How To Write An Article Review: A To Z

Article review allows students, academics, or general readers to evaluate and analyze papers quickly. Representatives of the education system check dissertations, coursework, research, theses for clarity, originality, and degree of contribution to the scientific discipline. Based on the findings, they create an overview with examples and evidence. Therefore, you should understand that you will need to analyze quickly, research, and evaluate when writing a review of an article. However, if this is your first time with this kind of task, our step-by-step instructions on how to write an article review are an excellent assistant.

What is An Review Article?

An article review is a professional type of scientific document that requires a high level of in-depth analysis and the ability to present arguments in a structured manner. When creating such a paper, you should critically evaluate the article’s literature, content, and style. You have to compare information, classify data and give true results.

The article review assumes:

• Comparisons, criticism, analysis, classification, generalizations.
• Analysis, research, comparisons require the writer to use additional articles related to the main topic.
• The review article does not require the addition of new information.
• Analyze the article review example to get a better understanding of what you should write.

When writing a scientific review, you will need to study many similar topics to understand how widely the author has revealed the idea. Your goal is to provide a clear understanding of the topic and the quality of its writing: are the terms available, are the terms easy to read.

Basic Types of Review

Review of the journal article. How to write a journal article review? You should evaluate the weaknesses and strengths of the publication. The reader would also like to see an analysis of the value of the article.

Review of research articles. In this review, you need to write how well the author used the methods and techniques of the research. A review of research articles suggests criticism.

Review of scientific articles. Here it would help if you rated how well the author has written about science. Such reviews often include only the most essential points but not the whole essence of the article.

Rules Formatting an Article Review

The formatting of scientific articles is an essential requirement in all educational institutions. The review article format should match the citation style: 

• APA.
• MLA.
• Chicago, etc. 

You can find out the requirements for the formatting of the article from the professor. However, if the teacher is too principled and refuses to help, you can always use the formatting guides – they are available in libraries and official websites. If you have too little time to study hundreds of pages and formatting rules, you can use our quick guidelines.

Basic Requirements For MLA Format

If you are analyzing an Internet article, the MLA review format must meet the following requirements:

• The report must contain the initials of the authors you are citing.
• You must rewrite the title of the post.
• You must provide the title of the website.

Then you can specify the date, month, and year of publication. Do not forget to include the date, month, and year when you performed the analysis.

If you are analyzing an article from a newspaper, your review must meet the following requirements:

• In the article, you must indicate the author’s first and last name.
• You must rewrite the title of the publication correctly.
• You must indicate the exact name of the newspaper.

Then you will need to indicate the date, month, and year of publication, the number of the page.

If you are analyzing an article from a journal, your review must meet the following requirements:

• The paper must include the name and surname of the author of the analyzed work.
• You must rewrite the title of the publication.
• You must indicate the exact title of the journal, series, or volume.

Then you can specify the date, month, and year of publication, page number, web page.

Basic Requirements For APA Format

How to review an article in APA style? You can create reviews for articles from magazines, newspapers, and websites. Most often, in the APA style, writers make reviews on psychological topics. If you are going to use the APA style, you will have to compile a bibliographic list according to the following requirements:

• Online article: author’s surname, initials of first and middle name, year, month and date of publication, exact title as shown on the website.
• Journal article: author’s surname, initials of first and middle name, publication year, exact title, journal name, issue number, page.
• Newspaper article: author’s surname, initials of first and middle name, year, month and date of publication, exact title, newspaper name, page.

These requirements are general for many years, so your professor definitely knows them. If you have a task to write an essay in APA style, just follow the instructions above to succeed.

Basic Requirements For ASA Format

If you create an article in this style, it must meet the following requirements:

• Online article: author’s first and last name, year of publication, article title in italics, exact title as shown on the website.
• Journal article: author’s surname and first name, publication year, article title in italics, exact title, journal name, issue number, page.
• Newspaper article: author’s surname and first name, publication year, article title in italics, exact title, newspaper name, page.

The ASA style is used by writers to review research and academic work in the field of sociology. The ASA style has a recognizable “author-date” combination in the citation system. That is, the publication date follows immediately after the author’s name.

The Pre-Writing Process

If this is your first time with this task, it’s okay if you don’t know where to start. Therefore, we have prepared several preparatory steps:

• Summarize the article – highlight the primary information that is worth paying attention to in the review.
• Find the strengths of the article – statistics, examples, arguments, in favor of the author’s ideas.
• Find weaknesses – conflicting facts, inconsistency with the topic, insufficient number of arguments, gaps, typos, unsolved problems.
• Find questions that the author cannot answer – perhaps they were the main ones, which would mean that the author did poor research.
• Evaluate all parts of the article – heading, abstract, introduction, main paragraphs, conclusion, thematic sentences in paragraphs, thesis statement.
• To save time analyzing the article, read the introduction and conclusion. The author gives brief information about the article’s critical arguments and points in these paragraphs. In the form of theses, write important information.
• Compare the information provided in the introduction, conclusion with the main paragraphs – there are facts that the author indicated in the introduction and conclusion, whether he could confirm his opinion.

Be sure to complete these steps before writing an article review. This method will allow you to structure the information well and objectively evaluate the article.

Outline and Template

Your review should be well structured, so make the review article outline. Your plan may contain the following points:

• Article title – here, you should indicate the title of the article that you will be reviewing.
• Running Head – if you use the APA style, your article title should be seduced to less than 40 characters.
• Title page – fill it in according to the requirements of the educational institution.
• Annotation – this section is not required, only if the teacher requires it. The abstract should be short and not exceed the scope of your review. If your paper contains 1000 words, then the abstract should include 100 words.
• The list of keywords – is necessary so that any reader can find your article by keywords.
• Introduction – add a hook.
• Body – includes titles and subheadings, arguments, and examples.
• Links to the cited works.

The outline and template are very important for every writing task. They help to make your mind free from all the structures, so you can fully concentrate on the topic.

7 Steps for Writing an Article Review Paper

After you thoroughly study the article, make a plan, you can start the writing process. You only need to complete seven steps:

1. Write a headline that reflects the main point of the article.
2. Cite the article according to the style: APA, MLA, ASA. Place this information after the title so that the reader understands which article you are analyzing.
3. Identify yourself. After you indicate who you are citing, enter your details. For example: “The report on the article” The effects of the atmosphere on human health, “was written by Samanda Taylor, a health officer – in 2021.
4. Write an introduction with a summary of the topic.
5. Summarize the article – describe the advantages and disadvantages of the article.
6. Criticize the article – if you find errors and inconsistencies with the topic in the article, indicate this in the review. However, criticize with arguments and examples.
7. Write a conclusion – go back to the essential points of your review, list the research findings, evidence, and rate.

This plan is a standard for article reviews. Just follow the steps to create brilliant papers.

The Post-Writing Process – Edit Article

After you finish writing your review, check the following points:

• Style.
• Grammar.
• Punctuation.
• Typos.
• Vocabulary.

Remove all found errors from the text. If you find meaningless information in the text, delete it. A large volume does not affect the quality of information presentation. Also, use modern technologies for checking the article, which will determine its uniqueness and quality.

Article Review Example – What’s the Use?

Viewing the article review sample can be a beneficial activity for you:

• You will see how experts in the field create reviews.
• You will meet many popular writers in science circles.
• You will see what essential achievements have been made in your subject area.
• You will see the main problems and questions that are not fully explored.
• You will be able to find reliable arguments to support your ideas.

The best way to learn how to write an article review is by learning from professionals. Take as much time as possible to analyze the examples, as this will affect the success of your article.