Academic Services

The purpose of research is to find and create new knowledge. Scholarly journals, and the peer-reviewed articles in them, are how that knowledge is shared with others (like students!). In order to stay up to date in their research fields, faculty members are often reading several books and journals at the same time, so must be efficient at absorbing large amounts of information. This affects the daily student experience because faculty pass along expectations of this level of reading to the student.

• Authors of journal articles always have an argument; they are trying to convince you of something

• Authors have different writing styles. Although journal articles have a standard format (listed in the section below), it is important to acknowledge just as your written communication style may differ from a classmate’s, different authors will present their arguments in different ways as well.

• You are an author too! Your thoughts and judgments about journal articles are worthwhile, so don't just take what other authors say on blind faith — question them!

• Abstract: a brief summary of the whole article; main points of the article and findings
• Introduction: the purpose of the study and the main question to be answered; what’s already known and what’s to be found out
  • Literature Review: existing research on topic that frames how authors arrived at this question/topic
• Body: the “nitty-gritty” details about the study (this is where most students get lost — most times the other sections will give you what you need)
  • Methodology: how the research was performed; subjects, testing conditions; controls; etc.
  • Results/Data: the numbers and the outcome; often presented visually with charts, graphs and formulas
• Discussion: an extended summary of findings; was the original thesis or question proved or disproved; anything unexpected that arose
• Conclusion: restates the findings and results; what was discovered and what still needs to be researched
• References/Bibliography: previous research the authors used to formulate their study design and research questions; what has already been published on the topic; might point to more resources available on topic

No matter how you reference the article, be SURE to cite the source, see Brandeis’Academic Integrity page.

• Quoting — for definitions or when the author’s original words are too unique to reword

  • A good rule of thumb: 1 quotation per page maximum

• Paraphrasing (Summarizing) — using your own words to share the author’s point, in detail or general terms (this is most common in scholarly writing)

  • A good rule of thumb: no more than 2-3 paraphrases per paragraph

• After a paragraph, write summarizing notes for main points and graphs/tables/visuals in the margins or a separate paper/word document. (If you do this along the way, you won’t have to do as much re-reading while writing your paper).

• Highlighting: only very important quotes or terms, parts most relevant to your topic, bolded terms. (Tip: important information will often be the first and last sentences of a paragraph).