How To Summarize A Journal Article With Pictures

The purpose of an abstract is to allow researchers to quickly scan a journal and see if specific research articles are applicable to the work they are doing. If you’re collecting research on immune system responses in rodents, you’ll be able to know in 100 words not only whether or not the research is in your field, but whether the conclusions back up your own findings, or differ from it. Remember that an abstract and an article summary are two different things, so an article summary that looks just like the abstract is a poor summary. [1] X Research source An abstract is highly condensed and cannot provide the same level of detail regarding the research and its conclusions that a summary can. [2] X Research source

You still need to go back and actually read the article after coming to the conclusion, but only if the research is still applicable. If you’re collecting research, you may not need to digest another source that backs up your own if you’re looking for some dissenting opinions.

Pay special attention to the beginning paragraph or two of the article. This is where the author will most likely lay out their main ideas for the entire article. Figure out what the “thesis” is and determine the main argument or idea that the author or authors are trying to prove with the research. Look for words like hypothesis, results, typically, generally, or clearly to give you hints about which sentence is the thesis. Underline, highlight, or rewrite the main argument of the research in the margins. Keep yourself focused on this main point, so you’ll be able to connect the rest of the article back to that idea and see how it works together. In the humanities, it’s sometimes more difficult to get a clear and concise thesis for an article because they are often about complex, abstract ideas (like class in post-modern poetics, or feminist film, for example). If it’s unclear, try to articulate it for yourself, as best as you can understand the author’s ideas and what they’re attempting to prove with their analysis. Try to analyze the author’s tone, looking at some of the keywords that really tells you what they are trying to get across to you.

Different areas of focus within a journal article will usually be marked with subsection titles that target a specific step or development during the course of the research study. The titles for these sub-sections are usually bold and in a larger font than the remaining text. Keep in mind that academic journals are often dry reading. Is it absolutely necessary to read through the author’s 500 word proof of the formulas used in the glycerine solution fed to the frogs in the research study? Maybe, but probably not. It’s usually not essential to read research articles word-for-word, as long as you’re picking out the main idea, and why the content is there in the first place.

These segments will usually include an introduction, methodology, research results, and a conclusion in addition to a listing of references.

When you’re first getting started, it’s helpful to turn your filter off and just quickly write out what you remember from the article. These will help you discover the main points necessary to summarize.

Depending on the research, you may want to describe the theoretical background of the research, or the assumptions of the researchers. In scientific writing, it’s important to clearly summarize the hypotheses the researchers outlined before undertaking the research, as well as the procedures used in following through with the project. Summarize briefly any statistical results and include a rudimentary interpretation of the data for your summary. In humanities articles, it’s usually good to summarize the fundamental assumptions and the school of thought from which the author comes, as well as the examples and the ideas presented throughout the article.

Any words or terms that the author coins need to be included and discussed in your summary.

As a general rule of thumb, you can probably make one paragraph per main point, ending up with no more than 500-1000 words, for most academic articles. For most journal summaries, you’ll be writing several short paragraphs that summarize each separate portion of the journal article.

In scientific articles, usually there is an introduction which establishes the background for the experiment or study, and won’t provide you with much to summarize. It will be followed by the development of a research question and testing procedures, though, which are key in dictating the content for the rest of the article.

The specifics of the testing procedures don’t usually need to be included in your summary in their entirety; they should be reduced to a simple idea of how the research question was addressed. The results of the study will usually be processed data, sometimes accompanied by raw, pre-process data. Only the processed data needs to be included in the summary.

Make sure your summary covers the research question, the conclusions/results, and how those results were achieved. These are crucial parts of the article and cannot be left out.

This is sometimes more important in summaries dealing with articles in the humanities. For example, it might be helpful to unpack dense arguments about poet George Herbert’s relationship to the divine with more pedestrian summaries: “The author seeks to humanize Herbert by discussing his daily routines, as opposed to his philosophies. "

This can be difficult for some inexperienced research writers to get the hang of at first, but remember to keep the “I” out of it.

Check verbs after writing. If you’re using the same ones over and over, your reader will get bored. In this case, try to go back and really see if you can make really efficient choices.