The Writing Center • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Literature Reviews

What this handout is about.

This handout will explain what literature reviews are and offer insights into the form and construction of literature reviews in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences.

Introduction

OK. You’ve got to write a literature review. You dust off a novel and a book of poetry, settle down in your chair, and get ready to issue a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” as you leaf through the pages. “Literature review” done. Right?

Wrong! The “literature” of a literature review refers to any collection of materials on a topic, not necessarily the great literary texts of the world. “Literature” could be anything from a set of government pamphlets on British colonial methods in Africa to scholarly articles on the treatment of a torn ACL. And a review does not necessarily mean that your reader wants you to give your personal opinion on whether or not you liked these sources.

What is a literature review, then?

A literature review discusses published information in a particular subject area, and sometimes information in a particular subject area within a certain time period.

A literature review can be just a simple summary of the sources, but it usually has an organizational pattern and combines both summary and synthesis. A summary is a recap of the important information of the source, but a synthesis is a re-organization, or a reshuffling, of that information. It might give a new interpretation of old material or combine new with old interpretations. Or it might trace the intellectual progression of the field, including major debates. And depending on the situation, the literature review may evaluate the sources and advise the reader on the most pertinent or relevant.

But how is a literature review different from an academic research paper?

The main focus of an academic research paper is to develop a new argument, and a research paper is likely to contain a literature review as one of its parts. In a research paper, you use the literature as a foundation and as support for a new insight that you contribute. The focus of a literature review, however, is to summarize and synthesize the arguments and ideas of others without adding new contributions.

Why do we write literature reviews?

Literature reviews provide you with a handy guide to a particular topic. If you have limited time to conduct research, literature reviews can give you an overview or act as a stepping stone. For professionals, they are useful reports that keep them up to date with what is current in the field. For scholars, the depth and breadth of the literature review emphasizes the credibility of the writer in his or her field. Literature reviews also provide a solid background for a research paper’s investigation. Comprehensive knowledge of the literature of the field is essential to most research papers.

Who writes these things, anyway?

Literature reviews are written occasionally in the humanities, but mostly in the sciences and social sciences; in experiment and lab reports, they constitute a section of the paper. Sometimes a literature review is written as a paper in itself.

Let’s get to it! What should I do before writing the literature review?

If your assignment is not very specific, seek clarification from your instructor:

  • Roughly how many sources should you include?
  • What types of sources (books, journal articles, websites)?
  • Should you summarize, synthesize, or critique your sources by discussing a common theme or issue?
  • Should you evaluate your sources?
  • Should you provide subheadings and other background information, such as definitions and/or a history?

Find models

Look for other literature reviews in your area of interest or in the discipline and read them to get a sense of the types of themes you might want to look for in your own research or ways to organize your final review. You can simply put the word “review” in your search engine along with your other topic terms to find articles of this type on the Internet or in an electronic database. The bibliography or reference section of sources you’ve already read are also excellent entry points into your own research.

Narrow your topic

There are hundreds or even thousands of articles and books on most areas of study. The narrower your topic, the easier it will be to limit the number of sources you need to read in order to get a good survey of the material. Your instructor will probably not expect you to read everything that’s out there on the topic, but you’ll make your job easier if you first limit your scope.

Keep in mind that UNC Libraries have research guides and to databases relevant to many fields of study. You can reach out to the subject librarian for a consultation: https://library.unc.edu/support/consultations/ .

And don’t forget to tap into your professor’s (or other professors’) knowledge in the field. Ask your professor questions such as: “If you had to read only one book from the 90’s on topic X, what would it be?” Questions such as this help you to find and determine quickly the most seminal pieces in the field.

Consider whether your sources are current

Some disciplines require that you use information that is as current as possible. In the sciences, for instance, treatments for medical problems are constantly changing according to the latest studies. Information even two years old could be obsolete. However, if you are writing a review in the humanities, history, or social sciences, a survey of the history of the literature may be what is needed, because what is important is how perspectives have changed through the years or within a certain time period. Try sorting through some other current bibliographies or literature reviews in the field to get a sense of what your discipline expects. You can also use this method to consider what is currently of interest to scholars in this field and what is not.

Strategies for writing the literature review

Find a focus.

A literature review, like a term paper, is usually organized around ideas, not the sources themselves as an annotated bibliography would be organized. This means that you will not just simply list your sources and go into detail about each one of them, one at a time. No. As you read widely but selectively in your topic area, consider instead what themes or issues connect your sources together. Do they present one or different solutions? Is there an aspect of the field that is missing? How well do they present the material and do they portray it according to an appropriate theory? Do they reveal a trend in the field? A raging debate? Pick one of these themes to focus the organization of your review.

Convey it to your reader

A literature review may not have a traditional thesis statement (one that makes an argument), but you do need to tell readers what to expect. Try writing a simple statement that lets the reader know what is your main organizing principle. Here are a couple of examples:

The current trend in treatment for congestive heart failure combines surgery and medicine. More and more cultural studies scholars are accepting popular media as a subject worthy of academic consideration.

Consider organization

You’ve got a focus, and you’ve stated it clearly and directly. Now what is the most effective way of presenting the information? What are the most important topics, subtopics, etc., that your review needs to include? And in what order should you present them? Develop an organization for your review at both a global and local level:

First, cover the basic categories

Just like most academic papers, literature reviews also must contain at least three basic elements: an introduction or background information section; the body of the review containing the discussion of sources; and, finally, a conclusion and/or recommendations section to end the paper. The following provides a brief description of the content of each:

  • Introduction: Gives a quick idea of the topic of the literature review, such as the central theme or organizational pattern.
  • Body: Contains your discussion of sources and is organized either chronologically, thematically, or methodologically (see below for more information on each).
  • Conclusions/Recommendations: Discuss what you have drawn from reviewing literature so far. Where might the discussion proceed?

Organizing the body

Once you have the basic categories in place, then you must consider how you will present the sources themselves within the body of your paper. Create an organizational method to focus this section even further.

To help you come up with an overall organizational framework for your review, consider the following scenario:

You’ve decided to focus your literature review on materials dealing with sperm whales. This is because you’ve just finished reading Moby Dick, and you wonder if that whale’s portrayal is really real. You start with some articles about the physiology of sperm whales in biology journals written in the 1980’s. But these articles refer to some British biological studies performed on whales in the early 18th century. So you check those out. Then you look up a book written in 1968 with information on how sperm whales have been portrayed in other forms of art, such as in Alaskan poetry, in French painting, or on whale bone, as the whale hunters in the late 19th century used to do. This makes you wonder about American whaling methods during the time portrayed in Moby Dick, so you find some academic articles published in the last five years on how accurately Herman Melville portrayed the whaling scene in his novel.

