article review apa format example

article review apa format example

How to Write an Effective Article Review in APA Format

1. Introduction

Academic writing is a precise activity that needs to be done following certain conventions. One such convention is using article review format. Most students often find it difficult to write APA format article review. This can be quite complex and very often students find it hard to differentiate between a summary and analysis. Writing an article review in APA format follows a tedious and time-consuming task. This is because APA format is used for writing academic journals and articles. This needs to be followed when you are tasked to write an article review as the major problem in article review writing is the understanding of the APA format, which would be a tough task for the students. Let us start by using an example where imagine you are given a task to write an article review. Often students will be given a specific article or they will have to search for one by themselves. Even if students are successful in finding an article, they may not be successful in differentiating tedious articles from informative ones. One should always make use of reputable journals in order to write a good article review. This task though may not be as complicated as the article review itself, so this can be considered as a starting point. You should always read and well understand what you are writing an article review of. Only then the task will be accomplished accurately and can be done in a time-saving manner.

2. Understanding the APA Format

This level of understanding is a key aspect of the APA format. The writer must be fully aware of the subject matter and must provide information in a certain way, in order to truly inform the reader about what the subject is all about. This means going beyond simply choosing a subject and writing about it. Rather, it involves considering what has been learned within the subject and formulating a research question, a hypothesis, and answering the question through research and data analysis. This is the first major step in the APA format, and that is literally how to write the paper. This level of understanding is maintained throughout the paper, with all the different sections being interconnected based on a single idea. This then leads to very specific results or conclusions based on what has been researched.

The APA format is a style of writing and citing in the social sciences that was developed by the American Psychological Association. The APA format goes beyond just the actual writing part and can be said to embody a full understanding of the subject that is being covered. In addition to having a basic understanding of the subject, we can see that the APA format requires a great deal of detail. This is seen throughout the format, but most specifically in the section that requires the retrieval of research from a secondary source, the citation of that source, and when the actual paper is written. In all cases, the APA format seeks to have the reader clearly understand what was done and why it is important.

3. Step-by-Step Guide to Writing an Article Review in APA Format

3.1 Firstly, write down all important points and arguments discussed in the article. Take the help of pre-reading, that is reading the title and the abstract and first and the last paragraph. In the pre-reading stage, you build up an overall understanding of the article. Once you have acquired the overall understanding of the article, write out the summaries of what you have read in your own words. While writing the summary, avoid cutting and pasting sentences from the article. Focus on using simple language to explain. 3.2 Develop an outline for your review. After you have summarized the article, divide your summary into several parts. Your review should include four major divisions: Introduction: Write an introduction to the article review. In it, you should provide basic information about the article that you are reviewing. Summary: Write a summary of the article. In the summary, you should identify the main idea of the article, the author’s purpose, and the evidence used by the author to support the purpose. Critique: Next, critique the article. There are several questions that you should answer: Is the article well written? If so, how is the article well written? If not, how is the article poorly written? Does the article achieve its goal? Why or why not? Is there evidence to support the article’s main idea? What evidence? Is this evidence empirical? Are there any points you disagree with? Any you agree with? Conclusion: Finally, write a conclusion to the article review. In it, you should summarize the main points of the article and identify the problems. You should also make recommendations to the article, based on the critique. 3.3 In writing your review, use the information from your pre-reading and the article. Write directly and concretely. Simple language is best, while complex language often results in long sentences and loss of coherence. Your goal here is to communicate. Remember, you’re not writing the article for yourself.

4. Tips for Writing a Persuasive and Well-Structured Review

Remember that the purpose of a review is to persuade others to read the article based on your appraisal of it. This means that your review should be tactful and constructive. There is a subtle difference between a persuasive review and an abusive one, even though both are based on judgment of the content of the article. An abusive review is one which slates the article, the author or the journal, without providing evidence or justification for doing so. Abusive reviews are unprofessional and can be damaging to your reputation and that of the journal, so it is usually advisable to refrain from becoming a referee if you feel that you may not be able to write a tactful review. A persuasive review contrasts the positive and negative points of the article with concrete evidence, in a tactful manner. It is always good practice to begin a review by referring to your overall impression of the article (e.g., “I found the article to be very interesting…” or “I consider this article to be incomprehensible with several major flaws…”). In order for your review to be persuasive and well-structured, it is crucial that it addresses the following points. A well-structured review is quite logical and follows a set pattern. It is often effective to put the main points in the same order as the article, so that you are always referring to the article when making statements. If the article is a report of an experimental study, for example, you might assess the study under the following headings: Aims, Method, Results, etc. In general, you should try to begin your review with general statements and refer to the article frequently. Always justify your comments with concrete evidence from the article.

5. Conclusion

Overall, this article review is completely formatted, and the author did not find any statement where they use the word “I.” They present three subtopics from the article: firstly, explain the growth of Open University, which is advanced in Bangladesh; secondly, how the quality will be maintained of the program; and lastly, the benefits of the program. According to The Open University UK, this article is given more than a summary. They deeply understand the real content of the article, and the author is trying to give some comment to the readers. The understanding of the article depends on the questions that need to be answered after reading it. So the overall understanding about three subtopics of the article can still be concluded. In each subtopic, the author uses point form or a list to explain the overall view of the article for each subtopic. This could make it easier to review what the author is trying to explain. But specific to the English grammar and the coherence of the sentence at the article review still needed hard revision. Because there are several grammar mistakes in the article review.