Article Review Assignment
Write a 4 Page Article Review on an Published Journal Article (You many not use the example article) that explains a research experiment dealing with children (ages 0-18). It can be any topic about children. Your Article Review must be in APA Format (see my folder about APA), must have college level grammar, must have correct citations, and must have your review. 4 pages of content. (title page and works cited do not count toward 4 pages)
NO Abstract. You are reviewing ONE article…Your Works Cited page should only have ONE Reference (the article you reviewed).
The purpose of this assignment is to familiarize you with current scholarly research, library resources, standards of writing, and APA format. Psychology journal articles usually are written in one of three ways:
1. Research that is being explored through an original experiment.
2. Past research that is being studied and analyzed (or a meta-analysis).
3. Theoretical studies that are in the early stages of being analyzed.
This assignment is a review (or discussion) of number 1, research that is being explored through an original experiment. Look for an Article that has headings: It should start with a literature review, then have sections that describe some or all of the following:method, participants, design, measures, procedure, results, discussion and future research .
Some recommendations for writing your research article review:
Step 1
Find a current (within the last 10 years) research article that describes the processes and outcomes of an original research experiments within the subject of Development Infancy to Adolescents. The university library will allow you to access databases of current journal articles. PsycINFO is one of the largest psychology databases. ERIC is an excellent resource for both psychology and education.
When accessing these databases, look for peer reviewed articles. Another source for good articles is the APA website. (Look for free articles). Look for readable articles that really interest you. If you do not understand the article you will not be able to write a review.
Step 2
Use APA format! Educate yourself on the styles of APA format. For this review you will need a title page, body of writing, and reference page. No Abstract.
Step 3 – Parts of Paper
The paper should have 4 parts.
Part 1) Introduction to the article (a few sentences or 1 paragraph)
Part 2) Summary (2-3 pages) which answers the following questions:
What is the major research question that is being addressed?
Are the authors testing a particular theory or hypothesis? Describe.
Who were the participants?
How was the research conducted? (In your own words, describe the methods.)
What were the results?
Were the authors hypotheses supported? (Look in the discussion section.)
Did the authors mention any limitations to the study?
Did the authors describe any future research suggestions?
Remember to Cite Everything! None of this will be your own thought.
Part 3 Critique
The second part of the paper needs to include an evaluation of the study (1-2 pages). Some questions that would assist in making a good critique might include:
How effectively was the study conducted? (For example – how representative was the sample?)
How reliable were the measures? (Did they used an established instrument, or create their own?)
What extraneous confounding variables may have influenced the findings?
Did the authors conclusions make sense based on the data?
Are there any limitations to the study that the authors failed to mention?
How generalizable are the findings?
What future research studies could build on the current findings?
Part 4 Conclusion paragraph summarizing your thoughts about the article. (Always write in 3 rd person).
Cite everything in this section that is not your opinion, which is going to be everything but your opinion in the conclusion.
Papers should be 4 pages in length (not including title page and reference page).
Papers should be an original work; do not submit a paper that you have written for another course.
Total: 135 points
These are some good resources that may also assist you in this paper:
APA tutorial:
http://www.lib.usm.edu/legacy/tutorials/apatutorial/quiz.php?type=post
Avoiding plagiarism
https://www.indiana.edu/~istd/definition.html
Purdue University: Owl writing lab (and APA resource)
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/
