Educational Studies

Academic (scholarly) articles are written by, and aimed at, an academic audience—readers who likely already have an understanding of the topic.

Academic texts are often complicated and difficult to read. You don't necessarily have to read every word in a scholarly article in order to get what you need from it. Rather, you need to approach it strategically. 

Skipping around when reading a scholarly article is fine, even advised.

• Start by reading the abstract

• Skim the introduction and jump to the end to read the conclusion

• Look at the results to view the data (graphs, charts, images, etc.)

Skimming these sections allows you to determine if the article is relevant to your research before you do an in-depth reading.

Read this first: the abstract previews the entire article; it helps you determine if it's relevant to you.

Read these next: learn more about the topic of study and what was found in the research.

• Background information for the topic of the article and description of the study.

• Information about previous studies related to the current one.

• A  summary of the findings or analysis; an explanation of how the research contributes to the specific field of study.

• Whether the study answered the original research question and suggested next steps in research.

Take a look at results (tables, charts, graphs, etc.): get a sense of the results/analysis.

Once the article is deemed relevant (after reading the sections above): read it from start to finish.

And there are many, many more!