Research Guides: How to Write Article Summaries, Reviews & Critiques: Writing an article REVIEW

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Writing an article REVIEW

A journal article review is written for a reader who is knowledgeable in the discipline and is interested not just in the coverage and content of the article being reviewed, but also in your critical assessment of the ideas and argument that are being presented by the author.

Your review might be guided by the following questions:

Attribute	Question
Objectives	What does the article set out to do?
Theory	Is there an explicit theoretical framework? If not, are there important theoretical assumptions?
Concepts	What are the central concepts? Are they clearly defined?
Argument	What is the central argument? Are there specific hypotheses?
Method	What methods are employed to test these?
Evidence	Is evidence provided? How adequate is it?
Values	Are value positions clear or are they implicit?
Literature	How does the work fit into the wider literature?
Contribution	How well does the work advance our knowledge of the subject?
Style	How clear is the author's language/style/expression?
Conclusion	A brief overall assessment.

Additional Resources

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How to Write an Article Review (from Essaypro.com)

How to Review a Journal Article (from University of Illinois Springfield)

Writing Critical Reviews (from Queen's University Library)