ENGL 110/110x - College Composition I: Reading Scholarly Sources

First, read the abstract of the article. Located at the top of the article, the abstract will give you a quick overview of the article and, if it is a scientific article, can include methods and results. Reading the abstract will help you judge whether or not the article is relevant to your research.

Read the Introduction and Conclusion. These sections will help you learn about the topic and what the authors found out from the study. The introduction includes info about previous similar studies or papers. The conclusion shows if the original research question was answered and future research areas to be explored.

Review the data- tables, charts, graphs, diagrams, images, etc. Get a better idea of the results of the research or analytical study. There might be other visual representations of what the scholars are studying.

Once you know the article relates to your topic, read the whole article. It will be easier now that you've gained context.

Some more tips about reading:

• Take notes
• Summarize sections or paragraphs
• Keep a subject dictionary, your textbook glossary or the Internet/Wikipedia close by. If you come across any unfamiliar terms, you can quickly look them up.
• Keep track of the citation information of the articles you do read and want to use in your paper or assignment. This will make life a lot easier at the end of the project.