Quick Tips for Reading Articles
Here are a few tips about reading scholarly articles. Most important? Remember reading front to back is for novels and mysteries! Don't be afraid to read out of order.
- Label the article parts
- Start with the abstract—it should unlock the rest of the article
- Figure out what they found out first, then figure out how they got there
- If the graphs don’t make sense, ignore them and read their explanation of the graphs instead.
- Look up words you don't know
- Summarize as you read--it saves time.
Parts of an article
Student Resources
- Critical Reading research guideFrom Harvard
- Predatory Reading (pdf download)From Bowdoin
- Anatomy of a Scholarly ArticleFrom NC State
- How to Read a Scholary Article (video)From Western University
- Reading Games: Strategies for reading scholarly sources (pdf download)By Karen Rosenberg from Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Volume 2
- Taking Notes from Research ReadingFrom University of Toronto
- How to Read and Review A Scientific Journal ArticleFrom Duke University