Q&A for How to Write an Article Review

Good article reviews happen when you understand the author, their perspective, their expertise (or lack thereof), institutional bias that may be within the paper, and key findings in the article and how they align with other conversations being had about the article topic. You can write a quality article review like this by paying attention to these questions from the outset and taking notes as you read the article.

Typically, you won't want to include tables or figures in your review, because this would usually indicate added information from your perspective. However, you can reference tables and figures in the original work, such as by saying, "In Figure 2.1, [author] demonstrates..."

It would depend on the subject of the review article. If the article you're writing requires a lot of knowledge about outside articles, then you will need to read as many as possible, though there is no required minimum.

The article title should be a succinct, ideally clever description of the general content. In this case, if you were writing a movie review for, say, a bad movie about a ship, you could say something like, "New Release Sinks at the Box Office."

Yes. However, it's important that the articles you are going to use are connected to your study.

I would start by reviewing the poem's structure and how effective it is. This would include looking at some of the tools that the poem uses -- alliteration, rhyming scheme, metaphor, etc. -- and deciding whether or not they helped to convey the message of the poet. I would also look at the message of the poem itself and see if it came across clearly and meaningfully.

You should write your review in paragraphs.

No, you don't have to write references in each and every sentence. Your review should mostly be composed of your own summary and arguments.

There are two ways. The first is by using brackets at the end of a sentence: for exmample, Evidence shows that strategic frameworks are a necessity in successful business management (Smith & Gerald 1998). Or, you can add it in the sentence itself, for example: According to Smith & Gerald 1998 it was evident that...

It depends on what your teacher wants. Sometimes it may be single spaced, and other times the teacher may want you to double space your work. Check with them if you need clarification.

Yes, it is important to reference the examples. You are using them to support the argument or your critique of the article.

If the article is printed on paper and you can't obtain a digital copy, there's no other option but to count it by hand. If it's digital, get it into a word processor and use the word count function.

No. you can instead add the article's DOI or other access means, so that the reader of your review can consult it.