Now consider some typical ways of organizing the sources into a review:

  • Chronological: If your review follows the chronological method, you could write about the materials above according to when they were published. For instance, first you would talk about the British biological studies of the 18th century, then about Moby Dick, published in 1851, then the book on sperm whales in other art (1968), and finally the biology articles (1980s) and the recent articles on American whaling of the 19th century. But there is relatively no continuity among subjects here. And notice that even though the sources on sperm whales in other art and on American whaling are written recently, they are about other subjects/objects that were created much earlier. Thus, the review loses its chronological focus.
  • By publication: Order your sources by publication chronology, then, only if the order demonstrates a more important trend. For instance, you could order a review of literature on biological studies of sperm whales if the progression revealed a change in dissection practices of the researchers who wrote and/or conducted the studies.
  • By trend: A better way to organize the above sources chronologically is to examine the sources under another trend, such as the history of whaling. Then your review would have subsections according to eras within this period. For instance, the review might examine whaling from pre-1600-1699, 1700-1799, and 1800-1899. Under this method, you would combine the recent studies on American whaling in the 19th century with Moby Dick itself in the 1800-1899 category, even though the authors wrote a century apart.
  • Thematic: Thematic reviews of literature are organized around a topic or issue, rather than the progression of time. However, progression of time may still be an important factor in a thematic review. For instance, the sperm whale review could focus on the development of the harpoon for whale hunting. While the study focuses on one topic, harpoon technology, it will still be organized chronologically. The only difference here between a “chronological” and a “thematic” approach is what is emphasized the most: the development of the harpoon or the harpoon technology.But more authentic thematic reviews tend to break away from chronological order. For instance, a thematic review of material on sperm whales might examine how they are portrayed as “evil” in cultural documents. The subsections might include how they are personified, how their proportions are exaggerated, and their behaviors misunderstood. A review organized in this manner would shift between time periods within each section according to the point made.
  • Methodological: A methodological approach differs from the two above in that the focusing factor usually does not have to do with the content of the material. Instead, it focuses on the “methods” of the researcher or writer. For the sperm whale project, one methodological approach would be to look at cultural differences between the portrayal of whales in American, British, and French art work. Or the review might focus on the economic impact of whaling on a community. A methodological scope will influence either the types of documents in the review or the way in which these documents are discussed. Once you’ve decided on the organizational method for the body of the review, the sections you need to include in the paper should be easy to figure out. They should arise out of your organizational strategy. In other words, a chronological review would have subsections for each vital time period. A thematic review would have subtopics based upon factors that relate to the theme or issue.

Sometimes, though, you might need to add additional sections that are necessary for your study, but do not fit in the organizational strategy of the body. What other sections you include in the body is up to you. Put in only what is necessary. Here are a few other sections you might want to consider:

  • Current Situation: Information necessary to understand the topic or focus of the literature review.
  • History: The chronological progression of the field, the literature, or an idea that is necessary to understand the literature review, if the body of the literature review is not already a chronology.
  • Methods and/or Standards: The criteria you used to select the sources in your literature review or the way in which you present your information. For instance, you might explain that your review includes only peer-reviewed articles and journals.

Questions for Further Research: What questions about the field has the review sparked? How will you further your research as a result of the review?

Begin composing

Once you’ve settled on a general pattern of organization, you’re ready to write each section. There are a few guidelines you should follow during the writing stage as well. Here is a sample paragraph from a literature review about sexism and language to illuminate the following discussion:

However, other studies have shown that even gender-neutral antecedents are more likely to produce masculine images than feminine ones (Gastil, 1990). Hamilton (1988) asked students to complete sentences that required them to fill in pronouns that agreed with gender-neutral antecedents such as “writer,” “pedestrian,” and “persons.” The students were asked to describe any image they had when writing the sentence. Hamilton found that people imagined 3.3 men to each woman in the masculine “generic” condition and 1.5 men per woman in the unbiased condition. Thus, while ambient sexism accounted for some of the masculine bias, sexist language amplified the effect. (Source: Erika Falk and Jordan Mills, “Why Sexist Language Affects Persuasion: The Role of Homophily, Intended Audience, and Offense,” Women and Language19:2).

Use evidence

In the example above, the writers refer to several other sources when making their point. A literature review in this sense is just like any other academic research paper. Your interpretation of the available sources must be backed up with evidence to show that what you are saying is valid.

Be selective

Select only the most important points in each source to highlight in the review. The type of information you choose to mention should relate directly to the review’s focus, whether it is thematic, methodological, or chronological.

Use quotes sparingly

Falk and Mills do not use any direct quotes. That is because the survey nature of the literature review does not allow for in-depth discussion or detailed quotes from the text. Some short quotes here and there are okay, though, if you want to emphasize a point, or if what the author said just cannot be rewritten in your own words. Notice that Falk and Mills do quote certain terms that were coined by the author, not common knowledge, or taken directly from the study. But if you find yourself wanting to put in more quotes, check with your instructor.

Summarize and synthesize

Remember to summarize and synthesize your sources within each paragraph as well as throughout the review. The authors here recapitulate important features of Hamilton’s study, but then synthesize it by rephrasing the study’s significance and relating it to their own work.

Keep your own voice

While the literature review presents others’ ideas, your voice (the writer’s) should remain front and center. Notice that Falk and Mills weave references to other sources into their own text, but they still maintain their own voice by starting and ending the paragraph with their own ideas and their own words. The sources support what Falk and Mills are saying.

Use caution when paraphrasing

When paraphrasing a source that is not your own, be sure to represent the author’s information or opinions accurately and in your own words. In the preceding example, Falk and Mills either directly refer in the text to the author of their source, such as Hamilton, or they provide ample notation in the text when the ideas they are mentioning are not their own, for example, Gastil’s. For more information, please see our handout on plagiarism .

Revise, revise, revise

Draft in hand? Now you’re ready to revise. Spending a lot of time revising is a wise idea, because your main objective is to present the material, not the argument. So check over your review again to make sure it follows the assignment and/or your outline. Then, just as you would for most other academic forms of writing, rewrite or rework the language of your review so that you’ve presented your information in the most concise manner possible. Be sure to use terminology familiar to your audience; get rid of unnecessary jargon or slang. Finally, double check that you’ve documented your sources and formatted the review appropriately for your discipline. For tips on the revising and editing process, see our handout on revising drafts .

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Anson, Chris M., and Robert A. Schwegler. 2010. The Longman Handbook for Writers and Readers , 6th ed. New York: Longman.

Jones, Robert, Patrick Bizzaro, and Cynthia Selfe. 1997. The Harcourt Brace Guide to Writing in the Disciplines . New York: Harcourt Brace.

Lamb, Sandra E. 1998. How to Write It: A Complete Guide to Everything You’ll Ever Write . Berkeley: Ten Speed Press.

Rosen, Leonard J., and Laurence Behrens. 2003. The Allyn & Bacon Handbook , 5th ed. New York: Longman.

Troyka, Lynn Quittman, and Doug Hesse. 2016. Simon and Schuster Handbook for Writers , 11th ed. London: Pearson.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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How to Write Academic Reviews

  • What is a review?
  • Common problems with academic reviews
  • Getting started: approaches to reading and notetaking
  • Understanding and analyzing the work
  • Organizing and writing the review

What Is a Review?

A scholarly review describes, analyzes, and evaluates an article, book, film, or performance (through this guide we will use the term “work” to refer to the text or piece to be reviewed).  A review also shows how a work fits into its disciplines and explains the value or contribution of the work to the field.

Reviews play an important role in scholarship. They give scholars the opportunity to respond to one another’s research, ideas and interpretations. They also provide an up-to-date view of a discipline. We recommend you seek out reviews in current scholarly journals to become familiar with recent scholarship on a topic and to understand the forms review writing takes in your discipline. Published scholarly reviews are helpful models for beginner review-writers. However, we remind you that you are to write your own assessment of the work, not rely on the assessment from a review you found in a journal or on a blog.

As a review-writer, your objective is to:

  • understand a work on its own terms (analyze it)
  • bring your own knowledge to bear on a work (respond to it)
  • critique the work while considering validity, truth, and slant (evaluate it)
  • place the work in context (compare it to other works).

Common Problems with Academic Reviews

A review is not a research paper.

Rather than a research paper on the subject of the work,an academic review is an evaluation about the work’s message, strengths, and value. For example, a review of Finis Dunaway’s Seeing Green would not include your own research about media coverage of the environmental movement; instead, your review would assess Dunaway’s argument and its significance to the field.

