how to write an article review in apa format

how to write an article review in apa format

Writing an Effective Article Review in APA Format

1. Introduction to Article Reviews

In further understanding the article review, there are specific questions that should be asked. The first is what type of article is to be reviewed? Determining whether the article is a report of empirical research, a review of existing research, a comparison between two things, or another kind of article is very important. This is crucial for understanding the article because each article type will have a different style and a differing degree of reliability. Empirical research is often quite technical and the most reliable, however compared to other writing it may be difficult to understand. An article that is a review of existing research is quite useful in that it may summarize a large amount of research into an area into a small easy to understand essay. This type of article would be aimed at illuminating the general public on the particular area in research. Understanding the type of article is useful when writing the review, it can be expected that an article review of a technical empirical report would also be quite technical and difficult to understand.

The purpose of writing an article review is to demonstrate the degree of understanding that the writer has with respect to the particular knowledge obtained from the article. It is a way to demonstrate that the writer comprehensively understands the material. Article reviews are excellent ways to introduce the material to the public. Often the public will be interested in reviewing material that is important in their lives. The reviewer acts as an intermediary, presenting the material in the article to the public and being able to answer any questions that they may have. This is quite an effective way to get the information across to people. Finally, the reviewer may use an article review to introduce his own work in the same field. This can be done in the sense of comparing and contrasting one’s work with the work in the article, or to show that the material in the article is very relevant to material that the reviewer is also interested in.

2. Understanding APA Format

The official guide of the American Psychological Association (APA) offers a comprehensive guide to writing using the APA style. The guide is available in the form of a book called Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. An entire section of the manual is dedicated to the style of writing desired by the APA. When writing a paper for class, the author/student’s first concern will be how a professor would like them to write and how to follow the APA style. The first and most important thing to keep in mind is that the manual is aimed at creating an organized and uniform method of writing and sharing ideas. It does not have anything to do with the content of the ideas or the actual process of executing them. The APA style, and the manual that it’s based on, has four main goals. APA strives to make an easy-to-read and easy-to-understand method of presenting information. APA is also concerned with the language usage and the mechanics of written presentation. This includes things such as punctuation, capitalization, and the general construction of papers. APA’s next goal is to make an efficient method of streamlining the writing process and finally the presentation of written work. APA is used in an attempt to standardize the varied approaches to writing and presenting written work. The APA style is composed of guidelines and rules that are to be used in the writing of research papers, articles, essays, and other projects. This style is known for its effectiveness of communication and simplifying the reasoning for what information one would require about the topic at hand. The style takes its form in the construction and form of the writing as well as in the organization of the content. APA is commonly used in the fields of education and the social and natural sciences.

3. Structuring Your Article Review

In this section, you have a good opportunity to use your personal critique and write in the first person. Using the example from Karl Marx, Raymond Williams (1983) suggests that the “instrument or a tool, works only when powered by a user. It could be a hammer in the hand of the carpenter, or the computer program in the head of a mathematician”. Marx and Williams would argue that theory only “works” when put to use. They would also argue that no written work is static; that is, it is not fixed in time because a reader brings new insights and understandings every time they read. Therefore, as an article reviewer, you are engaging in a theory by interpreting it, and your interpretation is not the same as somebody else’s interpretation. This is an important point, and article reviewing represents an open and dynamic interpretation of a text. Another implication of this is that for your review to be successful, you must engage your reader and maintain their interest. In real terms, you should be aiming to write a review which is interesting to read and can be understood. This means you may have to elaborate, simplify, and exemplify. Remember, an article review is not a research assignment; this is a critique on the article. Finally, as a reviewer, you bring your own experiences and understandings with you when you tackle a written theory. Do not let this sway your interpretation too far away from the article. Examine your own perspectives when they conflict with the article and try to realize why this is the case.

4. Analyzing and Evaluating the Article

The next step in analyzing the article is to critique the study. Involving all of the things that were learned about the article, it is important to note if the study was a correlation study, an experiment, a survey, etc. and if it was a between groups design or a within-subjects design. All of these details are important because they help to identify the main points and the type of research that the article is attempting to simulate. The best way to critique the article is by doing this step by step. First identify the hypothesis and the independent and dependent variables. Then assess how the variables were measured and the type of statistics that were used. Finally, attempt to summarize the article with the model of the study. At this point it is important to reflect back on the notes that were taken while reading the article and attempt to tie the summary and the analysis and ascertained the right information from the article. Any resources that are used to ascertain any part of the study should be documented and a general overview should be written into the review.

This is the most important section of the article review. The main two elements of this section are the description of the article and the evaluation or critique. The first element is the summary and the description of the article. In order to do this, it is useful to ask yourself “what are the main points of this study?” One way to find the main points of the article is to look at the introduction and the discussion of the article. Then, to find the details, a quick skim of the article can be done. During this, take notes of the most important points and the details of such points. Once this is done, all of the data can be written into a paragraph form. Remember, only important details should be written and this section should only be a small portion of the review. A standard article review usually contains a summary of anywhere from 1-4 pages, yet no more than the amount of summary is necessary.

5. Writing a Persuasive Conclusion

Conclusions are not just a restatement of the thesis, a summary of the body of the paper or an ending with a question. Conclusions should not introduce new material, but subtle new information and ideas are often clarified in a good conclusion. Conclusions also should re-articulate the significance of the article. Often it is helpful to remind the reader of the article’s main points to help them remember these points. End on a high note, your conclusion should bring your article to a close neatly, like a good dinner party. It should leave your reader feeling informed, but not enlightened. A conclusion can be a few paragraphs. It should be eloquent and polished and provoke the readers to consider the implications of the article. Mankoff provided the following example of a good conclusion: This article began with an assumption that everyone has heard – that a picture is worth a thousand words. Unfortunately, this article only provides 1369 of those words. But with luck, the graphical representations of the remaining 631 words are clearer than the text could have ever been.