical framework. A good place to look to find additional sources for your research! An explanation of how and why the authors approached the examination of their question and the collection of data. May include information about the limitations of their chosen methodology. Research papers generally follow a specific format.

Here are the different parts of the scholarly article. The abstract, generally written by the author(s) of the article, provides a concise summary of the whole article. Usually it highlights the focus, study results and conclusion(s) of the article. In this section, the authors introduce their topic, explain the purpose of the study, and present why it is important, unique or how it adds to existing knowledge in their field. Look for the author's hypothesis or thesis here. Introduction - Literature Review (Who else)

Many scholarly articles include a summary of previous research or discussions published on this topic, called a "Literature Review". This section outlines what others have found and what questions still remain. Cunningham, A., & Hannon, R. (2013). Reinforcing College Reading Strategies in the Library Classroom. LOEX Quarterly, 40(1).

https://commons.emich.edu/loexquarterly/ vol40/iss1/4 Middlesex Community College Jean Burr Smith Library. (2017). How to Read a Scholarly Journal Article. https://mxcc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/How-to-read-a-scholarly-article_rev7_2016.pdf Reading Techniques.

(2017, April 18). Dartmouth Academic Skills Center. https://students.dartmouth.edu/academic-skills/learning-resources/learning-strategies/reading-techniques Scanning and skimming are essential when reading scholarly articles, especially at the beginning stages of your research or when you have a lot of material in front of you. Many scholarly articles are organized to help you scan and skim efficiently. The next time you need to read a scholarly article, use the following chart as a guide:

This page will focus on reading scholarly articles — published reports on original research in the social sciences, humanities, and STEM fields. Reading and understanding this type of article can be challenging. This guide will help you develop these skills, which can be learned and improved upon with practice. There are many different types of articles that may be found in scholarly journals and other academic publications. For more, see: Describes who is responsible for this work.

Analyzes important contributions that the author(s) believe are relevant and that the article builds upon to create new knowledge. Sometimes includes a theoretical framework. A good place to look to find additional sources for your research! The resources below identify and define the parts of a scholarly article -- including: And suggest ways to navigate through and takes notes on these different sections in order to distill and process the key information to apply it to your own research analysis and writing. Please note that although some of the links below focus on "scientific" papers, the principals they build upon are relevant for reading any kind of scholarly article.

Reading scholarly articles is a skill that you develop. Unlike a book chapter or magazine article you might read from start to finish, research articles are organized in a way that facilitates a more selective reading process, i.e. skimming and/or reading sections in a different order. There is no single way to correctly read a scholarly article. Even the researchers you're working with (PI, postdocs, grad students) may their own way of breaking down and reading articles, both within and outside of their field. Along with asking about their practices, here are some other resources:

Don't think of scholarly articles as books that you read from start to finish. Still good? Start reading all the through. Read once for an overall impression, then read a second time (or more) to start taking notes and highlighting choice bits. Lone Star College-University Park • Library 20515 SH 249 • Building 12, 8th Floor • Houston, TX 77070 This work by Lone Star College-University Park Library is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Engl105 Scholarly Articles 101 How To Read A Scholarly Article

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