A review is not a summary

It is important to synthesize the contents and significance of the work you review, but the main purpose of a review is to evaluate, critically analyze, or comment on the text. Keep your summary of the work brief, and make specific references to its message and evidence in your assessment of the work.

A review is not an off-the-cuff, unfair personal response

An effective review must be fair and accurate. It is important to see what is actually in front of you when your first reaction to the tone, argument, or subject of what you are reviewing is extremely negative or positive.

You will present your personal views on the work, but they must be explained and supported with evidence. Rather than writing, “I thought the book was interesting,” you can explain why the book was interesting and how it might offer new insights or important ideas. Further, you can expand on a statement such as “The movie was boring,” by explaining how it failed to interest you and pointing toward specific disappointing moments.

Getting Started: Approaches to Reading and Notetaking

Pre-reading.

Pre-reading helps a reader to see a book as a whole. Often, the acknowledgments, preface, and table of contents of a book offer insights about the book’s purpose and direction. Take time before you begin chapter one to read the introduction and conclusion, examine chapter titles, and to explore the index or references pages.

Read more about strategies for critical and efficient reading

Reverse outline

A reverse outline helps a reader analyze the content and argument of a work of non-fiction. Read each section of a text carefully and write down two things: 1) the main point or idea, and 2) its function in the text. In other words, write down what each section says and what it does. This will help you to see how the author develops their argument and uses evidence for support.

Double-entry notebook

In its simplest form, the double-entry notebook separates a page into two columns. In one column, you make observations about the work. In the other, you note your responses to the work. This notetaking method has two advantages. It forces you to make both sorts of notes — notes about the work and notes about your reaction to the work — and it helps you to distinguish between the two.

Whatever method of notetaking you choose, do take notes, even if these are scribbles in the margin. If you don’t, you might rely too heavily on the words, argument, or order of what you are reviewing when you come to write your review.                                              

Understand and Analyze the Work

It is extremely important to work toward seeing a clear and accurate picture of a work. One approach is to try to suspend your judgment for a while, focusing instead on describing or outlining a text. A student once described this as listening to the author’s voice rather than to their own.

Ask questions to support your understanding of the work.

Questions for Works of Non-Fiction

  • What is the subject/topic of the work? What key ideas do you think you should describe in your review?
  • What is the thesis, main theme, or main point?
  • What major claims or conclusions does the author make? What issues does the work illuminate?
  • What is the structure of the work? How does the author build their argument?
  • What sources does the author consult? What evidence is used to support claims? Do these sources in any way “predetermine” certain conclusions?
  • Is there any claim for which the evidence presented is insufficient or slight? Do any conclusions rest on evidence that may be atypical?
  • How is the argument developed? How do the claims relate? What does the conclusion reveal?

Questions for Works of Fiction

  • What is the main theme or message? What issues does the book illuminate?
  • How does the work proceed? How does the author build their plot?
  • What kind of language, descriptions, or sections of plot alert you to the themes and significance of the book?
  • What does the conclusion reveal when compared with the beginning?

Read Critically

Being critical does not mean criticizing. It means asking questions and formulating answers. Critical reading is not reading with a “bad attitude.” Critical readers do not reject a text or take a negative approach to it; they inquire about a text, an author, themselves, and the context surrounding all three, and they attempt to understand how and why the author has made the particular choices they have.

Think about the Author

You can often tell a lot about an author by examining a text closely, but sometimes it helps to do a little extra research. Here are some questions about the author that would be useful to keep in mind when you are reading a text critically:

  • Who is the author? What else has the author written?
  • What does the author do? What experiences of the author’s might influence the writing of this book?
  • What is the author’s main purpose or goal for the text? Why did they write it and what do they want to achieve?
  • Does the author indicate what contribution the text makes to scholarship or literature? What does the author say about their point of view or method of approaching the subject? In other words, what position does the author take?

Think about Yourself

Because you are doing the interpreting and evaluating of a text, it is important to examine your own perspective, assumptions, and knowledge (positionality) in relation to the text. One way to do this is by writing a position statement that outlines your view of the subject of the work you are reviewing. What do you know, believe, or assume about this subject? What in your life might influence your approach to this text?

Here are some prompts that might help you generate a personal response to a book:

  • I agree that ... because ...                    
  • I disagree that ... because ...
  • I don’t understand ...
  • This reminds me of …
  • I’m surprised by …                 

Another way to examine your thoughts in relation to a text is to note your initial response to the work. Consider your experience of the text – did you like it? Why or why not?

  • What did I feel when I read this book? Why?
  • How did I experience the style or tone of the author? How would I characterize each?
  • What questions would I ask this author if I could?
  • For me, what are the three best things about this book? The three worst things? Why?

Consider Context

A reviewer needs to examine the context of the book to arrive at a fair understanding and evaluation of its contents and importance. Context may include the scholarship to which this book responds or the author’s personal motive for writing. Or perhaps the context is simply contemporary society or today’s headlines. It is certainly important to consider how the work relates to the course that requires the review.

Here are some useful questions:

  • What are the connections between this work and others on similar subjects? How does it relate to core concepts in my course or my discipline?
  • What is the scholarly or social significance of this work? What contribution does it make to our understanding?
  • What, of relevance, is missing from the work: certain kinds of evidence or methods of analysis/development? A particular theoretical approach? The experiences of certain groups?
  • What other perspectives or conclusions are possible?

Once you have taken the time to thoroughly understand and analyze the work, you will have a clear perspective on its strengths and weaknesses and its value within the field. Take time to categorize your ideas and develop an outline; this will ensure your review is well organized and clear.

Organizing and Writing the Review

A review is organized around an assessment of the work or a focused message about its value to the field. Revisit your notes and consider your responses to your questions from critical reading to develop a clear statement that evaluates the work and provides an explanation for that evaluation.

For example:

X is an important work because it provides a new perspective on . . .

X’s argument is compelling because . . . ; however, it fails to address . . .

Although X claims to . . ., they make assumptions about . . . , which diminishes the impact . . .

This statement or evaluation is presented in the introduction. The body of the review works to support or explain your assessment; organize your key ideas or supporting arguments into paragraphs and use evidence from the book, article, or film to demonstrate how the work is (or is not) effective, compelling, provocative, novel, or informative.

As with all scholarly writing, a well-organized structure supports the clarity of your review. There is not a rigid formula for organization, but you may find the following guidelines to be helpful. Note that reviews do not typically include subheadings; the headings listed here serve to help you think about the main sections of your academic review.

Introduction

Introduce the work, the author (or director/producer), and the points you intend to make about this work. In addition, you should

  • give relevant bibliographic information
  • give the reader a clear idea of the nature, scope, and significance of the work
  • indicate your evaluation of the work in a clear 1-2 sentence thesis statement

Provide background information to help your readers understand the importance of the work or the reasons for your appraisal. Background information could include:

  • why the issue examined is of current interest
  • other scholarship about this subject
  • the author’s perspective, methodology, purpose
  • the circumstances under which the book was created

Sample Introduction

Within educational research, much attention has been given to the importance of diversity and equity, and the literature is rife with studies detailing the best ways to create environments that are supportive of diverse students. In “Guidance Matters,” however, Carpenter and Diem (2015) examined these concepts in a less-studied source: policy documents related to leadership training.  Using discourse analysis, they explored the ways in which government policies concerning the training of educational administrators discussed issues of diversity and equity. While their innovative methods allowed them to reveal the ways in which current policy promotes superficial platitudes to diversity rather than a deep commitment to promoting social justice, their data analysis left many of their identified themes vague and their discussion did not provide a clear explanation of the applications of their findings.

