writing a review article

8/2/2019 Writing a Review Article

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Writing a review article


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Purpose

The purpose of this online lesson is to describe some of the

fundamental features of a certain type of paper, the review article.


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Materials

The following materials are needed for this lesson:

This powerpoint presentation (used as the guide).

The group project assignment sheet (available on blackboard).

Stoloff and Rogers, 2002 (available on blackboard). Kiecolt-Glaser & Glaser, 2001 (available on blackboard; referred to

as the sample article.

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association,

Fifth Edition. Peer grading form (available on blackboard).


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The APA Manual describes review articles as follows (APA

Manual, p. 7)

Review articles, including meta-analyses are critical evaluations of

material that has already been published. By organizing, integrating,

and evaluating previously published material, the author of a review

article considers the progress of current research toward clarifying a

problem. In a sense a review article is tutorial in that the author:

Defines and clarifies the problem;

Summarizes previous investigations in order to inform the reader of the state

of current research;

Identifies relations, contradictions, gaps, and inconsistencies in the literature;and

Suggests the next step or steps in solving the problem.


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Context

Students in biopsychology have selected groups that are to studyvarious neuroscience issues. Each group member must now write areview article that describes one side of a the groups general theme.

Writing a review article is one part of a semester-long assignment

that is described in the Group Project assignment sheet. This project has been described in an article titled Understanding

Psychology through Thinking, Doing, Writing (Stoloff & Rogers,2001). The article was published in the national journal of theAmerican Psychological Society. Please read this article to betterunderstand what you are supposed to be learning from thisassignment.


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A sample review article

I suggest that you printout the Kiecolt-Glaser & Glaser, 2001 reviewarticle on Stress and Immunity. Read the article and then use it tofollow along with this discussion regarding how to write a reviewarticle. This sample has the fundamental elements of a review article

that you should try to emulate. Note the following differences between the sample and your paper:

Your review article will be substantially shorter. Your paper must be limitedto just 2 double spaced pages and you are expected to include just 8references.

Your review article will be prepared in APA manuscript format. This paperis written in APA style, but it is formatted for printing in the journal.

Your review article should not include an abstract or keyword list,acknowledgements or notes that appear in the sample article.


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How should I organize my review article?

Consider the sample article as a whole to see its organization.

The first paragraph (that starts A well-functioning immune system . . .)

gives an overview of the questions being discussed in the article, in the

words of the authors. This paragraph has no citations.

The bulk of the paper in the middle is organized into subsections labeledwith subtitles. Information is presented is thematically organized. There are

many citations in this middle section.

The paper ends with a few paragraphs that draw conclusions, again the

words of the authors. Note that the final two paragraphs contain few

citations (except the authors own previous work). Emulate this style.


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Organize! Your paper must have a theme.

As you organize the literature you have collected and prepare towrite your review article, determine what key ideas emerge fromyour review of the literature. Use these key ideas to organize andintegrate your paper.

Keep your goal in mind. Remember the APA Manual says that areview article will organize, integrate and evaluate previously

published material. You organize around yourtheme.

Use your First paragraph to introduce your theme.

Middle sections to present and evaluate information, frequently referringback to your theme.

Final paragraph (or paragraphs) to draw conclusions that relate directly toyour theme.


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Be concise

I will evaluate only 2 double spaced pages for this assignment. You need yourwhole review article to fit into that tiny space.

Yes, this is hard! It is one of the most difficult aspects of this assignments.Your writing will be much improved if it is edited to make it concise.

To be concise:

Be well organized.

Avoid redundancy. Say most things just once. Dont say things over and again. Its awaste of time when you say things over and over again. It makes people mad whenthey are wasting their time reading the same things over and over again, in sentenceafter sentence. Endless repetition of the same ideas! (See what I mean?)

Make every word count. Omit any words that do not importantly contribute to the ideasyou are trying to express.

Stick to the theme. Dont talk about anything in the articles you are reviewing that arenot relevant to your theme.

Integrate the information.


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Integrate!

As you present relevant points from the literature, you will often find

that the same issue is addressed, or the same point can be made, from

two or more of the articles you have reviewed. Describe the

information derived from these articles just once, and reference both

(all) of the articles in a single citation.

For example, see the second page of the sample article:

Note that two articles are cited with this single statement. See the

APA manual for more information about reference citations.


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Evaluate!

Dont just report past findings, tell

us what you think these findings

mean. How do they contribute to

our understanding of the general

issues that are the theme of your

paper.

For example, on the first page of the

sample, a finding is reported and

then the authors explain the

importance of the information to the

issue of age and immune function,

the theme of this paper:


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Use APA-Style when citing literature and

preparing your reference list.

Use the APA Publication Manual, 5th edition as a guide.

Note that the reference list was accidentally omitted when the sample

paper was scanned. You need to include this in your paper.


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Evaluation of this assignment

This paper is evaluated twice, first by peer review, and then, after

you have the opportunity to improve your paper, by instructor

review. Two grades are generated and both count.

A rubric has been developed for peer evaluation. Its available on

blackboard. I suggest that you review the rubric as you write your

paper. Try to do the best job possible knowing that other students

will evaluating your paper according to the guidelines specified in

the rubric.


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Good Luck!

writing a review article

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