Read It Without Reading All of It
Research Like a Professor · Guide 4 of 9
Professors don't read articles from the first word to the last. They read them out of order, deciding at each step whether the next part is worth their time. You can too, and most articles will tell you in five minutes whether they answer your question.
How an article is built
Most research articles in the sciences and social sciences follow the same pattern, so once you know it, you can find your way around almost any of them.
| Part | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Abstract | The whole article in one paragraph: question, method, finding |
| Introduction | Why the question matters, and what others have already said about it |
| Methods | How the authors gathered and studied their evidence |
| Results | What they found, often in tables and charts |
| Discussion or conclusion | What the findings mean, and what they don't prove |
| References | Every source the authors used: your trail backward, from guide 2 |
History and other humanities articles are usually built as an argument instead. The claim comes near the end of the introduction, and each section adds evidence for it. The reading order below works for both.
The professor's order
Read in this order, and stop as soon as you know whether the article is useful.
- The abstract. One paragraph. Does it touch your question at all? If not, set it aside. That isn't a failure; it's five minutes saved.
- The conclusion. Skip straight to the end. What did the authors find, and what do they admit they couldn't show?
- The figures and tables. Charts often carry the finding more clearly than the text around them. Read their titles and captions.
- The last paragraph of the introduction. That's usually where the authors state exactly what they set out to do, and in a history article, their argument.
- The methods, if the article has earned it. Read this when you plan to rely on the finding, so you know how much weight it can bear.
Read the whole article only when it turns out to sit at the center of your question. Most won't, and the few that do deserve your full attention.
Read with a pencil
For every article you keep, write down three short answers in your own words. Three sentences now will save you rereading the whole thing later.
- What is the claim? The one thing the authors want you to believe.
- What is the evidence? What they looked at, and how much of it. To take made-up numbers, a survey of 40 people and a study of 40,000 carry different weight.
- What does it mean for my question? Does it answer it, complicate it, or point you somewhere new?
When you copy an exact phrase, put it in quotation marks and note the page number. Guide 8 picks up from there.
Next: Guide 5, Check It, on how to tell whether a source deserves your trust.
Research Like a Professor is a nine-part series. See all nine guides.