What works in this sample introduction:

  • The nature of the larger issue, how best to create diversity and equity within educational environments, is clearly laid out.
  • The paragraph clearly introduces the authors and study being reviewed and succinctly explains how they have addressed the larger issue of equity and diversity in a unique way.
  • The paragraph ends with a clear thesis that outlines the strengths and weaknesses of the work.

Summary of the Work

Keep the summary of the work short! A paragraph or two should be sufficient. Summarize its contents very briefly and focus on:

  • the purpose of the work
  • the main points of the work
  • the ideas, themes, or arguments that you will evaluate or discuss in the review

Analysis and Evaluation

Analyze and explain the significance of the main points of the work. Evaluate the work, answering questions such as the following:

  • Does the work do what its author claimed it would?
  • Is the work valid and accurate?
  • How does the work fit into scholarship in the field?
  • What are your reasons for agreeing, disagreeing, liking, disliking, believing, disbelieving?

Note that this section will take up the bulk of your review and should be organized into paragraphs. Because this form of writing typically does not use subheadings, strong paragraphing, particularly the use of clear topic sentences, is essential. Read more on paragraphing.

Reviews are informed by your critical reading or viewing of a work; therefore you need to include specific evidence from the work to support your claims about its message and its impact. Your writing and  your assessment of the work will be most effective if you paraphrase or summarize the evidence you use, rather than relying on direct quotations. Be sure to follow the rules for citation in your discipline. Read more on paraphrasing and summarizing.

Sample Body Paragraph

One of the strengths of Carpenter and Diem’s  (2015) study was innovative use of  and nuanced explanation of discourse analysis. Critiquing much of the research on policy for its positivist promises of “value neutral and empirically objective” (p. 518) findings, Carpenter and Diem (2015) argued that discourse theory can provide an important lens through which to view policy and its relationship to educational outcomes.  By interrogating the “inscribed discourses of policy making” (p. 518), they showed how policy language constructs particular social meanings of concepts such as diversity and equity. Significantly, this analysis was not simply about the language used within documents; instead, Carpenter and Diem (2015) argued that the language used was directly related to reality. Their “study examine[d] how dominant discourses related to equity, and their concretization within guiding policy documents, may shape the ways in which states, local school districts, and educational leaders are asked to consider these issues in their everyday practice” (Carpenter & Diem, 2015, p. 519). Thus, through the use of discourse theory, Carpenter and Diem (2015) framed policy language, which some might consider abstract or distant from daily life, as directly connected to the experience of educational leaders.

What works in this sample body paragraph:

  • The paragraph begins with a clear topic sentence that connects directly to a strength mentioned in the thesis of the review.
  • The paragraph provides specific details and examples to support how and why their methods are innovative.
  • The direct quotations used are short and properly integrated into the sentences.

The paragraph concludes by explaining the significance of the innovative methods to the larger work.

Conclusion and Recommendation

Give your overall assessment of the work. Explain the larger significance of your assessment. Consider who would benefit from engaging with this work.

How to Write Critical Reviews

When you are asked to write a critical review of a book or article, you will need to identify, summarize, and evaluate the ideas and information the author has presented. In other words, you will be examining another person’s thoughts on a topic from your point of view.

Your stand must go beyond your “gut reaction” to the work and be based on your knowledge (readings, lecture, experience) of the topic as well as on factors such as criteria stated in your assignment or discussed by you and your instructor.

Make your stand clear at the beginning of your review, in your evaluations of specific parts, and in your concluding commentary.

Remember that your goal should be to make a few key points about the book or article, not to discuss everything the author writes.

Understanding the Assignment

To write a good critical review, you will have to engage in the mental processes of analyzing (taking apart) the work–deciding what its major components are and determining how these parts (i.e., paragraphs, sections, or chapters) contribute to the work as a whole.

Analyzing the work will help you focus on how and why the author makes certain points and prevent you from merely summarizing what the author says. Assuming the role of an analytical reader will also help you to determine whether or not the author fulfills the stated purpose of the book or article and enhances your understanding or knowledge of a particular topic.

Be sure to read your assignment thoroughly before you read the article or book. Your instructor may have included specific guidelines for you to follow. Keeping these guidelines in mind as you read the article or book can really help you write your paper!

Also, note where the work connects with what you’ve studied in the course. You can make the most efficient use of your reading and notetaking time if you are an active reader; that is, keep relevant questions in mind and jot down page numbers as well as your responses to ideas that appear to be significant as you read.

Please note: The length of your introduction and overview, the number of points you choose to review, and the length of your conclusion should be proportionate to the page limit stated in your assignment and should reflect the complexity of the material being reviewed as well as the expectations of your reader.

Write the introduction

Below are a few guidelines to help you write the introduction to your critical review.

Introduce your review appropriately

Begin your review with an introduction appropriate to your assignment.

If your assignment asks you to review only one book and not to use outside sources, your introduction will focus on identifying the author, the title, the main topic or issue presented in the book, and the author’s purpose in writing the book.

If your assignment asks you to review the book as it relates to issues or themes discussed in the course, or to review two or more books on the same topic, your introduction must also encompass those expectations.

Explain relationships

For example, before you can review two books on a topic, you must explain to your reader in your introduction how they are related to one another.

Within this shared context (or under this “umbrella”) you can then review comparable aspects of both books, pointing out where the authors agree and differ.

In other words, the more complicated your assignment is, the more your introduction must accomplish.

Finally, the introduction to a book review is always the place for you to establish your position as the reviewer (your thesis about the author’s thesis).

As you write, consider the following questions:

  • Is the book a memoir, a treatise, a collection of facts, an extended argument, etc.? Is the article a documentary, a write-up of primary research, a position paper, etc.?
  • Who is the author? What does the preface or foreword tell you about the author’s purpose, background, and credentials? What is the author’s approach to the topic (as a journalist? a historian? a researcher?)?
  • What is the main topic or problem addressed? How does the work relate to a discipline, to a profession, to a particular audience, or to other works on the topic?
  • What is your critical evaluation of the work (your thesis)? Why have you taken that position? What criteria are you basing your position on?

Provide an overview

In your introduction, you will also want to provide an overview. An overview supplies your reader with certain general information not appropriate for including in the introduction but necessary to understanding the body of the review.

Generally, an overview describes your book’s division into chapters, sections, or points of discussion. An overview may also include background information about the topic, about your stand, or about the criteria you will use for evaluation.

The overview and the introduction work together to provide a comprehensive beginning for (a “springboard” into) your review.

  • What are the author’s basic premises? What issues are raised, or what themes emerge? What situation (i.e., racism on college campuses) provides a basis for the author’s assertions?
  • How informed is my reader? What background information is relevant to the entire book and should be placed here rather than in a body paragraph?

Write the body

The body is the center of your paper, where you draw out your main arguments. Below are some guidelines to help you write it.

Organize using a logical plan

Organize the body of your review according to a logical plan. Here are two options:

  • First, summarize, in a series of paragraphs, those major points from the book that you plan to discuss; incorporating each major point into a topic sentence for a paragraph is an effective organizational strategy. Second, discuss and evaluate these points in a following group of paragraphs. (There are two dangers lurking in this pattern–you may allot too many paragraphs to summary and too few to evaluation, or you may re-summarize too many points from the book in your evaluation section.)
  • Alternatively, you can summarize and evaluate the major points you have chosen from the book in a point-by-point schema. That means you will discuss and evaluate point one within the same paragraph (or in several if the point is significant and warrants extended discussion) before you summarize and evaluate point two, point three, etc., moving in a logical sequence from point to point to point. Here again, it is effective to use the topic sentence of each paragraph to identify the point from the book that you plan to summarize or evaluate.

