How to read an article

All articles Why are you reading? Be clear about your purpose Overview of the literature – topic overview To answer a specific seminar question To find an appropriate research question for a dissertation To summarise the literature that’s very close to your dissertation area General interest This will determine the amount of detail you look at and what information you need to capture

All articles How to read: capturing the generic information Read the title – what’s this about? Read the abstract & the introduction – try to map out the important parts of the article Where would you look to find each of the key elements of the article Read the introduction and conclusion Look at the bibliography – what else do you need to look at?

What next? It depends upon the type of article you’re looking at and to some extent upon your purpose…

Types of article Research article Review article Theoretical article Written to advance theory Reviews existing research and presents new theory

Nature of a… …research article This is the most common type of article Presents original findings Will place these in the context of other literature Approach might be qualitative or quantitative Might be testing an existing theory (deductive) or developing a theory on the basis of empirical work (inductive)

How to read a… …research article Look in more detail at what the article is trying to achieve – write down the objectives (specific research questions) Look for the key findings – read the summary/conclusion for this first and then skim the findings section for any detail you need. Can you relate the findings back to the objectives? Read the method section for an OVERVIEW of how this was done – looking at the relationship between x & y, using what sort of data, looking at which cases? Can you see how each objective was looked at? Skim read the whole literature review – don’t read each sentence but read the beginning of each paragraph. Map what’s covered. Do you understand how this research fits in the context of other work that’s been done? If you’re trying to answer a specific seminar question or attempting to get an overview of the literature then you might only need the literature review part of the article. Read the literature review only.

You’ve read the article Complete the following Author Topic area Objective Why is this needed? How? Key findings and how this fits with other work Any additional reading you’ve identified You may not need to do this if you were just trying to answer a specific seminar question.

Nature of a… …literature review article Critically examines other articles in a specific area, for example Watts & Zimmerman (1990) Identifies future areas for research No empirical work Structure very different from a research article and depends on the topic examined Great for an overview/starting point or might answer a specific seminar question

How to read a… …literature review article Skim read for map of overall topic (look at headings first and get a feel for what’s in the sections) Try to capture the structure of the topic either in diagrams or headings Might be looking for something specific, for example criticisms of positive accounting theory – go to that section

Dos and don’ts Do Read the abstract first: what is this about Look at the overall structure -headings Read relevant sections with an agenda i.e. know what you’re looking for. Why are you reading it? Be prepared to read the relevant bits more than once – they can be tricky to understand Use bibliography for future reading Don’t Try to read it like a story or a book Get too hung up on “how” unless that’s relevant to you Give up – you’ll get better if you practice Worry if you: …go round in circles!! …forget why you’re reading the article …don’t understand bits, focus on the parts you do understand

Useful sources http://www.lenmholmes.org.uk/students/how2read/how2read_g.htm http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvnUojPCftk