Writing Article Reviews

Undergraduate students are often asked to write article reviews because they introduce students to the field and help to develop their critical thinking skills. Some professors have their own specific requirements for the article review, so always refer to those, but I will offer you some general guidelines that will help you get started. .
The purpose of reviewing an article review is to provide your reader with your evaluation of the article along with a brief summary of its argument and reasoning. Organize your paper using a thesis statement, just like in a research paper, but your thesis here will be an evaluation of the article and the reasons for such a positive or negative appraisal. Often, articles have strengths and weaknesses and it’s important to list to your reasons for both. Here are a few questions to help you assess the quality of an article:

• Is the author a reputable researcher in this field?
• Are the references used for the study current and reputable?
• Is the article organized and clearly expressed or is it unnecessarily confusing?
• Is the author free of bias or charged with emotion?
• Do the results of the study confirm or disprove what the author expected?
• Does the conclusion follow the given evidence, or is it somehow unrelated?
• Why is this article important?

Keep in mind these are merely a few questions you might ask yourself to help you assess the worth of an article. Articles that are based on a research study will offer you many opportunities to question the research methods and sample used. A full citation in the format used in your field (either APA, MLA, etc.) of the article in review should be at the top of your first page.
These tips for writing an article review were gathered from the following links. Check them out for more information.

University of Toronto
Queens
Cornell University


Natalie