Questions to keep in mind as you write

With either organizational pattern, consider the following questions:

  • What are the author’s most important points? How do these relate to one another? (Make relationships clear by using transitions: “In contrast,” an equally strong argument,” “moreover,” “a final conclusion,” etc.).
  • What types of evidence or information does the author present to support his or her points? Is this evidence convincing, controversial, factual, one-sided, etc.? (Consider the use of primary historical material, case studies, narratives, recent scientific findings, statistics.)
  • Where does the author do a good job of conveying factual material as well as personal perspective? Where does the author fail to do so? If solutions to a problem are offered, are they believable, misguided, or promising?
  • Which parts of the work (particular arguments, descriptions, chapters, etc.) are most effective and which parts are least effective? Why?
  • Where (if at all) does the author convey personal prejudice, support illogical relationships, or present evidence out of its appropriate context?

Keep your opinions distinct and cite your sources

Remember, as you discuss the author’s major points, be sure to distinguish consistently between the author’s opinions and your own.

Keep the summary portions of your discussion concise, remembering that your task as a reviewer is to re-see the author’s work, not to re-tell it.

And, importantly, if you refer to ideas from other books and articles or from lecture and course materials, always document your sources, or else you might wander into the realm of plagiarism.

Include only that material which has relevance for your review and use direct quotations sparingly. The Writing Center has other handouts to help you paraphrase text and introduce quotations.

Write the conclusion

You will want to use the conclusion to state your overall critical evaluation.

You have already discussed the major points the author makes, examined how the author supports arguments, and evaluated the quality or effectiveness of specific aspects of the book or article.

Now you must make an evaluation of the work as a whole, determining such things as whether or not the author achieves the stated or implied purpose and if the work makes a significant contribution to an existing body of knowledge.

Consider the following questions:

  • Is the work appropriately subjective or objective according to the author’s purpose?
  • How well does the work maintain its stated or implied focus? Does the author present extraneous material? Does the author exclude or ignore relevant information?
  • How well has the author achieved the overall purpose of the book or article? What contribution does the work make to an existing body of knowledge or to a specific group of readers? Can you justify the use of this work in a particular course?
  • What is the most important final comment you wish to make about the book or article? Do you have any suggestions for the direction of future research in the area? What has reading this work done for you or demonstrated to you?

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what is review summary

Not every source you found should be included in your annotated bibliography or lit review. Only include the most relevant and most important sources.

Get Organized

  • Lit Review Prep Use this template to help you evaluate your sources, create article summaries for an annotated bibliography, and a synthesis matrix for your lit review outline.

Summarize your Sources

Summarize each source: Determine the most important and relevant information from each source, such as the findings, methodology, theories, etc.  Consider using an article summary, or study summary to help you organize and summarize your sources.

Paraphrasing

  • Use your own words, and do not copy and paste the abstract
  • The library's tutorials about plagiarism are excellent, and will help you with paraphasing correctly

Annotated Bibliographies

     Annotated bibliographies can help you clearly see and understand the research before diving into organizing and writing your literature review.        Although typically part of the "summarize" step of the literature review, annotations should not merely be summaries of each article - instead, they should be critical evaluations of the source, and help determine a source's usefulness for your lit review.  

Definition:

A list of citations on a particular topic followed by an evaluation of the source’s argument and other relevant material including its intended audience, sources of evidence, and methodology
  • Explore your topic.
  • Appraise issues or factors associated with your professional practice and research topic.
  • Help you get started with the literature review.
  • Think critically about your topic, and the literature.

Steps to Creating an Annotated Bibliography:

  • Find Your Sources
  • Read Your Sources
  • Identify the Most Relevant Sources
  • Cite your Sources
  • Write Annotations

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  • Critical Reviews

How to Write an Article Review

Last Updated: September 8, 2023 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Jake Adams . Jake Adams is an academic tutor and the owner of Simplifi EDU, a Santa Monica, California based online tutoring business offering learning resources and online tutors for academic subjects K-College, SAT & ACT prep, and college admissions applications. With over 14 years of professional tutoring experience, Jake is dedicated to providing his clients the very best online tutoring experience and access to a network of excellent undergraduate and graduate-level tutors from top colleges all over the nation. Jake holds a BS in International Business and Marketing from Pepperdine University. There are 13 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 3,069,495 times.

An article review is both a summary and an evaluation of another writer's article. Teachers often assign article reviews to introduce students to the work of experts in the field. Experts also are often asked to review the work of other professionals. Understanding the main points and arguments of the article is essential for an accurate summation. Logical evaluation of the article's main theme, supporting arguments, and implications for further research is an important element of a review . Here are a few guidelines for writing an article review.

Education specialist Alexander Peterman recommends: "In the case of a review, your objective should be to reflect on the effectiveness of what has already been written, rather than writing to inform your audience about a subject."

Things You Should Know

  • Read the article very closely, and then take time to reflect on your evaluation. Consider whether the article effectively achieves what it set out to.
  • Write out a full article review by completing your intro, summary, evaluation, and conclusion. Don't forget to add a title, too!
  • Proofread your review for mistakes (like grammar and usage), while also cutting down on needless information. [1] X Research source

Preparing to Write Your Review

Step 1 Understand what an article review is.

  • Article reviews present more than just an opinion. You will engage with the text to create a response to the scholarly writer's ideas. You will respond to and use ideas, theories, and research from your studies. Your critique of the article will be based on proof and your own thoughtful reasoning.
  • An article review only responds to the author's research. It typically does not provide any new research. However, if you are correcting misleading or otherwise incorrect points, some new data may be presented.
  • An article review both summarizes and evaluates the article.

Step 2 Think about the organization of the review article.

  • Summarize the article. Focus on the important points, claims, and information.
  • Discuss the positive aspects of the article. Think about what the author does well, good points she makes, and insightful observations.
  • Identify contradictions, gaps, and inconsistencies in the text. Determine if there is enough data or research included to support the author's claims. Find any unanswered questions left in the article.

Step 3 Preview the article.

  • Make note of words or issues you don't understand and questions you have.
  • Look up terms or concepts you are unfamiliar with, so you can fully understand the article. Read about concepts in-depth to make sure you understand their full context.

Step 4 Read the article closely.

  • Pay careful attention to the meaning of the article. Make sure you fully understand the article. The only way to write a good article review is to understand the article.

Step 5 Put the article into your words.

  • With either method, make an outline of the main points made in the article and the supporting research or arguments. It is strictly a restatement of the main points of the article and does not include your opinions.
  • After putting the article in your own words, decide which parts of the article you want to discuss in your review. You can focus on the theoretical approach, the content, the presentation or interpretation of evidence, or the style. You will always discuss the main issues of the article, but you can sometimes also focus on certain aspects. This comes in handy if you want to focus the review towards the content of a course.
  • Review the summary outline to eliminate unnecessary items. Erase or cross out the less important arguments or supplemental information. Your revised summary can serve as the basis for the summary you provide at the beginning of your review.

Step 6 Write an outline of your evaluation.

  • What does the article set out to do?
  • What is the theoretical framework or assumptions?
  • Are the central concepts clearly defined?
  • How adequate is the evidence?
  • How does the article fit into the literature and field?
  • Does it advance the knowledge of the subject?
  • How clear is the author's writing? Don't: include superficial opinions or your personal reaction. Do: pay attention to your biases, so you can overcome them.

Writing the Article Review

Step 1 Come up with...

  • For example, in MLA , a citation may look like: Duvall, John N. "The (Super)Marketplace of Images: Television as Unmediated Mediation in DeLillo's White Noise ." Arizona Quarterly 50.3 (1994): 127-53. Print. [10] X Trustworthy Source Purdue Online Writing Lab Trusted resource for writing and citation guidelines Go to source

Step 3 Identify the article.

