Did you receive your first article review assignment from your professor and don’t really know what this is? Or perhaps you have a general idea about what a review article is, but you don’t know how to start writing it. Don’t worry about it too much. Most students have been in your shoes. Nobody knows how to write such an essay until they write the first one. You just have to do one simple thing: learn how to write an article review.
In other words, you need to understand exactly what an article review is. Furthermore, it’s also important to learn why this piece of writing is important. And once you take a look at how a typical review looks like, you can go ahead and try your hand at writing your very first essay. We will show you all the steps you need to take to write the paper, of course. They apply to all kinds of reviews, including the law review article and the science article review.
What Is an Article Review?
Before you learn how to start an article review, it’s important to understand what this paper is. So, what is an article review? Basically, an article review is an essay in which you analyze and summarize another piece of writing. Yes, the subject can be one of your own papers. However, most professors will assign you a specific article to review. Article review writing experience may come in handy when you’ll have to write literature review section for more complex papers.
In a research article review, you need to figure out the theme of the paper you are analyzing and then identify all the important ideas, supporting arguments and even opportunities for future research. Bottom line, you need to understand all of the main points of the paper you are about to review. It goes without saying that you need to read the subject article before writing a review article about it.
But what is peer review article? You won’t have to write such a paper in 99% of cases, but it’s good to know what it is. In a peer-reviewed article, the original article is written by an expert and reviewed by several other experts. This is done to ensure a high level of quality. But again, you probably won’t need this information during high school and college.
Why Is the Article Review Important?
You are probably wondering why you need to learn to write a journal article review. The truth is that this kind of writing is very important for a wide variety of reasons:
- It can clarify specific questions.
- It provides much-needed clarifications for vague terms or missing information.
- It helps the original author identify his mistakes and better himself.
- It improves students’ analytical skills and writing skills.
A critical review of journal article is not easy to write, but learning how to do it correctly has many benefits. Keep in mind that you will receive many such assignments in high school and in college. In other words, you absolutely must learn how to write a review article. And the first step is to look at an article review template.
Article Review Example Structure
Whether you have to write an APA article review or any other type of review, you must know how to structure it properly. Here is the typical article review format with all its sections:
- The title page.
- Your name (and the name of your coordinator, if necessary).
- The date on which the review has been written.
- An abstract. It should be anywhere between 200 and 300 words and should summarize your entire writing very concisely. Everything from the review question and the study being reviewed to the conclusions of your review should be covered. Remember, no citations in the abstract! To learn how to write an article review the proper way, you need to also learn how to write an abstract.
- The introduction. Here, you provide some background information about the topic of your research. Clearly tell your readers what the article about to be reviewed is about. Also present the overall structure of the body paragraphs so that your readers can easily understand what you will be talking about.
- The body paragraphs. We recommend three body paragraphs. Each one will discuss the main ideas you’ve outlined in the introduction.
- The conclusion. Of course, you can’t learn how to write a critical review of a journal article without learning how to write a good conclusion for it. In this paragraph, you just need to explain the purpose of the original article again and your review’s rationale. What have you uncovered? What can be changed? What needs more research?
- The citations. This is the bibliography section, written per APA or MLA requirements.
Learn How to Write a Review Article the Right Way
Of course, the easiest way to learn how to review an article is to read at least one article review sample. A good example will help you tremendously, to be honest. And the good news is that you can easily buy an example from a writing company online. This way, you can be sure that the example will be 100% original (very important if you want to use some ideas from the example of an article review in your own writing).
To help you as much as possible, we’ve put together a guide about how to write a review of an article. Here are the basic steps you need to take:
- Analyze the article. You won’t be able to learn how to write a article review unless you are willing to read the article. During this step, you have to analyze the positive aspects of the paper and identify all the contradictions, inconsistencies and gaps left by the author. If there are any questions that don’t have an answer, write them down.
- Read the article very carefully and look at its abstract, opening sentences, title, headings, intro and conclusion. Of course, take note of all the main ideas in the article.
- Create an outline that will be used for your review. Everything you feel is important should have its own heading. Keep in mind that you need to discuss at least three major aspects in the body paragraphs. You can’t learn how to review a research article until you learn how to create a good outline.
- Write the three body paragraphs first. This way, you will have an easier time writing the introduction.
- Write the introduction and don’t forget to include the article’s thesis. Don’t use the first person. End the intro with your impression of the article being reviewed. Does it contain inconsistencies? Don’t be afraid to say it.
- Write the conclusion. As we stated previously, you should summarize everything in your review and provide your readers with your honest opinion about the reviewed work.
- Write the abstract and then the bibliography section (also known as Works Cited or References).
Learning how to write article review is not as difficult as you think. You just need to work a bit on your critical writing skills. Again, a good article review example from seasoned assignment writers will help you quite a lot. Don’t forget, it’s easier to follow an example than to write blindly.
