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LIBRARY

Located in the Student Achievement Center on the Youngwood Campus

from Western Libraries (2:34)

Before reading, think about what information you need to support your thesis and what keywords you hope to find. 

Unfamiliar technical terms? Use Credo Reference for help.

Read in this order:

  1. Abstract. Brief summary highlighting the focus, results and conclusions. It will help you decide if the article is useful.
  2. Conclusion/Discussion. Reading this will help you see the main findings of the study.
  3. Introduction. The authors introduce their topic, explain the purpose, and present the main argument. Scan and look for main ideas and why this study is important.
  4. Results. This gives the detailed findings. It can be difficult reading, so try to determine the main points. If there are tables, look at them for an overview. But if the graphs and statistics are confusing, focus on the explanations around them.
  5. Methods. What kind of research was done and how.   

Read the article again, this time in chronological order. 

References. These give credit to other researchers whose work was used to develop this research. Follow up on any in the list of works cited/bibliography that might be additional sources of information for your paper. 

Original Research vs. Review

Original research articles are based on an experiment or study. The authors will report the purpose of the study, the research methodology, and results. There is usually an introduction, methods, results, and discussion.

Review articles summarize or synthesize content from earlier published research and are useful for surveying the literature on a specific research area. Review articles can lead you to original research articles.

Readings

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