HTML Preview Review Guide And Article Summary page number 1.
Article Summary & Critique Guide
Reading articles should not be a passive process. By making reading research an active process, the
information can be better understood and subsequently remembered. Also, by answering the questions
bellow in a written format (that you keep with the article) you will have a template of the article that will
help you when you need to look for specific information later. Further, this template will make it easier to
integrate the article with other research when writing your literature review.
Your summary & critique should be typed (in APA format). The advantage of typing out critiques,
lies in data storage (won’t get lost, if you keep your data backed up) and also, you can cut and paste from
your critique to include in your paper.
A note of Caution
: Be very careful about using quotes in your summary and critique. Clearly label
any quotes you use (including the page number). Otherwise, when you are writing up your literature
review you may inadvertently include a quote without citing it (unintentional plagiarism is still
plagiarism).
When answering the questions below, yes and no answers will not help you latter. Write in complete
sentences and use APA format (this will help later). It may take 2-3 + sentences to answer a question. You
should try to write the answers to the questions after reading the relevant part of the article, but before you
read the next part (e.g., answer the questions about the introduction before you read the methods section of
the paper).
For this assignment, each Summary & Critique needs to be a minimum of 2 pages each.
Title
1. Give the full reference for the article (see # 37 of APA Style Guide).
Introduction
2. What is the goal of the study?
3. What are the Independent and Dependent Variables?
4. What theory/theoretical construct/intervening variable is proposed as the link between the variables of
interest? That is, why are they expected to be related?
5. How are the Independent and Dependent Variables being Operationalized? Are there other ways of
operationalizing the variables?
6. What Hypotheses are being tested? Are the hypotheses logically related to the theory/intervening
variable(s).
7. What is the design of the study (e.g., experiment, correlation/quasi-experiment, descriptive study,
Longitudinal, Cross-Sectional, etc.).
Methods
8. Are there any special characteristics of the sample (convenience sample, random sample, or clinical
sample; is adequate demographic info provided: age, sex, ethnicity, SES, etc)
9. How are the variables of interest measured? (If it was an experiment, how was the IV manipulated)
10. Does the method actually test the hypothesis?
11. If the study involves an experimental manipulation, is there a manipulation check
Results
12. What were the results? Do the results support the hypotheses? (if multiple hypotheses, which results
were and were not supported)
13. Were there any unexpected results?
Discussion
14. What was the author’s Interpretation of the Results? Does the author’s interpretation of the results fit
with your interpretation?
15. Was there anything left out of the discussion that you expected to see?
16. What applications and implications of the results does the author offer? Do you agree or disagree? Do
you see any other applications or implications the author could have noted?
17. What are the strengths and limitations of the present study?