Summarizing a journal article is the process of highlighting and presenting a core overview of a research study published in a peer-reviewed scientific source. Summary of journal articles provides short descriptive comments to potential readers, thus giving them insight into the core of the article. Writing and summarizing a journal article is a common task for students and research assistants. You can learn how to effectively read articles for summaries, plan good summaries, and write summaries to completion.
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Method 1 of 3: Reading Articles
Step 1. Read the abstract
Abstract is a short paragraph written by the author to summarize a research article. Abstracts are usually found in almost all academic journals and usually the word count is no more than 100-200 words. Abstracts provide a short summary of the overall content of a journal article, and provide important highlights of the research.
- The purpose of an abstract is to allow researchers to quickly read a journal and see if the article read can be used as a reference for the research they are doing. If you conduct research on immune system responses in rodents, you will be able to tell in 100 words not only whether the research is appropriate to your field, but also whether the findings in the journal support or contradict your findings.
- Keep in mind that an abstract and an article summary are two different things, so it can be said that an article summary that looks like an abstract is an example of a poor summary. Abstracts have very dense content and cannot provide the details of the research and conclusions that can be provided from a more detailed summary of the article.
Step 2. Understand the research context
Make sure that you know the specifics of the topic the author is discussing and analyzing, why the research or topic was brought up, whether the article was written in response to other articles on a particular topic, etc. By doing this, you will learn the arguments, quotes and data to draw and analyze in your summary.
Step 3. Jump straight to the conclusion
Jump straight to the conclusion and find out where the proposed research ends to learn more about the topic and to understand where the issues and arguments will lead. It will be very easy for you to understand the information if you read the researcher's conclusion first.
You will still need to review and thoroughly read the article after reading the conclusion, but only if the research is applicable. If you are collecting research, you may not need to look at other sources to support your research if you are looking for some disagreements
Step 4. Identify the main argument or position of the article
To avoid reading the same thing twice to give your understanding of the big idea of the passage, make sure you understand the big idea the first time you read it. As you read, take notes or highlight or underline the main idea of the reading.
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Pay particular attention to the first or second paragraph of the article. This is where the author usually writes his theory from the article. Find out the theory and determine the main argument or idea that the author is trying to prove in the research.
Look for words such as hypothesis, result, usually, in general, or clearly to signal to you that the sentence explains the main theory
- Underline, highlight, or rewrite the main argument of the study. Stay focused on the main point, so you can link to the section of the article with the idea and see how it works together.
- In humanities articles, it is sometimes more difficult to find a clear and concise theory for an article because it usually deals with complex, abstract ideas (e.g. post-modernist poetry, or feminist films). If it's not clear, try to interpret it in your own way as best as you can from what you understand from the author's ideas and what they are trying to prove by their analysis.
Step 5. Review the arguments
Continue reading the various aspects of the journal article, highlighting the main points discussed by the author. Focus on the main concepts and ideas initiated, try to relate them back to the author's main ideas presented at the beginning of the article.
- Sections of topics with different focuses are usually marked with subtitles that focus on the steps or developments during the research period in the research. The title of a sub-heading is usually bold and has a larger font size than the rest of the text.
- Keep in mind that academic journals are less interesting reading. Is it really important to read through the 500 words of the formula used in the glycerin solution given to the frogs in this study? Maybe yes, maybe not. Usually, it's not important to read research articles verbatim, as long as you pick the main idea, and why the content is there in the first place.
Step 6. Take notes as you read
Efficiency is key when you are doing research and gathering information from academic journals. Read actively as if you were combing through the material. Round or highlight each particular section in the journal article, focusing on the title of the sub-heading. This section will usually include an introduction, methodology, research results, and conclusions with an additional list of references.
Method 2 of 3: Writing Design Planning
Step 1. Write a brief description of the research
In a concise article, describe the academic journey of the article, list the steps taken from inception to results and conclusions, describe the methodology and form of the research undertaken. No need to be too specific; that's the summary that will be made.
When you are first starting out, it can be helpful to quickly write down only what you remember about the article. This will help you to find the main points that are important to summarize
Step 2. Determine which aspects of the article are most important
You may find this to be the main auxiliary idea, or part of the article. Some of them may be clearly marked with subtitles, others may require more work to unravel. Anything that has a main point used to support the author's main argument should be included in your summary.
