Are the references recent? Do they represent important work in the field? If possible, read about the author to learn what authority she brings to the subject. Has the author made an important contribution to the field of study? Reading the Article: Points to Consider Read the article carefully. Record your impressions and note sections suitable for quoting but keep these to a minimum. Who is the intended audience? What is the author’s purpose? In other words, why choose the topic at all? Possible reasons might be to survey and summarise research on a topic; to present an argument that builds on past research; to refute another writer’s argument, or even to offer a new interpretation. Does the author define important terms? Is the information in the article fact or opinion? (Facts are verifiable, while opinions arise from interpretations of facts.) Does the information seem well researched or is it unsupported? What does the author omit, exclude, or overlook? Does that weaken the article? Does this help you understand the author’s purpose? Look at the author’s central arguments or conclusions. Are they clearly stated? Does the evidence and analysis support them? Use references to the new ideas in the article to illustrate your theme. Is the article lacking information or argumentation that you expected to find? Is the article organised logically and easy to follow? Does the author’s style suit the intended audience; is it pretentious or unnecessarily complicated? Relate the work to a social or literary trend. 3 Is the author’s language objective or charged with emotion and bias? If illustrations or charts are used, are they effective in presenting information? Writing the Review: First, summarise the article and its topic(s) before you discuss its strengths and weaknesses. The key is to provide the summary in as short a space as possible. Repeat the author’s ideas, not your own, so this section should be a small part of your review. The introduction is your reader’s guide to the rest of the review. Make a good impression: treat the author and the sources with respect; do not make comments about your skills or qualifications as a reviewer. Your introduction should indicate that you have a command of both the article and the review. Second, determine why the article was written; rather than telling the story of, say, “The Expansion of Greece” you must inform the reader why the author wrote the article
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