When you’re writing an academic text like an essay, research paper, or dissertation, you’ll engage with other researchers’ work in a variety of ways. Sometimes you might use a brief quote to support your point
You should read the article more than once to make sure you’ve thoroughly understood it. It’s often effective to read in three stages:
- Scan the article quickly to get a sense of its topic and overall shape.
- Read the article carefully, highlighting important points and taking notes as you read.
- Skim the article again to confirm you’ve understood the key points, and re-read any particularly important or difficult passages.
Compare your paper with over 60 billion web pages and 30 million publications.
Table of contents
Although apple eaters were slightly more likely to have avoided physician visits, this relationship was not statistically significant after adjusting for various relevant factors. No association was found between apple consumption and hospital stays or mental health service use. However, apple eaters were found to be slightly more likely to have avoided using prescription medication. Based on these results, the authors conclude that an apple a day does not keep the doctor away, but it may keep the pharmacist away. They suggest that this finding could have implications for reducing healthcare costs, considering the high annual costs of prescription medication and the inexpensiveness of apples.
There are many situations in which you might have to summarize an article or other source:
Using national survey data, Davis et al. (2015) tested the assertion that “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” and did not find statistically significant evidence in support of this hypothesis. While people who consumed apples were slightly less likely to use prescription medications, the study was unable to demonstrate a causal relationship between these variables.
If you’ve ever jotted down a recipe or shared do-it-yourself instructions with a friend, you already understand the basic structure of how-to writing. How-tos inform the reader and can often be submitted to an editor with a simple cover letter.
Choose a topic that interests you enough to focus on it for at least a week or two. If your topic is broad, narrow it. Instead of writing about how to decorate your home, try covering how to decorate your home in country style on a shoestring budget. That’s more specific and, as such, easier to tackle.
Then write a rough, rough draft, including everything you can think of. Stay loose, avoid getting analytical, and enjoy the process of sharing what you know. When you’re done, you’ll have the bare bones of an article that only you could write. Then put it aside for a while.
Research will ground your article in fact. Good details to include with your how-to are:
STEP 1: SELECT YOUR TOPIC
If your narrative goes on and on, or off in too many directions, break it down into key points indicated with subheads (as in this article). Synthesizing complicated information and breaking it down into steps is especially crucial for online writing, and is also a trend in print.
Do you know how to prepare an exquisite turkey dinner on a shoestring? Execute a perfect rugby tackle? Pay rock-bottom rates for accommodations in exotic destinations all over the world?
Read the draft of your how-to article out loud to a supportive friend. Then, ask her a series of questions: Does she now understand the process? Are there any steps missing? Is there anything else she would like to know about the subject? Could she do the task herself? With your friend’s suggestions in mind, use your best judgment in deciding what changes, if any, need to be made.
If you read this organized summary, you’ll notice how it flows much better than the raw version. That’s because the thoughts are arranged in a logical manner.
Despite the sad statistics, not all parental career guidance is bad. Stacey is a highly paid educator who loves her job. Her parents took care to learn as much as possible about her as she was growing up and were able to guide her to an ideal career. She is now a professor of music at a university. She gets to perform and teach her beloved musical instrument – the violin. Contrary to what many may think, Stacey’s parents are not musicians, and she did not follow in their footsteps. They are psychologists, and that explains a lot. Stacey is lucky, but not many people can boast parents who understand the importance of exploring the child’s inner world or care to uncover the child’s potential. Most parents simply don’t know.
In his article on parental career advice, Thompson (2019) argues that career choice is an important decision that is best made with professional rather than parental guidance. While children tend to deem their parents as ultimate authorities on everything, they should take parental advice about choosing a profession with a grain of salt. Parents often do not bother to evaluate their children’s inborn talents, strengths, and weaknesses. And their advice is often self-serving, albeit unconsciously. The result is appalling rates of job dissatisfaction. Ahmad is a perfect example. He is a well-paid doctor who would rather be a teacher and enjoy his work. That said, when parents do pay attention, they can guide their child well, as Stacey’s example shows. She is an accomplished violinist and teacher who was guided by her psychologist parents and could not be happier as a professional. However, most children cannot boast parents who are psychologists, and uninformed parents will make mistakes with regards to their children’s future. Therefore, it is better for young adults to consult with a professional in early adulthood to determine the most fulfilling career course, ironically increasing the chances of higher pay and better job security.
