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How to Read a Journal Article Journal articles can be challenging to read, but most contain many of the same components. Once you understand the structure of each article, understanding the content is much simpler. Journal articles normally contain the following parts. For each part, try to identify the following: Abstract The abstract is normally one paragraph that appears before the article. The abstract provides a summary of the entire article You should read it carefully to determine the following: What topic are the authors studying?
What was their primary finding? Literature Review The literature review is often at the beginning of the article. You can identify it because it contains citations, like “(McCollum and Miller, 2008)” The literature review provides information about past studies that have been done on this topic You should read it carefully to determine the following: What are some of the most important past findings on this topic? How have these past studies led the authors to do this particular study? Overview the basic literature that serves as the foundation for the study.
Methods The methods section follows the literature review. It can often be identified because it will have a title of “methods” or “methodology’ The methods section provides information about the individuals that the authors studied and the way that they conducted their analysis You should read it carefully to determine the following: Who were the participants in this sample? What makes them unique? Is the sample a good representation of the entire population? If not, how are they different?
Is the study qualitative (based on interviews, ethnography, participant observation, or content analysis), quantitative (based on statistical analysis), or multi-method includes both qualitative and quantitative analysis) Be able to identify sample, population, and methods. In addition, be able to discuss the benefits/challenges associated with the sample and method. Results “findings” The results section provides information about what the authors found when they analyzed their data You should read it carefully to determine the What were some of the authors’ main findings?
What are the main findings of the research? Please note: you are not expected to be able to read the tables/graphs or to understand the numbers provided by the authors. Instead, you should focus on the text of the results section. Conclusion/Discussion The conclusion or discussion section follows the results section. It will often have the title “conclusion” or “discussion” The conclusion or discussion section summarizes the authors’ main findings and explains why the findings are so important You should read it carefully to determine the following: What were the authors’ overall findings?
Why are these findings important? What limitations of the study do the authors identify (if any)? What suggestions for future research do the authors make (if any)? Be able to discuss how the current findings connect to past literature – what overall contribution does the article make to the discipline? How to Critique a Journal Article 1 . Avoid “style” based critiques. “Style” based critiques are such comments as “the article was well written,” or “the author used too much Jargon. While these things may be true, these critiques do not add much in the way of a substantive response. 2. Address Potential Additions and/or Concerns. Instead of “style” based critiques, focus your critiques on the ways the author does (or does not) support his/her argument or on alternative explanations and/or counter-evidence from other course materials 3. Consider the following questions a. Do you agree or disagree with the author’s argument based on other scholarly literature? B. Is the author’s argument sociological? Why or why not? C.
Is there anything about the author’s logic that makes their argument questionable? Is there anything about the author’s methods that makes their argument questionable? D. Does the author base their arguments on facts or generalizations? If the author makes generalizations, do you feel these generalizations are Justified? To what groups or individuals might this argument not apply based on these generalizations? E. Does the author present counterintuitive? How does the author’s treatment of counterintuitive aid or limit their effectiveness? F.
Does the author overstate their argument? Does the author stay within the scope of the paper? Do they avoid grandiose claims? G. What questions are left unanswered? Do the unanswered questions limit the impact of the author’s argument? H. How did this Journal Article Assessment Due September 12, 2013 to B ONLY (not a hardcopy or via email) Late papers will not e accepted. Use the McCabe, Terrine, and Butterflies (2002) article “Honor Codes and Other Contextual Influences on Academic Integrity’ uploaded in “Assignments” on B to complete this assignment.
Answer the following questions in paragraph form (complete sentences, correct grammar, spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and citation style): 1) What were the researchers interested in studying? What was the hypothesis or what research question were they trying to address? 2) Who were the participants in this study (how many, what were their characteristics)? What was the population? ) How was the research conducted (describe how data were collected)? 4) What were the findings? 5) How do the findings relate to the literature review? 6) Make sure you include correctly formatted citations and a reference.
You may find directions at http://owl. English. Purdue. Due/owl/resource/583/01 land then search for AS. Your answers must be typed, double-spaced, in a reasonable font. Please format the assignment by the number rather than as an essay. Save the file as “harassment AJAX. Doc” (or . Dock). Include your name on your Word document (only Word docs will e accepted so please do not turn in assignments that are saved in any other format. If I were turning in the assignment, my doc would be titled: *Beware of plagiarismвЂ?write your answers in your own words (paraphrase), not those of the authors.
If you want to quote (and you should do so sparingly) make sure you correctly format your in text citation. Journal Article Assessment: “Adolescent Romance and Delinquency’ Student Name Here Soc 366, Deviance 1) What were the researchers interested in studying? What literature serves as the foundation for their project? The researchers were interested in examining the relationship between romantic ties among adolescents and delinquency (Giordano, Leonardo, Manning, and Longer 2010).
More specifically, their “objective is to determine whether self-reported delinquency is associated significantly with variations in a range of relationship qualities and dynamics suggested by Hirsch “cold and brittle” Hirsch hypothesis, but extend the argument to the adolescents, romance, and delinquency (Giordano et al. 2010). The researchers also incorporated a social learning perspective to determine if it might also affect youth’s delinquency in a mantic context (Giordano et al. 2010). 2) What are the hypotheses/research questions? Who were the participants (how many, what were their characteristics)?
One of their hypotheses is “youths engaged in delinquency will convey less importance to romantic relationships, fewer partners in a romantic context, and fewer levels of intimate expression” (Giordano et al. 2010:926). In addition, youths engaged in “delinquency will be associated positively with conflict and disagreements and will be related inversely to relationship duration” (Giordano et al. 2010: 926). The searchers hypothesize that there will be little disparity in the level of warmth and intimacy or amount of “cold” within delinquents’ romantic relationships.
Independent variables included relationship qualities, frequency of interaction, importance of the relationship, intimate self-disclosure, love, verbal conflict, and duration of the relationship as dependent variables. Delinquency was the independent variable (Giordano et al. 2010). 4) What did they find? The authors found that the “cold” hypothesis was not supported by the data in this study. Specifically, they found that delinquency does not seem to be related to he variables associated with adolescent romance. They also found that relationship duration did not vary in association with delinquency.
In fact, more delinquent youth spent more time with romantic partners than predicted. More delinquent youth, relationships. 5) How do the findings relate to the literature review? (I. E. , What’s the take-away from this article in terms of it’s contribution to new knowledge)? The research in this study is consistent with previous literature discussed in the Literature Review. Specifically, results are consistent with prior research that links adolescent delinquency later intimate partner violence perpetration and factorization.
These findings can be interpreted through the social learning theory, and prior research links child abuse and parental conflict with delinquency. They also found that meeting a partner’s parents was associated with lower levels of delinquency that is also consistent with previous research. Overall, the researchers found some support for their hypotheses, but others were not supported. This indicates that there is some consistency with previous literature but additional research needs to be conducted to make more general statements about leniency and adolescent romance.