  • For example: The article, "Condom use will increase the spread of AIDS," was written by Anthony Zimmerman, a Catholic priest.

Step 4 Write the introduction....

  • Your introduction should only be 10-25% of your review.
  • End the introduction with your thesis. Your thesis should address the above issues. For example: Although the author has some good points, his article is biased and contains some misinterpretation of data from others’ analysis of the effectiveness of the condom.

Step 5 Summarize the article.

  • Use direct quotes from the author sparingly.
  • Review the summary you have written. Read over your summary many times to ensure that your words are an accurate description of the author's article.

Step 6 Write your critique.

  • Support your critique with evidence from the article or other texts.
  • The summary portion is very important for your critique. You must make the author's argument clear in the summary section for your evaluation to make sense.
  • Remember, this is not where you say if you liked the article or not. You are assessing the significance and relevance of the article.
  • Use a topic sentence and supportive arguments for each opinion. For example, you might address a particular strength in the first sentence of the opinion section, followed by several sentences elaborating on the significance of the point.

Step 7 Conclude the article review.

  • This should only be about 10% of your overall essay.
  • For example: This critical review has evaluated the article "Condom use will increase the spread of AIDS" by Anthony Zimmerman. The arguments in the article show the presence of bias, prejudice, argumentative writing without supporting details, and misinformation. These points weaken the author’s arguments and reduce his credibility.

Step 8 Proofread.

  • Make sure you have identified and discussed the 3-4 key issues in the article.

Sample Article Reviews

what is review summary

Expert Q&A

Jake Adams

You Might Also Like

Write a Feature Article

  • ↑ https://writing.wisc.edu/handbook/grammarpunct/proofreading/
  • ↑ https://libguides.cmich.edu/writinghelp/articlereview
  • ↑ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4548566/
  • ↑ Jake Adams. Academic Tutor & Test Prep Specialist. Expert Interview. 24 July 2020.
  • ↑ https://guides.library.queensu.ca/introduction-research/writing/critical
  • ↑ https://www.iup.edu/writingcenter/writing-resources/organization-and-structure/creating-an-outline.html
  • ↑ https://writing.umn.edu/sws/assets/pdf/quicktips/titles.pdf
  • ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_works_cited_periodicals.html
  • ↑ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4548565/
  • ↑ https://writingcenter.uconn.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/593/2014/06/How_to_Summarize_a_Research_Article1.pdf
  • ↑ https://www.uis.edu/learning-hub/writing-resources/handouts/learning-hub/how-to-review-a-journal-article
  • ↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/editing-and-proofreading/

About This Article

Jake Adams

If you have to write an article review, read through the original article closely, taking notes and highlighting important sections as you read. Next, rewrite the article in your own words, either in a long paragraph or as an outline. Open your article review by citing the article, then write an introduction which states the article’s thesis. Next, summarize the article, followed by your opinion about whether the article was clear, thorough, and useful. Finish with a paragraph that summarizes the main points of the article and your opinions. To learn more about what to include in your personal critique of the article, keep reading the article! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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How to Write Article Summaries, Reviews & Critiques

  • Writing an article SUMMARY

Writing an article REVIEW

  • Writing an article CRITIQUE
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Links on this guide may go to external web sites not connected with Randolph Community College. Their inclusion is not an endorsement by Randolph Community College and the College is not responsible for the accuracy of their content or the security of their site.

A journal article review is written for a reader who is knowledgeable in the discipline and is interested not just in the coverage and content of the article being reviewed, but also in your critical assessment of the ideas and argument that are being presented by the author.

Your review might be guided by the following questions:

Additional Resources

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How to Write an Article Review (from Essaypro.com)

How to Review a Journal Article (from University of Illinois Springfield)

Writing Critical Reviews (from Queen's University Library)

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  • Last Updated: Aug 16, 2023 11:47 AM
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  • Determine inclusion and exclusion criteria
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What is a Literature Review?

A literature or narrative review is a comprehensive review and analysis of the published literature on a specific topic or research question. The literature that is reviewed contains: books, articles, academic articles, conference proceedings, association papers, and dissertations. It contains the most pertinent studies and points to important past and current research and practices. It provides background and context, and shows how your research will contribute to the field. 

A literature review should: 

  • Provide a comprehensive and updated review of the literature;
  • Explain why this review has taken place;
  • Articulate a position or hypothesis;
  • Acknowledge and account for conflicting and corroborating points of view

From  S age Research Methods

Purpose of a Literature Review

A literature review can be written as an introduction to a study to:

  • Demonstrate how a study fills a gap in research
  • Compare a study with other research that's been done

Or it can be a separate work (a research article on its own) which:

  • Organizes or describes a topic
  • Describes variables within a particular issue/problem

Limitations of a Literature Review

Some of the limitations of a literature review are:

  • It's a snapshot in time. Unlike other reviews, this one has beginning, a middle and an end. There may be future developments that could make your work less relevant.
  • It may be too focused. Some niche studies may miss the bigger picture.
  • It can be difficult to be comprehensive. There is no way to make sure all the literature on a topic was considered.
  • It is easy to be biased if you stick to top tier journals. There may be other places where people are publishing exemplary research. Look to open access publications and conferences to reflect a more inclusive collection. Also, make sure to include opposing views (and not just supporting evidence).

Source: Grant, Maria J., and Andrew Booth. “A Typology of Reviews: An Analysis of 14 Review Types and Associated Methodologies.” Health Information & Libraries Journal, vol. 26, no. 2, June 2009, pp. 91–108. Wiley Online Library, doi:10.1111/j.1471-1842.2009.00848.x.

Meryl Brodsky : Communication and Information Studies

Hannah Chapman Tripp : Biology, Neuroscience

Carolyn Cunningham : Human Development & Family Sciences, Psychology, Sociology

Larayne Dallas : Engineering

Janelle Hedstrom : Special Education, Curriculum & Instruction, Ed Leadership & Policy ​

Susan Macicak : Linguistics

Imelda Vetter : Dell Medical School

For help in other subject areas, please see the guide to library specialists by subject .

Periodically, UT Libraries runs a workshop covering the basics and library support for literature reviews. While we try to offer these once per academic year, we find providing the recording to be helpful to community members who have missed the session. Following is the most recent recording of the workshop, Conducting a Literature Review. To view the recording, a UT login is required.

  • October 26, 2022 recording
  • Last Updated: Oct 26, 2022 2:49 PM
  • URL: https://guides.lib.utexas.edu/literaturereviews

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How to Write a Summary (Examples Included)

Ashley Shaw

Ashley Shaw

How to write a summary

Have you ever recommended a book to someone and given them a quick overview? Then you’ve created a summary before!

Summarizing is a common part of everyday communication. It feels easy when you’re recounting what happened on your favorite show, but what do you do when the information gets a little more complex?

Written summaries come with their own set of challenges. You might ask yourself:

  • What details are unnecessary?
  • How do you put this in your own words without changing the meaning?
  • How close can you get to the original without plagiarizing it?
  • How long should it be?

The answers to these questions depend on the type of summary you are doing and why you are doing it.

A summary in an academic setting is different to a professional summary—and both of those are very different to summarizing a funny story you want to tell your friends.

One thing they all have in common is that you need to relay information in the clearest way possible to help your reader understand. We’ll look at some different forms of summary, and give you some tips on each.

Let’s get started!

What Is a Summary?

How do you write a summary, how do you write an academic summary, what are the four types of academic summaries, how do i write a professional summary, writing or telling a summary in personal situations, summarizing summaries.

A summary is a shorter version of a larger work. Summaries are used at some level in almost every writing task, from formal documents to personal messages.

