The document provides strategies for effectively interacting with and summarizing scholarly journal articles. It recommends beginning with the conclusion to determine if the article supports your research. It then outlines seven steps: 1) evaluate the article's relevance; 2) gather pertinent information; 3) interact with the content; 4) understand limitations; 5) incorporate information into notes; 6) use notes to incorporate expert opinions into your research; 7) repeat for additional articles. The strategies aim to help readers efficiently glean useful information from lengthy scholarly sources.

1. Scholarly Journal
Articles
(Peer Reviewed)

2. ...A time to say “Help!”
You have been directed towards using scholarly journals for your research. Now you are finding
out that they are lengthy, have a lot of jargon (terminology which is very specific to that field of
study) and are quite a bit daunting! Even so, you should not shy away from using them to increase
and deepen your knowledge on the topic. There are strategies that you can use while interacting
with these articles which can help you.

3. First, let’s tell you a little bit about scholarly journal articles. They are
different than magazine or newspaper articles mainly because of the
author type and the research methods they employ.
The authors for scholarly journal articles are typically those who are
conducting research within the field they are studying or that they are
employed within.
A magazine or newspaper article is authored by a paid journalist who
is assigned a topic to research and write about. Their knowledge on
the topic tends to be limited where the author of a scholarly journal
has a greater depth of knowledge.

4. The authors of scholarly journal articles choose a pre-designed
methodology to apply to their research to ensure that their
information is as accurate as can be. There is typically a “peer” who
is reviewing their work and verifying its authenticity, accuracy, and
currency. Oftentimes, this is a professor who is overseeing the
process.
In a world where misinformation (a.k.a. Fake news) is of incredible
concern, there is an advantage to choosing to learn and build your
own knowledge through these articles.

5. How do I find one?
While some use Google Scholar, I prefer not to. Why? Google Scholar often directs people to articles that require payment.
For some reason, a regular Google search with the phrase “scholarly articles” added to the keywords seems to generate a results list
that directs people to free full-text articles from scholarly journals. If you are concerned about whether you have actually found a
scholarly journal article, look to see the following. Within most scholarly journal articles you will see an abstract, a section on
methodology, charts and graphs, a results section, and a conclusion. There may even be a section entitled limitations. The exception to
this are historical scholarly articles where they tend to be narrative in style. You may even want to Google, “Is _(insert journal name)_ a
scholarly journal?” or “Is _(insert journal name)_ peer reviewed?”
What if I found one that I love that wants me to pay? Ask your librarian if they can access it for you. They may be part of a listserv
email group that will allow them to request an article that can be provided for free.
Where else can I find them? Our school subscribes to EBSCOhost Advanced Placement Source. This database has a fantastic
collection of scholarly journal articles.
● Type search.ebscohost.com; login with our school credentials; choose EBSCOhost Web; select Advanced Placement Source;
search within using search limitations of full text and scholarly articles. Be cautious that you do not accidentally find a book
review.
Which one should I use? You should actually search every platform to select articles which are the most useful to your specific
research needs. You should probably use more than one scholarly journal article.

6. Step 1
Find a few good ones!
Evaluating usefulness: things to consider:
● Connection to your thesis statement/main research points - does it heavily support your research focus?
● Copyright date - what pertinence does the copyright date have to your research?
● Author purpose - what is the main purpose or question the author is attempting to answer? Does it connect to your
own research needs? What is their point of view (what academic perspective do they provide?) Does their point of
view match your research needs?
● Research type - Is the research quantitative (highly statistical) or qualitative (attaining feelings and beliefs) or a
blend? Do you prefer one type over another for your research needs?

7. Step 2
Jump to conclusions!
No matter what writing style is used, every good author is going to wrap up their thoughts at the
end. It is a good idea to scroll right to the summary/conclusion/findings (or to the final paragraphs if
the article is more narrative) and determine the main ideas that the author is communicating with
the article.
Why did we go right to the conclusion? What if you thought your article was right for you and you take
the time to gather all of the details about the article but then you jump into the content and find out they
ultimately state something that doesn’t help you support your thesis? It is best to determine that before
doing additional work.

8. Step 3
Employ a few reading strategies
Close reading Read the first sentence of the conclusion. Ask yourself, “what are they saying?” Once you decode the meaning,
ask yourself, “what does this mean to me and my research?” Then ask, “does this help my research?” If it does, write a summary of the
meaning. Move to the next sentence(s) and repeat the process until you have a good 4-5 sentences of useful information. You can use
our graphic organizer to do this.
Vocabulary Take note of the vocabulary that you encounter. Actively work to keep difficult vocabulary from inhibiting your
comprehension by jotting a quick definition or synonym. It is here that you will see career-specific language (jargon) that is being used
by the author who “lives” in the specific field of work.
Printing and Annotating You may benefit from printing out the article and annotating your thoughts. Our graphic organizer is
designed to help you with that process.

9. Consider
At this point in time you can start to pull those main ideas from the conclusion into
sentences. Here is an example: Dr. Richard Miller, orthopedic surgeon at Children’s Hospital
of Philadelphia, suggests _______ in his study which determines whether sports injuries are
more prominent in females than males.
Note: be sure to cite the source at some point in time – you are likely to be smart to do it
right away, while you remember which source you accessed the information from. However,
the citation can be identified and formatted later, too. Scholarly journals are great sources to
cite in-text. When you include the author in your written text, be sure to briefly describe their
qualifications.

