Nursing: NU 342

Strategies for deep reading your articles:

• Identify your research need, what do you need out of the article? How does the article fit my research question or my assignment?
• Determine the relevance by reading the title and the abstract. If the abstract does not contain main concepts of your topic, move on! 
• Use your understanding of the structure of a scholarly article. You don’t need to read the article in order. Skip to different sections of the article that make sense for your research need. 
• Skim when necessary in order to determine if specific sections are worth reading thoroughly or to find keywords related to your topic. 
• Take notes as you go for the sections you read thoroughly and look up words you don’t understand. 
• Ask questions and read critically. If you determine that the article is relevant, go back and read sections slowly and summarize what is being said. Is there bias present? How does the article fit in with articles on the same topic? Any inconsistencies or gaps in the literature? 

Use the references. Did the author cite something that was interesting? Find the article in the reference list and add it to your bibliography.

Strategies for synthesizing your articles:

• Establish your thesis statement
• Takes notes on major themes, ideas, or data points for all of your articles.
• Organize notes by most important points to least important points.
  • See how the articles connect to support your thesis
  • Compare and contrast the data.
  • Evaluate the quality and significance of the main ideas.
• Structure your paragraphs around the different themes found across your articles
  • Don’t summarize one source at a time.
  • Cite multiple sources in the same paragraph. 
• Provide commentary on why the evidence is important and how it connects back to your overall thesis. 
• Interpret and reflect on the articles you synthesized and share your own insights or interpretations of the synthesized information. Draw your own conclusions.

Congrats! You found your articles...now what? 

After determining your thesis statement and finding your articles, read through your sources more thoroughly. 

Remember that you don't need to read the articles all the way through.

• First try reading the Abstract again for a general overview
• Read the Methodology to see how the research was conducted
• Read the Discussion and Conclusion to see what the results of the study were. The Discussion and Conclusion is important for understanding if the intervention(s) worked and what further research might need to be done on your topic. 

Take notes using the handout below as you read your articles more critically.