How to Write an Article Review: Tips and Examples

The Pre-Writing Process

Facing this task for the first time can really get confusing and can leave you being unsure where to begin. To create a top-notch article review, start with a few preparatory steps. Here are the two main stages to get you started:
Step 1: Define the right organization for your review. Knowing the future setup of your paper will help you define how you should read the article. Here are the steps to follow:

• 
  Summarize the article — seek out the main points, ideas, claims, and general information presented in the article.
  
• 
  Define the positive points — identify the strong aspects, ideas, and insightful observations the author has made.
  
• 
  Find the gaps —- determine whether or not the author has any contradictions, gaps, or inconsistencies in the article and evaluate whether or not he or she used a sufficient amount of arguments and information to support his or her ideas.
  
• 
  Identify unanswered questions — finally, identify if there are any questions left unanswered after reading the piece.
  

Step 2: Move on and review the article. Here is a small and simple guide to help you do it right:

• 
  Start off by looking at and assessing the title of the piece, its abstract, introductory part, headings and subheadings, opening sentences in its paragraphs, and its conclusion.
  
• 
  First, read only the beginning and the ending of the piece (introduction and conclusion). These are the parts where authors include all of their key arguments and points. Therefore, if you start with reading these parts, it will give you a good sense of the author’s main points.
  
• 
  Finally, read the article fully.
  

These three steps make up most of the prewriting process. After you are done with them, you can move on to writing your own review—and we are going to guide you through the writing process as well.
Organization in an assignment like this is of utmost importance. Before embarking on your writing process, you could outline your assignment or use an article review template to organize your thoughts more coherently.