How to Read Articles

Reading research can seem intimidating, but it should be fairly easy as you go on since  most published research follows a similar format.

In order to see if you comprehend the material, after reading articles you should be able to summarize it in your own words pretty quickly. If not, you should re-read the article. It's not necessary to be able to analyze the data, but you should certaintly be able to give a brief overview of what the article was about.

It's important to note that the goal of any paper is that the writer(s) are contributing to moving the ball forward - this could be a tiny update or merely a replication of previous work. As a reader, you should be able to realize what they are contributing. As a writer, you should make it clear what you are contributing.

The format that is usually followed includes the abstract, followed by an introduction, a literature review, a methods section, a findings (or results) section, discussion (or conclusion), and lastly, references.

Abstract
The abstract is usually about 150-200 words and states what the research is about.

Introductin
Followed by that is the introduction. Here, the authors establish the importance of the research topic.

Literature Review
This section discusses previous research on the presented topic.

Methods
Here, the design used for the study is explained.

Results/Findings
The findings of the study are presented here.

Conclusion/Discussion
This section paints a broader picture of the research study.

References
This section lists all references.