How to Come up with a Good Article Review: Key Elements of Success

What is an article review? Students who have the assignment to write it usually need to do a simple research and create a discussion. However, how can you do it properly? First of all, you should know that the paper consists of a well-structured evaluation of the particular article and requires critical thinking: just a summary is not enough. To prepare a good review you need to come up with analysis, summary, classification and conclusion. The task is not simple, but good skills and knowledge of academic writing can do magic.

Concept and Purpose

The article review is the paper where you assess and summarize someone’s writing. The main goal here is to get familiar with different works of the specialists in a particular sphere, understand them, learn more and get some value. Even these specialists have to review each other’s works all the time, so you are not alone. The task requires you to get the essence, find arguments, mark the main points, assess the topic and do the research. There are two basic ways of creating a good article review: preparation and writing.

Preparation

Before you start the actual writing, you need to get prepared. You can do it the following way:

1. Define the task. You are writing for the specific audience who are familiar with the topic, so you need to get some knowledge about it and understand the goal. You do not just express your opinion; you assess the ideas of the author and analyze the paper researching for new experiences. You do not come up with anything new, just estimate the job done;
2. Plan the work. Make the list with all the points you want to mention in the review and structure your paper. It will be easier to base your ideas on the plan and follow it.
3. Check the article quickly. Grab the main idea and understand the instruction. A quick glance should be enough to get a basic understanding;
4. Read the article carefully. Now try to get all the details, read through all the article and make sure you know every aspect;
5. Retell the article to yourself or someone. It guarantees you will remember the essence of the content and not miss important details.

Now when you are ready with the content and have a plan, it is time to start writing.

Writing

After you got prepared, you may start writing and in order to do it effectively, you may follow these steps:

1. Create an attractive title to catch readers` attention (focus on the topic and use the question to make it sound effective);
2. Give references (cite the article and author you are reviewing and remember about peculiarities of each citation style);
3. Give general info on the article (title, author, journal, year etc.);
4. Create the introduction (let it be brief, laconic and informative);
5. Provide a quick overview of the article (in your own words explain the main goal, points, and results. Show the audience the evidence that support the argument and mention the author’s conclusions. You may also add a few quotes to prove your statements);
6. Write the main body (describe how the author covered the topic and contributed to the understanding of it. You may either agree or disagree with him and suggest the readers what value they can get from reading it. Stick to the point and avoid unrelated info);
7. Draw conclusions and proofread the paper.

As you can see, everything is pretty simple if you stick to a certain plan and know your topic.