10. Step 4
Gather some pertinent information
● Identify where the information supports your research (the specific outline section)
● Access and record the URL or permalink (EBSCO requires permalink)
● Determine and record the proper parenthetical citation that you should use (this should
be “easy as pie” since these source types almost always include authors)
● Access and record the article title, journal title, author name(s), etc.

11. Step 5
Interacting with the content
● Pinpoint sections that you will interact with and determine which sections you will ignore (if any)
● Look to see which information from the author is based upon data and which are inferences. Record any that help you.
● Scan the article for quantitative information (gather any statistics and numbers that may help you)
● Scan the article for qualitative information (feelings and beliefs - gather any that may help you)
● Make your own inferences (what can you rationally assume from the content that has not been directly stated?)
● Attempt some logical predictions based upon the information gathered (not only short term but long term and
consider changes to statistics, feelings and beliefs, laws, etc.)
Recognize that this slide is “heavy” with tasks. Refer back to this slide often. Remember the
reading strategies from step 3.

12. Consider
If your information includes statistics, please incorporate the following rules:
● begin with a sentence that makes the reader care about the relevance and importance of the number/statistic.
● provide the statistic in digestible format so the reader does not have to mentally convert the number.
● give the reader a concept of the scope of the statistic compared to previous years, similar size events, similar
geographic size, etc. so that they can understand that growth or reduction occurred, physical size, or volume of
impact.
● explain the meaning of the statistic
● consider adding a prediction
Refer to this slideshow which better explains statistics writing.

13. Step 6
Understanding Limitations
Often there are limitations directly identified within the article. These state
where further research may be suggested (maybe the study was performed in
a rural setting and an urban setting would offer different outcomes, etc.)
You should consider these limitations and consider a few additional
ones of your own:
● Do you need to research further to better understand or believe any
claims?
● As a result of the research limitations, do you feel the need to look for
research that does not experience the same limitations?
● Does point of view also create a limitation? Might you want to seek
another point of view/perspective to research? If so, which might you
look for?

14. Step 7
If you are also annotating your
bibliography
You most likely must verify the source quality. Your instructor is likely going to
want you to go beyond stating who the authors are and where they are
employed.
● they may want you to analyze how their point of view influences their
perspective.
● they may want you to find out if they have additional credentials. This
may requires a lateral search using Google by searching their name
along with their place of employment or their name along with the journal
title.
If the author is an organization:
● what is the mission of their organization?
● how did they develop the research group?
● what do the individuals participating within the research group look like?
are they varied in their expertise?

15. Additional considerations if you
are annotating your
bibliography
You most likely must identify the connections.
● Not only how does the source connect to your research
but how do your sources support each other?
● Do they complement each other in their content
exploration?
● Do they balance various viewpoints?
● Does one extend where another left off?
Quality writing blends a synthesis of expert information within
each concept. No one article should stand on its own to support
one concept as you become more sophisticated in your writing.

16. Step 8
Use notes from the graphic organizer
You have hopefully gleaned a lot of useful information from most
articles that you consulted. No matter the amount gathered, now
work to actively incorporate all of the useful information that you
have gathered into your notes on research.
Your research paper will be “peppered” with these expert opinions
along with your own analysis of their information.
Repeat as needed with as many articles as you are comfortable
using.

17. You are Done!!!
Do you see that it was so much easier than
you imagined?!
By strategically pinpointing focus areas and
extraction methods, it really does not matter
whether an article is three pages or fifty! This
frees you up to use any and all that are most
useful to your own needs
Good luck!

18. Thanks!!!
You can contact me at
khornberger@palisadessd.org

19. Image Citations
M, John. "Daunting Staircase at the RAF Museum " Wikimedia Commons. 24 Mar.
2007. commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/ File:Daunting_Staircase_at_the_RAF_Museum.
Howard, Chris. "Books_0485." Flickr. 12 Nov. 2008.
flickr.com/photos/the0phrastus/3025915411.
Rockefeller, Mrs. "Collier conclusion" Wikimedia Commons. 12 Mar. 2008.
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Collier_conclusion.jpg.
Mira (on the wall). "Magnetic Poetry." Flickr. 12 Oct. 2007.
flickr.com/photos/mmj171188/1640466350.
Alvarez, Guido 'random". "Highlighter pen -photocopied text" Wikimedia
Commons.9 Mar. 2009.
.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Highlighter_pen_-photocopied_text-9Mar2009.jpg.
Geralt. "Statistics Chart Graphic Bar Symbol Arrow." Pixabay.12 Dec. 2013.
pixabay.com/en/statistics-chart-graphic-bar-227173.
Almeida Junior, Jose Ferraz. "Girl with a Book." Wikimedia Commons. 2 Jan.
2010.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Almeida_J%C3%BAnior_-_Mo%C3%A7a_com_Livro.j
pg.
The remaining photos were taken by Karen, John, or Brenna Hornberger at
Longwood Gardens and the Biltmore Estate