If needed, add the main point as one sentence in the beginning.
Paragraph 5
Parents often act out of selfish yet unconscious motivations. Their desire for status and security backfires when their children change careers and take a pay cut to gain more job satisfaction.
But just note that in the first example you’ll write a lot more than in the second one. This may also mean that you are allowed to use a quotation or two. The second example is probably too short to use quotations.
This raw summary is 172 words long, which is perfectly within our goal. So, we have the amount of material we need. Now, we need to take the next step.
Furthermore, parents are often motivated by factors other than their child’s sense of fulfillment. Psychologists claim that parents are often unconsciously guided by their own self-interest or by a false sense of security. They want the best for the future of the family as whole, and that is often associated with a high status. In other words, it may be more important for the parents that their child make them a proud member of a community by gaining a high post or a lucrative salary. They may also consider some careers more stable and safe. This notion persists in parents in spite of overwhelming evidence that the stability of a career is highly dependent on the employee’s satisfaction with the career choice. Those who feel miserable at the job sooner or later find a way to escape it and end up taking a pay cut in return for higher job satisfaction.
- How my views on rap music have changed over time
- My reflection and interpretation of Moby Dick by Herman Melville
- Why my theory about the size of the universe has changed over time
- How my observations for clinical psychological studies have developed in the last year
Try to connect your ideas and insights to form a cohesive picture for your theme. You can also try to recognize and break down your assumptions, which you may challenge in the future.
Pick an idea or experience you had from the last step, and analyse it further. Write your reasoning for agreeing or disagreeing with it.
The end result of your brainstorming should be a written outline of the contents of your future paper. Make sure to not skip this step, as it will ensure that your essay will have a proper flow and appropriate organization.
Body Paragraphs
You can start writing your reflection paper by summarizing the main concept of your notes to see if your paper includes all the information needed for your readers. It is helpful to add charts, diagrams, and lists to deliver your ideas to the audience in a better fashion.
A reflection paper is a type of paper that requires you to write your opinion on a topic, supporting it with your observations and personal examples. As opposed to presenting your reader the opinions of other academics and writers, in this essay you get an opportunity to write your point of view—and the best part is that there is no wrong answer. It is YOUR opinion, and it is your job to express your thoughts in a manner that will be comprehensible and clear for any and all readers that will read your paper. The topic range is endless. Here are some examples: whether or not you think aliens exist, what your favorite TV show is, or what your opinion is on the outcome of WWII. You can write about pretty much anything.
- State what you are analysing: a passage, a lecture, an academic article, an experience, etc. )
- Briefly summarize the work.
- Write a thesis statement stating how your subject has affected you.
● Unless your teacher has specified a length requirement, aim to make your summary about a third of the length of the article you’re summarizing.
Once you’ve read the article through at least twice and made notes, it’s time to write a summary. To get started, Make an outline for your summary. This will help you organize your thoughts and ensure you cover all of your bases in the paper. It will also help you stay on track when you start writing to make sure you don’t include any unnecessary information.
Make note of the supporting arguments. These arguments are what you’re going to need to summarize in your paper. Focus on the main take-aways and think about what the author is saying that may be important or valuable to your course. The more you can relate these points back to your course, the more impressed your professor will be.
When you have to choose your own article to summarize, or if you’re using an article summary for a research paper, the abstract will let you know if the article contains the right information you need. It can also tell you if the topic is something you’re interested in.
Examine the Sources
● Stay objective. You’re not critiquing the article. You are summarizing it and providing an overview of the author’s arguments.
Learning how to summarize an article properly is a skill that you’re probably going to need to develop at one point during your university or college education. It’s an essential part of the learning process and a way to show your professor that you have understood the materials.
● Do the supporting arguments convince you of the author’s perspective? Why or why not?
There are many ways to break down a multiple-article summary. You can choose to break it down by argument if both authors have made similar conclusions. In this case, you’d just include evidence both authors use. Or, you can break it down by author perspective and focus on one author’s points per paragraph. This second option is more effective when summaries need to be shorter in length.