- Depending on the research, you may want to explain the theoretical underpinnings of the research, or the assumptions of the researchers. In scientific writing, it is important to clearly summarize the hypotheses the researchers outlined before undertaking the research, as well as the procedures used in the project. Briefly summarize each statistical result and include elementary interpretations for your summary.
- In a humanities article, it is good to summarize the basic assumptions and schools of thought from which the author came from, as well as examples of examples and ideas presented in the article.
Step 3. Identify key vocabulary to use in your summary
Make sure that all the key vocabulary used in the article is included in your summary. You need to really understand the meaning of the terms in the article so that your summary readers can understand the content.
Any words or terms used by the author of the article need to be included and discussed in the summary
Step 4. Make sure to keep it concise
Journal summaries do not need to be nearly the same number of words as the summarized article. The purpose of the summary is to provide a concise but discrete explanation, either for use as primary research data collection, or to assist you in obtaining information later in the research process.
As a general rule, you should probably be able to create one paragraph per main point, ending in no more than 500-1000 words for most academic articles. For most journals, you will write several short paragraphs that summarize each separate section of the journal article
Method 3 of 3: Writing a Summary
Step 1. Don't use personal pronouns (you, I, we, we, you, etc
).
Step 2. Make the sentence as objective as possible
You're not criticizing an article, you're just writing a summary.
Step 3. Start by defining the Problem Formulation
Towards the beginning of the article, perhaps in the introduction, the author should discuss the focus of the research and what the purpose of the research is. This is the beginning of your summary. Describe, in your own editorial, the main argument of the author that is expected to be proven in the research.
In scientific articles, there is usually an introductory section covering the background for an experiment or research, this section doesn't have much to summarize. This section is followed by the development of the problem formulation and testing procedures which are key in determining content for the rest of the article
Step 4. Discuss the methodology used by the authors
This section discusses the research tools and methods used during the research. In other words, you need to summarize how the authors or researchers concluded whether they used primary or secondary data in data collection.
The test procedure doesn't need to be too detailed to be included in your summary; this section you need to reduce to a simple idea of how the formulation of the problem is addressed. Research results are usually displayed in the form of data that has been analyzed, usually accompanied by raw data. Only data that has been analyzed you need to include in your summary
Step 5. Describe the research results
One of the most important parts of the summary is to explain what the author has obtained as a result of his research. Were the authors successful and did they achieve their goals in conducting their research? What are the conclusions concluded by the author in this study? What is the impact of the research as described in the article?
Make sure that your summary includes the formulation of the problem, the conclusions/results of the study, and how the results were obtained. These sections are an important part of the article and cannot be ignored
Step 6. Connect the main ideas shown in the article
In some summaries, it will be important to show how the relationship between the ideas conveyed by the author develops in the article. The main purpose of the summary is to present a brief overview of the author's main point to the reader, it is important that you express the argument and express it with your own editor. Fill in the assumptions or things that are not clear that can help to clarify the research and summarize briefly.
This is sometimes more important especially in articles discussing the humanities. For example, it might be helpful to express a deep argument about George Herbert's relationship to God with a simpler summary: "The author seeks to humanize Herbert by discussing daily routines, as opposed to his philosophy."
Step 7. Don't draw your own conclusions
The summary of an article does not give you the opportunity to provide your own interpretation of the research data, unless there is an explicit explanation as part of your assignment. In general, the point of a summary is to summarize the author's point, not offer additional points from you.
The application of this step may be difficult for some inexperienced writers. However, remember to avoid using the word "I" in the summary
Step 8. Avoid using direct quotes from your journal articles
Quotations are usually used when writing scientific writings or essays on campus, and are less important to include in the summary of the journal article. Focus on explaining ideas when you write a journal article summary without losing focus on its meaning and content.
Step 9. Use the present tense
Always use the present tense when you talk about the content of scientific journal articles. This will help you adjust the overall grammatical structure.
Step 10. Improve your writing design
Good writing happens in improvement. Go back and compare the focus and content of what has been written to see that it fits and supports the context of the journal article. A summarized journal article provides potential readers with a brief overview, which is important when they are looking for specific information on a particular topic.