When you write a summary, you have an audience that doesn’t know every single thing you know.

When you want them to understand your argument, topic, or stance, you may need to explain some things to catch them up.

Instead of having them read the article or hear every single detail of the story or event, you instead give them a brief overview of what they need to know.

Academic, professional, and personal summaries each require you to consider different things, but there are some key rules they all have in common.

Let’s go over a few general guides to writing a summary first.

A summary should be shorter than the original

1. A summary should always be shorter than the original work, usually considerably.

Even if your summary is the length of a full paper, you are likely summarizing a book or other significantly longer work.

2. A summary should tell the reader the highlights of what they need to know without giving them unnecessary details.

3. It should also include enough details to give a clear and honest picture.

For example, if you summarize an article that says “ The Office is the greatest television show of all time,” but don’t mention that they are specifically referring to sitcoms, then you changed the meaning of the article. That’s a problem! Similarly, if you write a summary of your job history and say you volunteered at a hospital for the last three years, but you don’t add that you only went twice in that time, it becomes a little dishonest.

4. Summaries shouldn’t contain personal opinion.

While in the longer work you are creating you might use opinion, within the summary itself, you should avoid all personal opinion. A summary is different than a review. In this moment, you aren’t saying what you think of the work you are summarizing, you are just giving your audience enough information to know what the work says or did.

Include enough detail

Now that we have a good idea of what summaries are in general, let’s talk about some specific types of summary you will likely have to do at some point in your writing life.

An academic summary is one you will create for a class or in other academic writing. The exact elements you will need to include depend on the assignment itself.

However, when you’re asked for an academic summary, this usually this means one of five things, all of which are pretty similar:

  • You need to do a presentation in which you talk about an article, book, or report.
  • You write a summary paper in which the entire paper is a summary of a specific work.
  • You summarize a class discussion, lesson, or reading in the form of personal notes or a discussion board post.
  • You do something like an annotated bibliography where you write short summaries of multiple works in preparation of a longer assignment.
  • You write quick summaries within the body of another assignment . For example, in an argumentative essay, you will likely need to have short summaries of the sources you use to explain their argument before getting into how the source helps you prove your point.

Places to find academic summaries

Regardless of what type of summary you are doing, though, there are a few steps you should always follow:

  • Skim the work you are summarizing before you read it. Notice what stands out to you.
  • Next, read it in depth . Do the same things stand out?
  • Put the full text away and write in a few sentences what the main idea or point was.
  • Go back and compare to make sure you didn’t forget anything.
  • Expand on this to write and then edit your summary.

Each type of academic summary requires slightly different things. Let’s get down to details.

How Do I Write a Summary Paper?

Sometimes teachers assign something called a summary paper . In this, the entire thing is a summary of one article, book, story, or report.

To understand how to write this paper, let’s talk a little bit about the purpose of such an assignment.

A summary paper is usually given to help a teacher see how well a student understands a reading assignment, but also to help the student digest the reading. Sometimes, it can be difficult to understand things we read right away.

However, a good way to process the information is to put it in our own words. That is the point of a summary paper.

What a summary paper is

A summary paper is:

  • A way to explain in our own words what happened in a paper, book, etc.
  • A time to think about what was important in the paper, etc.
  • A time to think about the meaning and purpose behind the paper, etc.

Here are some things that a summary paper is not:

  • A review. Your thoughts and opinions on the thing you are summarizing don’t need to be here unless otherwise specified.
  • A comparison. A comparison paper has a lot of summary in it, but it is different than a summary paper. In this, you are just saying what happened, but you aren’t saying places it could have been done differently.
  • A paraphrase (though you might have a little paraphrasing in there). In the section on using summary in longer papers, I talk more about the difference between summaries, paraphrases, and quotes.

What a summary paper is not

Because a summary paper is usually longer than other forms of summary, you will be able to chose more detail. However, it still needs to focus on the important events. Summary papers are usually shorter papers.

Let’s say you are writing a 3–4 page summary. You are likely summarizing a full book or an article or short story, which will be much longer than 3–4 pages.

Imagine that you are the author of the work, and your editor comes to you and says they love what you wrote, but they need it to be 3–4 pages instead.

How would you tell that story (argument, idea, etc.) in that length without losing the heart or intent behind it? That is what belongs in a summary paper.

How Do I Write Useful Academic Notes?

Sometimes, you need to write a summary for yourself in the form of notes or for your classmates in the form of a discussion post.

You might not think you need a specific approach for this. After all, only you are going to see it.

However, summarizing for yourself can sometimes be the most difficult type of summary. If you try to write down everything your teacher says, your hand will cramp and you’ll likely miss a lot.

Yet, transcribing doesn’t work because studies show that writing things down (not typing them) actually helps you remember them better.

So how do you find the balance between summarizing the lessons without leaving out important points?

There are some tips for this:

  • If your professor writes it on the board, it is probably important.
  • What points do your textbooks include when summarizing information? Use these as a guide.
  • Write the highlight of every X amount of time, with X being the time you can go without missing anything or getting tired. This could be one point per minute, or three per five minutes, etc.

How Do I Create an Annotated Biography?

An annotated bibliography requires a very specific style of writing. Often, you will write these before a longer research paper . They will ask you to find a certain amount of articles and write a short annotation for each of them.

While an annotation is more than just a summary, it usually starts with a summary of the work. This will be about 2–3 sentences long. Because you don’t have a lot of room, you really have to think about what the most important thing the work says is.

This will basically ask you to explain the point of the article in these couple of sentences, so you should focus on the main point when expressing it.

Here is an example of a summary section within an annotation about this post:

“In this post, the author explains how to write a summary in different types of settings. She walks through academic, professional, and personal summaries. Ultimately, she claims that summaries should be short explanations that get the audience caught up on the topic without leaving out details that would change the meaning.”

What are annotation summaries?

Can I Write a Summary Within an Essay?

Perhaps the most common type of summary you will ever do is a short summary within a longer paper.

For example, if you have to write an argumentative essay, you will likely need to use sources to help support your argument.

However, there is a good chance that your readers won’t have read those same sources.

So, you need to give them enough detail to understand your topic without spending too much time explaining and not enough making your argument.

While this depends on exactly how you are using summary in your paper, often, a good amount of summary is the same amount you would put in an annotation.

Just a few sentences will allow the reader to get an idea of the work before moving on to specific parts of it that might help your argument.

What’s the Difference Between Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Using Quotes?

One important thing to recognize when using summaries in academic settings is that summaries are different than paraphrases or quotes.

A summary is broader and more general. A paraphrase, on the other hand, puts specific parts into your own words. A quote uses the exact words of the original. All of them, however, need to be cited.

Let’s look at an example:

Take these words by Thomas J. Watson:

”Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t as all. You can be discouraged by failure—or you can learn from it. So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because, remember, that’s where you will find success.”

Let’s say I was told to write a summary, a paraphrase, and a quote about this statement. This is what it might look like:

Summary: Thomas J. Watson said that the key to success is actually to fail more often. (This is broad and doesn’t go into details about what he says, but it still gives him credit.)

Paraphrase: Thomas J. Watson, on asking if people would like his formula for success, said that the secret was to fail twice as much. He claimed that when you decide to learn from your mistakes instead of being disappointed by them, and when you start making a lot of them, you will actually find more success. (This includes most of the details, but it is in my own words, while still crediting the source.)

Quote: Thomas J. Watson said, ”Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t at all. You can be discouraged by failure—or you can learn from it. So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because, remember, that’s where you will find success.” (This is the exact words of the original with quotation marks and credit given.)

A summary versus a paraphrase versus a quote

Avoiding Plagiarism

One of the hardest parts about summarizing someone else’s writing is avoiding plagiarism .

