Writing a brief summary of an article gives you the opportunity to: 1) encounter additional research on some aspect of our subject matter, 2) to think about the research process and how research articles are produced, and 3) to practice academic writing.
Step 1: Choose an article related to our subject matter, language and the law. The article you choose should be from a peer-reviewed source and published in a scholarly journal. Choose an article written in any language you can read proficiently.
Step 2: Closely read the article, for comprehension, but also with an eye toward understanding “the work” that went into producing the article.
Step 3: Write your report.
What is the problem the author(s) is seeking to address.
What background does the author provide about the problem? How would you describe this background context (Is it about what other researchers have done? Is the background given about the law? Is any other kind of background given?)
How does the author(s) investigate this problem? What methods are used? What data are analyzed? How are data analyzed? What texts are consulted?
What words would you use to describe the study presented? Is it an experiment (with variables and some kind of manipulation)? Is it archival, empirical, textual-interpretive, or something else? Is the research qualitative or quantitative or both?
What are the findings?
How does the author interpret the findings?
What conclusions are given?
Does the author make any recommendations (for future study, for policy, anything else?)?
What is your takeaway? (
For your own purposes, what do you want to remember / gain from this paper?)
Other tips: Your summary does not have to be long – you should be able to do this in about one single-spaced page. (I don’t think you can do it in less than half a page, single-space). We can call this “formal writing” in the sense that you should use those conventions, but please don’t feel you need to produce beautiful prose for this summary – it can be formal but basic! If you have any questions please let me know!
