Most scholarly articles have a structure. Once you understand the structure of the texts, they become easier to read and to understand. Here are some sections you will likely see and what you can find in those sections.
| Components |
Key Points |
| Abstract |
- Brief paragraph that summarizes the article
|
| Introduction |
- Background, rationale, and purpose of article
- Overview of the scholarly conversation around the topic
|
| Literature Review |
- Review of other important literature in the topic area.
- Points out remaining questions about the topic and gaps in the research.
- Connects existing literature to the authors' research.
|
| Methods/ Methodology |
- Study design, measurement instruments, and rationale for their use.
|
| Results / Discussion |
- Describes the outcomes of the study.
- Presents the principles, relationships, and generalizations shown by the study;
- Explains how results support (or refute) previous research;
- Graphs, tables and other presentation of data can be a good first stop to check if the article is worth digging into further.
|
| Conclusion |
- Considers theoretical implications of the results;
- Provides conclusions of the study.
- May present further avenues/directions for future researchers
|
| Reference |
- List of research cited in authors' work.
|
