Learning Journal

A Briefing Note on the Article Reviews

1. What is the article review?

2. What should it contain, and how should it be structured?

3. Does it need references?

4. What is the article review?

The reviews are one of the elements of the portfolio/learning journal. The review is intended to develop your ability to read academic papers thoroughly and critically.

You have to do two reviews. One is on the Sharpe paper, and the other is on the Miller and Shamsie paper. The minimum length for a review is 500 words. Most good reviews will be longer.

The portfolio/learning journal is to be submitted on 28 April 2019, so you can prepare the review at any time up to that date, but we think you will find it easier if you do it within a month or so of first reading the relevant paper.

5. What should it contain, and how should it be structured?

In the first lecture we presented the ‘Research Triangle’:

A focus on CONTENT demands the question: What is the contribution of the paper? (i.e. what new knowledge does it present). Related to this are questions like: What is the relationship of the paper to existing literature? (i.e. critical – takes issue with existing literature - or additive – complements existing literature).

A focus on CONTEXT demands questions like: Has the author written other papers on this topic? Is it published in a good journal? How many times has it been cited? And so on.

A focus on PROCESS concerns the methods and design of the research underpinning the paper.

We require that one of the reviews (Sharpe) focuses, mainly but not exclusively, on CONTENT and the other (Miller and Shamsie) on PROCESS. However, you should also briefly discuss the other points of the triangle in each case.

When reviewing Sharpe from a content perspective, we would recommend you write a minimum of 350 words on content and a minimum of 150 words each on context and process.

Remember that the word count is a minimum figure. Unless you are a very skilled and perceptive writer it is rather unlikely that a review that barely exceeds the minimum word count will attain the highest grades.

You may structure the review how you wish, within reason, but we think it’s likely that the structure will reflect the triangle above. You’ll also need a very brief introduction and conclusion, and probably references

6. Does it need references?

Referencing is always excellent practice, but a poor review with references will attract fewer marks than a strong one without. If you are discussing other work by the author(s) or anyone else you must reference it.