4/16/2024 0 Comments Annotating an article![]() What are the major themes the author identifies in the literature? Are there any gaps in the literature? Does the author address challenges or limitations to the studies they cite? Is there enough literature to frame the rest of the article or do you have unanswered questions? Does the author provide conceptual definitions for important ideas or use a theoretical perspective to inform their analysis? How does the author frame the research focus? What other possible ways of framing the problem exist? Why might the author have chosen this particular way of framing the problem? Who are this study’s major stakeholders? Who provided feedback? Who provided support in the form of funding or other resources? What are the key findings? How were those findings reached? How does the author frame their study? Table 6.3 Questions worth asking while reading research reports Report section Your goal is to critically read the literature, so write down what you think while reading! Table 6.3 contains some questions that might stimulate your thoughts. Don’t feel bad! Journal articles are hard to understand sometimes, even for professors. ![]() If you don’t understand something, make a note about it and ask your professor. If you think the author says something inaccurate or unsubstantiated, write that down. Write down any questions or thoughts that come to mind as you read. What do you think? Are there any areas you are confused about? Any new ideas or reflections come to mind while you’re reading? Treat these annotations as a means of capturing your first reflections about an article. Time is a valuable resource, so our goal here is to help you spend your time reading the literature wisely. Most of all, you want to avoid reading through all of your sources again just to find that one thing you know you read somewhere. ![]() For example, if you are searching for definitions of key concepts, you can either click on the tag for in your PDF reader or thumb through a printed copy of article for whatever color or tag you used to indicate definitions of key terms. If you are annotating electronically, you can use the names below as tags to easily find information later. If you are annotating on paper, try using different color highlighters for each type of annotation listed below. These annotations are adapted from Craig Whippo and Raul Pacheco-Vega. In this section, we present common annotations people make when reading journal articles. By sharing your highlights and comments, you can split the work of getting the most out of each article you read and build off one another’s ideas. You can also use Google Docs to collaboratively annotate a PDF using the commenting feature and write collaborative notes in a shared document. If are working in a group, you can use the Hypothes.is web browser extension to annotate articles collaboratively. They also provide integration with word processing programs to help with citations in a reference list.Īnnotation and reviewing literature does not have to be a solo project. Using citation managers, you can build a library of articles, save your annotations, and link annotations across PDFs using keywords. Again, Raul Pacheco-Vega’s guide to using Mendeley is stellar. The best approach may be to use a citation manager like Mendeley or its open-source alternative, Zotero. Most PDF readers like Adobe Acrobat have a commenting and highlighting feature, though the PDF readers included with internet browsers like Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Safari do not have this feature. There are a number of free software tools you can use to help you annotate a journal article. No matter what you use, the point is that you need to write notes when you’re reading. It’s a bit low-tech, but it makes notes searchable and does not require specialized software. Another advantage is not having to print every article. Then type notes and copy quotes, listing the page number for each note. This can be as simple as having a PDF open in one computer window and a Word document open in a window next to it. However, many people prefer to use a computer to write notes on an article. There can be a lot of benefits to the paper, pen, and highlighter approach to annotating articles. It is full of amazing tips for students conducting a literature review and graduate research projects. Honestly, while you are there, browse around that website. Raul Pacheco-Vega’s excellent blog has a post on his approach to taking physical notes. The most basic technique is to print out the article and build a binder related to your topic.
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