Reading Academic Articles
🎯 Objectives
- Learn how to effectively read academic articles.
- Understand the different sections of an academic article.
How to Effectively Read Academic Articles
Academic articles can be quite hard to read. They often contain unfamiliar jargon related to a specific topic, can be quite dense and long, and can be difficult to understand if you don’t already know the topic. Be patient with yourself as you work to cultivate the skill of reading academic articles. Watch the following video to better understand how to read academic articles.
❗ If the video doesn't load correctly, reload the webpage to fix the problem.
🎓 Research has indicated that students often only read one or two pages from a research article (Howard et al., 2010). This is disappointing as the important pieces of information are dispersed throughout the academic paper. You don't necessarily have to read the whole paper, but take time to read valuable sections throughout the whole paper.
😉 Artificial intelligence can be used to better understand academic articles. For example, you can copy and paste a confusing part of an article into Chat GPT and ask it to create a short summary for you. If you choose, you can create an account and use the A.I. Research Assistant Elicit. Asking Elicit specific questions about a confusing article may help you understand it better.
❗When you use artificial intelligence the information is not always correct. You are still responsible to double check the validity of the information.
The Different Parts of an Academic Article
Like explained in the video, several different sections make up academic articles, such as the abstract, introduction, and conclusion. Explore and click on the interactive infographic below to learn about the different sections of academic articles. Make sure to click on each section to get a summary of the purpose of each section.
If the activity does not load, complete the activity at the following website: https://www.lib.ncsu.edu/tutorials/scholarly-articles/
❗ Caution: Many academic articles follow a similar format as the infographic above, but not all do. Don’t be alarmed when you come in contact with academic articles that have different sections, such as literature reviews, meta-analyses, and case studies. Different types of academic articles are also valuable.
What Have We Learned?
- Academic articles can be dense and difficult to read, but breaking them down into manageable parts can improve your understanding.
- Take notes while reading and don't be afraid to look up words that you don't understand.
Citation
Howard, Rebecca Moore, Tanya K. Rodrigue, & Tricia C. Serviss. “Writing from Sources, Writing from Sentences.” Writing and Pedagogy 2.2 (Fall 2010): 177-192.