ARTICLE SUMMARIES
Throughout the course you will be required to summarize three quantitative research articles within the field of psychology. These articles will be based off of the topic that you have chosen at the beginning of the semester. You will need to search for these articles and:
1. Determine if it is related to your topic
AND
2. Meet the requirements of a quantitative article
Once you have found an article that you believe has met those requirements you will need to send a PDF version of that article to me so that I may approve it. IF YOUR ARTICLE HAS NOT BEEN APPROVED I WILL NOT GRADE YOUR SUMMARY!
In order to effectively write a summary of your article, imagine that you are explaining it to someone who has not read it. You do not want to re-write it, but rather mention the important points. This summary is for you to refer back to when writing the final paper, but without having to re-read the entire article again. Discuss the background, methods (including demographics of the sample), and findings. The statistical tests are not as important for this exercise, but it’s helpful to read them and begin familiarizing yourself with them.
The article you are summarizing must be one you plan to use for your paper. The first summary would ideally be an older article on the topic for background. Every topic has “seminal articles,” which are considered to be some of the most important articles in the area. Later summaries should be more recent to provide information regarding more recent findings.
Requirements:
– 1½ – 2 pages in length
– APA 6th ed. Style
– No abstract required
– References
– Use past tense – the study has already occurred

Here are some tips for effective summarizing:

– Take notes as you read. It may be helpful to read it through all the way once, then take notes during the second reading. This limits the amount of repetition of information. Plus, the more times you read it, the better your understanding.
– The Article Summary Worksheet is helpful in taking notes because it helps organize your thinking. (Available on Blackboard)
– DO NOT QUOTE. This means not to reproduce what the authors wrote word-for-word when taking notes. Here you should practice paraphrasing. If you do this, you not only will avoid plagiarism, but being able to effectively paraphrase is a sure sign that you understand the article.
– If something in the article is not clear, ASK I’m here to help.

Note: When submitting your article summary I expect you to also submit a Grammarly Report.

When adding your text into Grammarly select the following goals:
Audience: Knowledgeable
Formality: Formal
Domain: Academic
Tone and Intent can be set however you feel.
After making the appropriate corrections, I expect a score of 90 or higher. If it is below that you will not receive full credit. To generate your report, click the overall score. A box will appear, at the bottom there will be a Download PDF Report. Save a copy and upload to blackboard.
https://www.grammarly.com/

PLEASE TURN THIS INTO BLACKBOARD PRIOR TO STARTING YOUR SUMMARIES

Student Name:
Date:

Student Topic:

 
Article Summary Grading Rubric
In each section, you are allowed 2 mistakes before points are deducted for each error. This can also serve as a checklist for you before submitting your work. I will refer to the type of error in the comments in the paper.

1. APA Style: (17 points) Comments
Title Page: (1 pt each)
______ Separate page
______ Bolded Title
______ Proper Student Title Page Elements

Citation: (3 pts each)
______ In-text (referring to the article title is not considered a citation)

Reference Page (1 pt each)
______ Page Title
______ Alphabetical Order
______ Proper Formatting of References
______ Indentation of References

Body: (1 pt each)
______ Flush Left Text
______ Page numbers
______ Title
______ Margins
______ Font
______ Page Length
______ In-text headings

2. Grammar & Mechanics (16 points- 2 pts each) )
______ Paraphrasing
______ Contractions/Personal Pronouns
______ Slang/Empty Phrases/Wordiness
______ Spelling
______ Punctuation
______ Clarity of Prose (basic grammar errors)
______ Run-on and fragments
______ Organization

3. Summary (17 points)
______ Introduce the topic (4 pts)
______ Discuss Previous Findings (2 pts)
______ Methods (4 pts)
______ Authors’ conclusions (3 pts)
______ Limitations (2 pts)
______ Future directions (2 pts)