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The Review of Academic Articles

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A commonly assigned speaking task in many courses is the review of academic articles. A biology instructor might ask you to review a study on cell regulation, for example, or a psychology teacher might require that you talk about a study on fetal alcohol syndrome. Typically, when you are assigned to review an academic article, your instructor will expect you to do the following:

Identify the author’s thesis or hypothesis.
Explain the methods by which the author arrived at his or her conclusions.
Explain the author’s findings.
Identify the author’s theoretical perspective, if applicable.
Evaluate the study’s validity, if applicable.
Describe the author’s sources, and evaluate their credibility.
Show how the findings of the study might be applied to other circumstances, and make suggestions about ways in which the study might lead to further research.¹