Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Review
The purpose of an article review is to provide a summary and evaluation of a piece of
writing. When a lecturer reads an article review written by a student, they want to see
evidence that the student has not only understood the topic of the article, but is able to
evaluate the article in relation to their own knowledge of the topic and other relevant
knowledge in the field. The annotated example below provides useful guidance on how to
organise information within your article review and how to select and use language
strategies which help make your writing more evaluative.
Annotated Example of an Article Review
This is an authentic example of student writing. Therefore you should not view this as a
model – while it contains many attributes of a successful article review, it is not a perfect
piece of writing. The comments on the right hand‐side draw your attention to both
strengths and weaknesses in the review, but are not comprehensive and as such you
should not assume that sections of the article review which do not have comments are
without problems. Please not that the language in this article review is not without
grammatical errors.
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the article deemed to be of a ‘higher’ important
(here the student status than others concepts within
evaluates the article in
(predominantly as a result of the discipline
terms of ‘significance’
and speakers’ higher
Contrastive
‘accessibility’) socioeconomic profile) are conjunction used
relatively rare.
relatively 1 However to link the
as a result of the highly positive and
negative aspects
technical nature of its analysis of the assessment
and somewhat abstract
implications, the article would M odal term
odal term
1Your marker wants to
perhaps only be of
perhaps used to reduce
see that you can relate
interest to relevant experts the strength of
the content of the article
well versed in sociolinguistic the reviewer’s to other knowledge
theory and statistical assessment of within the discipline —
the article in this case the student’s
processes.
negative evaluation is
too general to
demonstrate this type of
understanding.
Functional elements Article Review: Body Language
resources
Summary of an aspect: 2 After a detailed background Evaluative
summarises for the vocabulary conveys
reader an aspect of the
review of both RP itself and
the reviewer’s
article (the the numerous studies of it, the positive assessment
methodological author turns her attention to of the rigour and 2 Note how the student
approach) the main focus of the study: an originality of the
has integrated
original quantitative analysis approach
summary and
Evaluation of this of glottalling in RP. The data is evaluation through the
aspect: taken from 24 interviews use of (sometimes
implicitly) evaluative
evaluates this aspect of conducted amongst university
the article (here the terms and phrases,
students, all of whom were such as ‘detailed’ and
student evaluates the
originality, rigour and
deemed of a similar, ‘higher’ ‘evaluated by
credibility of the social class, categorised thus Implicit positive professional
methodological by the application of the phoneticians’ to
evaluation of the
approach) summarise this aspect
Cambridge Scale to their credibility/rigour of of the article. Good
parents’ occupations coupled the methodological critical writing often
with their educational approach is conveyed does this.
through mention of
background. As well as social the Cambridge
class, the interviewees’
Scale/professional
linguistic profile was phoneticians
evaluated by professional
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phoneticians who deemed
those included to be RP
speakers.
Evaluative
vocabulary conveys
Summary of an aspect: Using a variety of statistical
the reviewer’s
summarises for the methods the author positive evaluation of
reader an aspect of the demonstrates a number of the
article (the findings of validity/credibility/si
the study)
interesting findings. A
gnificance of the
frequency analysis shows findings (for example
that t‐glottalling occurs more compare ’shows’ to
Evaluation of this readily in natural speech than ‘suggests’ in this
aspect: context)
evaluates this aspect of in formal reading, revealing
the article an element of style‐shifting in
(here the student RP dependent on the situation
evaluates the validity and perceived by the speaker. A
significance of the
findings ) regional cross‐tabulation
shows how speakers from
London and the South East of
England are more prone to t‐ 3 Note how the student
glottalling, 3 confirming has related the
findings in the original
hypotheses on the diffusion of
article to other
this feature from its historical
findings in the field.
epicentre (London) made by Implicit positive This allows them to
evaluation of the
University College London demonstrate
validity of the findings knowledge of the field
professor of phonetics JC is conveyed by and its concerns and
Wells and cited by the article’s mention of use this knowledge to
author. Additionally, an similar credible support their
findings evaluations. The more
ANOVA (‘analysis of variance’)
evidence you use to
test on participants’ reactions back up your
to two identical bodies of
evaluations the better.
speech, differing in the level
and varieties of t‐glottalling
contained within each one,
reveals that certain usages of
t‐glottalling are more
acceptably ‘RP’ than others. 4 When you are
evaluating an aspect of
an article you need to
use terms of
Contrastive
4 While these findings are evaluation that are
conjunction used to
both specific to the
certainly of interest, the link the positive and
discipline and its
negative aspects of
author’s somewhat
somewhat concerns and
the assessment
objective. The use of
overbearing attention to general and personally
detail in outlining the minutiae Modal term used to
Modal term loaded terms such as
of her study was exacting reduce the strength of ‘overbearing attention
to detail’ and ‘point of
distraction’ detracts
from the validity of the
Page 3 of 3
student’s evaluation.
almost to the point of
almost the negative
evaluation
distraction. For instance, the
inclusion of the make and
model number of her
Dictaphone used to record and
transcribe the interviews, an Evaluative
unnecessary detail vocabulary conveys
extraneous to the interest of the student’s negative
assessment of the
the reader. While an element of degree of detail
thoroughness in the review, included in the article
methodological considerations
and exposition of results is of
course essential in any research,
and particularly academic
research, it must not go so far as
to distract from the individual
findings and their overall
implications, as was certainly the
case here.
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Functional elements Article Review: Conclusion Language
resources
Summary of evaluation: In conclusion, Fabricius’ article Evaluative
summarises for the
provides a comprehensive vocabulary conveys
reader the main points the reviewer’s
made in the Review stage review of past research into
positive assessment
in terms of your RP and presents interesting of the rigour and
evaluation of each aspect findings from the author’s own significance of the
study and negative
thorough study of the
assessment of the
changing nature of RP and degree of detail and
attitudes towards this change lack of focus
with regards to the
replacement of the /t/ sound
at the ends of words/syllables
with the / / glottal stop.
Contrastive
However, the author’s failure conjunction used to
to explain findings in simple link the positive and
terms and provide real‐world negative aspects of
examples renders this the assessment
research inaccessible to lay
audiences who are
nevertheless stakeholders in
the status of RP (e.g. media
commentators, those in the
dramatic arts).
Overall assessment: The relevance of this
tells the reader what otherwise comprehensive
your overall assessment and contemporary study is Modal term used to
Modal term
of the article is (here reduce the strength of
positive assessment in therefore 5somewhat
somewhat the negative
terms of the rigour and compromised by its evaluation
significance and negative relatively restricted
assessment in terms of
accessibility) accessibility. 5 The use of modal
terms and tempering
vocabulary is
important as by
reducing the strength
of your claims and
evaluations you leave
less room for your
reader to dispute your
claims and evaluations.
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