article review template apa

article review template apa

The Importance of Using an APA Article Review Template

1. Introduction

It’s always good to ask your instructor some questions if there’s something you’re not sure of. This guideline applies for all assignments in general.

Although the content of a review is highly variable, they are essentially the same. An article review is an analysis combined with a summary of scholarly or other articles and it’s quite a common assignment in many subjects. It gives you a chance to practice and demonstrate your understanding of the reading. And it’s supposed to teach you how to evaluate the explanation: the clearer the better. It helps you learn how to engage critically with the text and take a viewpoint. For example, agreeing or disagreeing, comparing your own knowledge to something new, or reading the article in the context of a certain theory or different perspective.

As you progress from one assignment to the next, I will stress collaborative learning and peer editing so students can improve their writing skills. This is something that will gradually improve over the semester.

Article reviews are common assignments that are aimed to give a better understanding of a certain topic. It is true that for many students, the toughest part of a review assignment is getting started. In these assignments, we find a great range of variety in the type of article that we have to do a review on. Ranging from professional journal articles to informal papers, the article review is quite often a more complex and demanding writing assignment than a simple summary.

2. Benefits of Using an APA Article Review Template

The usage of an APA article review template offers a few kinds of benefits. First, it can help to avoid the unnecessary repetition of the mistakes made in previous documentation of the similar articles, thus saving the reviewer’s time. It can also assist to allow authors to revise their article in response to reviews in a systematic way, as the checklist of items provides clear goals for improvement. If it has a hierarchical structure that mirrors the sections of the article, it can more easily guide the reviewer and the author about what should be focused on in each section of the article. For example, it might remind the reviewer to look for evidence in the Discussion section that the limitations of the study have been adequately addressed, and if not, to comment on this. Finally, a good template can be educational, helping authors and reviewers to understand what makes a strong article. For these high reasons, reviewers and authors are encouraged to use the APA article template as they are learning the article, its structure, and the criteria for a well-written discussion and a strong article. (taken from The importance of the study of an APA article review template in the Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation).

3. How to Use an APA Article Review Template

One can best understand the way to organize a template by looking through an article review template. While an article review is an article of its own, it does take a distinctive strategy from a journal article. Journal articles follow an IMRD structure (Introduction, Method, Results, Discussion), and the majority of authors will tell you that a well-crafted IMRD piece is enjoyable to write as well as most pleasing to readers. Meanwhile, the purpose of an article review is to compare and contrast an IMRD article with another form of the article on the same subject. In order to do this, one must boil down the IMRD article into key points and then analyze its organization and effectiveness in conveying the message. While this is a complex mental exercise, the key to a good review lies in thorough organization. Therefore, an article review actually has a similar aim to that of an annotated bibliography. One must take the article and condense it down to a referenced statement, then comment on the validity and quality of the statement. It is for this reason that I have taken the initiative to design a guided template for an article review.

4. Tips for Writing an Effective Article Review

Outline the article review. In the preface, give the reader a brief summary of the article that you are reviewing. Provide the reader with some idea of the points that you are attacking. Often, this preface will tell the reader how useful the article is to you. Let the reader know whether or not the article is accurate, unbiased, and informative. State if the author has achieved the purpose of his article. Is the article helpful, interesting, and concise? The prefatory summary should be only one paragraph long. After the preface, move on to a brief analysis of the article. The analysis should contain different points than the summary. Here you will make several points, supported by the evidence provided during the article. The points should conclude whether or not the article is effective. During the analysis, attempt to determine the methods and framework that the author has used. Often they will be of a defined methodology, however, there are times where an author will use a specific framework. At this point, determine the validity of these methods and whether or not they are effective in providing the answers to the questions that may have been posed in the article. Now would also be a good time to make comparisons with any alternative method and/or framework, weighing them against what the author has provided. A review should include all of the above.

5. Conclusion

In conclusion, we can affirm that using an APA article review template is very significant, and we can see exactly why. By using a template to correctly format your paper, it gives the reader an easy way to follow your writing as they go through your article or review. This is particularly important in psychology, as the results of a study may mean different things to different people. If the paper is not written in the correct quality and the reader finds it hard to read, they may misinterpret the study or lose interest. By following an article review template, it also gives the writer a clear idea of what they are trying to achieve with their review. If certain points are needed for summarizing an article or comparing two works, the writer will know exactly where to find the correct information. Finally, by using a template, it is less likely that the writer will go off topic and end up making a review which is off its original purpose. Although this can be beneficial in some cases, the review may not fulfill the assignment criteria and the writer will be asked to start again. Using a template and following the steps it sets is a fail-safe way of completing a good article review.