Tips for Summarizing Articles

Tips for Summarizing Articles

Article summary is most commonly assigned task by the instructors in all facets of education and educational levels. As you step up the ladder of educational level your article summaries and articles starts getting critical. What is the point that is missed by the majority of the student, while writing article summaries that land them in getting lower grades? Well, for that the first step is to understand what exactly article summary is. Article summary is a short paper, concentrated to ideas and concepts of one scholarly article. This actually is article’s critical reading, where rudimentary method of writing a summary differ for both argumentative article and empirical article. For argumentative article, the summary should identify, explain and analyses the thesis (central idea) and supporting arguments to it; whereas, for empirical articles, a summary should be focused on identifying, explaining and analyzing research question(s)/hypothesis, methods and findings of the research. Despite the fact, article summary does not account for a portion of your grade; however, it cannot be denied that they indicates the skills of reading and writing of a student. Professors, through article summaries evaluates students' skills of writing, reading and critically evaluating the main idea proposed in the article. What students usually perceive when it comes to article writing summaries is reproducing what is written in the article, while forgetting the essence of critically evaluating the study of the research conducted by the author in the scholarly article and create a significant relation to the discipline of your study (e.g. Human Resources, Management, Marketing, Anthropology, Political Science, or Social Science).

Problems Encountered by Students in Article Summaries

Most Common mistake made by students while writing article summary is that they misinterpret the actual aim of the assignment. Your job, in article summary is to write about the article, which means, the idea proposed in the article, rather than writing on the actual topic of the article. Let’s take an example, an article by Jason is about the Black Death, causes of the Bubonic plague in Europe, now what you here need to do is to start off with a key pointer like, what was the background of the study? What is the research question, in other words, what is Jason trying to find out? What is the method used by the author to conduct the research? What evidences are used by him? What is the actual finding of the research? Here, important point of difference is that you are not writing an assignment on finding Actual Cause of Black Death (Bubonic plague in Europe). Moreover, it is always advisable and temping to provide your own opinion or incorporate your personal assessment about the thesis and findings. This merely makes your article summary more readable and enables you communicate your personal understanding to the professor.

Things to Consider

Develop an Outline

Constructing an outline is one way to make certain that the entire scholarly article is read carefully and understood. Here is what you need to do:

? Start by reading abstract, introduction and conclusion first,

? Make pointers of research question(s), hypothesis and findings,

? Skim headings and sub headlining cautiously, and

? Make side notes or highlight all important points.

This comprehensive strategy will help you analyze that how each idea in the article is connected to each other and what actually is the topic and direction of the study in the article.

Structure of Article Summary

Article summary does not comprise of any headlining or subheading, rather it is written in general paragraph form. It starts with a concise and clear introduction, defining the topic of the article, purpose of article, research question(s) and thesis or findings. It is then followed by a body section. The body paragraph of an argumentative essay explains the evidences supporting the argument. While for the empirical article, the body paragraph will comprise of detail explanation of method of research employed by the article, its justification and findings. In both cases, conclusion explains the rational and the significance of the argument, along with the future implications of the findings. This structure of article summary ensures that the summary is clear and focused.

These are merely the guidelines, however, brevity of words must come from your end to validate that the article is well-comprehended by you. It is advisable to take assistance of professionals in any case you doubt of producing a UK standard Article summary. For assistance and help, please refer to UK Essay Help

Must come from your end to validate that the article is well-comprehended by you. It is advisable to take assistance of professionals in any case you doubt of producing a UK standard Article summary.