Cunningham, A., & Hannon, R. (2013). Reinforcing College Reading Strategies in the Library Classroom. LOEX Quarterly, 40(1). https://commons.emich.edu/loexquarterly/
vol40/iss1/4
Middlesex Community College Jean Burr Smith Library. (2017). How to Read a Scholarly Journal Article. https://mxcc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/How-to-read-a-scholarly-article_rev7_2016.pdf
Reading Techniques. (2017, April 18). Dartmouth Academic Skills Center. https://students.dartmouth.edu/academic-skills/learning-resources/learning-strategies/reading-techniques
Scanning and skimming are essential when reading scholarly articles, especially at the beginning stages of your research or when you have a lot of material in front of you.
Many scholarly articles are organized to help you scan and skim efficiently. The next time you need to read a scholarly article, use the following chart as a guide:
| Read / skim in this order: | While asking yourself: |
|---|---|
| 1. Abstract | What is the article about? Is it relevant to your research? |
| 2. Introduction | What is the main research question? |
| 3. Discussion / Results | What are the key findings or answers to the research question? |
| 4. Methods | How was research or analysis conducted? |
| 5. Conclusion | What are the key conclusions? What might be some implications for future research? |
The diagram below depicts the sections of scholarly articles, what their purposes are, and how you can use them in a research paper or project. Note that the first, grey, dotted box includes sections that discuss objective, external, old / established knowledge. You should typically summarize or paraphrase these sections.
The second, red, dotted box includes sections that present subjective, insightful, new knowledge. You should quote directly from these sections (but do so sparingly).
For more information about using scholarly articles, visit our interactive tutorial on Using Sources: Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing.
