Journal article review

A journal article review asks you to evaluate an article and make an argument about how successful that article is at accomplishing its goals. This handout will cover areas you can evaluate in an article and how to structure a journal article review.

Potential Areas of Evaluation

You may feel intimidated to critique an already published work, but in an article, published writers are advancing an argument, providing evidence, and/or trying to persuade you. This means you can evaluate the effectiveness of their arguments and/or their research study.

Here are some areas you can evaluate about an article: 

• Topic
  • What is new or interesting about the topic?
  • Is the topic defined well?
  • Does the article make a point? If so, how effective is it at making its point?
  • Is the topic relevant, important, controversial?
  • Are there any obvious biases in how the article addresses the topic?
• Audience
  • For whom is the article written?
  • Does the article effectively address its intended audience?
  • Who may be excluded from the audience and how can you tell?
• Author
  • What is the writer’s relationship to the topic and research?
  • Is the writer an expert, scholar, a knowledgeable citizen or something else?
  • What is the author trying to accomplish in the article?
• Structure
  • How well does the structure of the article support its purposes?
  • Could it be organized or structured differently to better effect?
• Style/Language
  • What is the level of language in the article: formal, casual, academic, colloquial?
  • What is the tone of the article: logical, sartorial, humorous, emotional? 

How to Structure an Article Review     

The article review will follow a basic structure. Check with your professor to see if they have any added requirements for the review structure for your assignment. 

Introduction

In the introduction, name the article and establish the context for your evaluation. Consider including the following information:

• Title, author, and date of article
• Briefly summarize the author’s main argument.
• State your own argument about the article in a thesis statement.

Summary

Briefly outline the main idea of the article. Note: The summary should only cover the points from the article that are relevant to your evaluation and argument. You do not need to summarize the entire article for the reader. Here are some summary phrases that might help you begin writing:

• This article is about …
• The author argues …
• The main points are ….
• The findings/recommendations are ….
• The purpose of this article is ….

Evaluation

In this portion of the review, you will state your overall assessment of the article and the key lines of argument to support your assessment. In this section, you can do the following:

• Critically state what you find to be effective or ineffective about the article
• Explain your evaluation with specific examples from the article
• Assess whether the article has achieved its intended purpose

Conclusion

Pull together both your summary and evaluation in this final section by reflecting on the significance of your argument.

• Restate your main argument.
• Point out the importance of your evaluation for understanding the article and its contents.
• Note any further areas for additional research or evaluation.

Added References

How to Write Anything by John J. Ruszkiewicz and Jay T. Dolmage