A tip to avoid plagiarism

That’s why I have a few rules/tips for you when summarizing anything:

1. Always cite.

If you are talking about someone else’s work in any means, cite your source. If you are summarizing the entire work, all you probably need to do (depending on style guidelines) is say the author’s name. However, if you are summarizing a specific chapter or section, you should state that specifically. Finally, you should make sure to include it in your Work Cited or Reference page.

2. Change the wording.

Sometimes when people are summarizing or paraphrasing a work, they get too close to the original, and actually use the exact words. Unless you use quotation marks, this is plagiarism. However, a good way to avoid this is to hide the article while you are summarizing it. If you don’t have it in front of you, you are less likely to accidentally use the exact words. (However, after you are done, double check that you didn’t miss anything important or give wrong details.)

3. Use a plagiarism checker.

Of course, when you are writing any summary, especially academic summaries, it can be easy to cross the line into plagiarism. If this is a place where you struggle, then ProWritingAid can help.

ProWritingAid's Plagiarism Report

Just use our Plagiarism Report . It’ll highlight any unoriginal text in your document so you can make sure you are citing everything correctly and summarizing in your own words.

Find out more about ProWritingAid plagiarism bundles.

Along with academic summaries, you might sometimes need to write professional summaries. Often, this means writing a summary about yourself that shows why you are qualified for a position or organization.

In this section, let’s talk about two types of professional summaries: a LinkedIn summary and a summary section within a resume.

How Do I Write My LinkedIn Bio?

LinkedIn is all about professional networking. It offers you a chance to share a brief glimpse of your professional qualifications in a paragraph or two.

This can then be sent to professional connections, or even found by them without you having to reach out. This can help you get a job or build your network.

Your summary is one of the first things a future employer might see about you, and how you write yours can make you stand out from the competition.

Your resume's summary

Here are some tips on writing a LinkedIn summary :

  • Before you write it, think about what you want it to do . If you are looking for a job, what kind of job? What have you done in your past that would stand out to someone hiring for that position? That is what you will want to focus on in your summary.
  • Be professional . Unlike many social media platforms, LinkedIn has a reputation for being more formal. Your summary should reflect that to some extent.
  • Use keywords . Your summary is searchable, so using keywords that a recruiter might be searching for can help them find you.
  • Focus on the start . LinkedIn shows the first 300 characters automatically, and then offers the viewer a chance to read more. Make that start so good that everyone wants to keep reading.
  • Focus on accomplishments . Think of your life like a series of albums, and this is your speciality “Greatest Hits” album. What “songs” are you putting on it?

Tips for writing a linkedin summary

How Do I Summarize My Experience on a Resume?

Writing a professional summary for a resume is different than any other type of summary that you may have to do.

Recruiters go through a lot of resumes every day. They don’t have time to spend ages reading yours, which means you have to wow them quickly.

To do that, you might include a section at the top of your resume that acts almost as an elevator pitch: That one thing you might say to a recruiter to get them to want to talk to you if you only had a 30-second elevator ride.

Treat your resume summary as an elevator pitch

If you don’t have a lot of experience, though, you might want to skip this section entirely and focus on playing up the experience you do have.

Outside of academic and personal summaries, you use summary a lot in your day-to-day life.

Whether it is telling a good piece of trivia you just learned or a funny story that happened to you, or even setting the stage in creative writing, you summarize all the time.

How you use summary can be an important consideration in whether people want to read your work (or listen to you talk).

Here are some things to think about when telling a story:

  • Pick interesting details . Too many and your point will be lost. Not enough, and you didn’t paint the scene or give them a complete idea about what happened.
  • Play into the emotions . When telling a story, you want more information than the bare minimum. You want your reader to get the emotion of the story. That requires a little bit more work to accomplish.
  • Focus. A summary of one story can lead to another can lead to another. Think about storytellers that you know that go off on a tangent. They never seem to finish one story without telling 100 others!

Summarize a spoken story

To wrap up (and to demonstrate everything I just talked about), let’s summarize this post into its most essential parts:

A summary is a great way to quickly give your audience the information they need to understand the topic you are discussing without having to know every detail.

How you write a summary is different depending on what type of summary you are doing:

  • An academic summary usually gets to the heart of an article, book, or journal, and it should highlight the main points in your own words. How long it should be depends on the type of assignment it is.
  • A professional summary highlights you and your professional, academic, and volunteer history. It shows people in your professional network who you are and why they should hire you, work with you, use your talents, etc.

Being able to tell a good story is another form of summary. You want to tell engaging anecdotes and facts without boring your listeners. This is a skill that is developed over time.

Take your writing to the next level:

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20 Editing Tips from Professional Writers

Whether you are writing a novel, essay, article, or email, good writing is an essential part of communicating your ideas., this guide contains the 20 most important writing tips and techniques from a wide range of professional writers..

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A Guide to Writing Effective Performance Review Summaries

Table of Contents

Writing a performance review summary  comes with many challenges. You need to create a concise review that accurately reflects an employee’s company performance. And when writing a review, it’s essential to strike a balance between positive feedback and improvement suggestions.

You can make it a less stressful experience by taking the time to brainstorm, draft and review employee performance. We’ve laid out some tips to make writing your review summary a piece of cake. Check them out!

Four men discussing something that's written on a piece of paper.

What is a Performance Review?

A performance review analyzes all the different aspects of a particular person’s character to assess their capacity and performance in a specific job. 

It’s not a way to unload criticisms. Rather, it’s an honest evaluation of employee performance, opportunities for future growth and development, and so on.

A manager needs to take their evaluation of a given employee seriously because this will affect their career. Use it to celebrate the positives and highlight the areas where improvements can be made.

Benefits of Conducting a Performance Review

A performance review won’t only benefit employees but also your entire company. Here are some of the many benefits of writing an honest performance review for your employees.

Performance

To perform at their best level, employees need to receive honest feedback about how they can improve. Effective feedback gives you the best output from your reports.

According to a study, 72 percent of respondents believe their performance would improve if managers provided better corrective feedback.

The common notion that employees dread performance reviews isn’t entirely true. A study found that nearly 34% of full-time employees preferred to get more feedback from their manager.

Performance reviews are an excellent opportunity to show employees that you’re invested in their growth and success.

Employees who feel satisfied and valued in the workplace will be encouraged to stay longer. Gallup found that frequent, strengths-based feedback may decrease turnover by nearly 15 percent!

Career Development

Through a performance review, managers can discuss career goals and how the company can support employees. When 37 percent of employees say they would leave their jobs if they weren’t offered more opportunities for career advancement, these conversations are essential. You can have action items for your employees to pursue their career goals and ensure they feel supported and encouraged.

Tips for Writing a Performance Review Summary

1. collect peer feedback.

Managers should give employees honorable criticism and recognition. And it greatly helps to collect feedback from their peers. This will provide you with a wider perspective and can be an effective way to learn more about their performance .

2. Provide specific examples

It’s important to cite specific examples of when an employee excelled or struggled rather than make generalizations. This shows them that you pay attention to what they do in the workplace.

You can say, “You stepped in and guided your team through the project when your team leader Nick was sick.” This carries a lot more impact than saying, “You always make it a point to help team members.”

3. Don’t skip the positives.

The goal of performance reviews is to improve employee performance. And while you may be tempted just to hand out constructive criticism, it’s also essential to give them a pat on the back. Try to provide positive feedback. If they’ve done something commendable, let them know.

4. Remember to listen

It is important that performance reviews are conversational and not simply a means to hand out criticism and evaluation.

Try asking them how they feel about their work performance. What are the things they think they need to work on? What are the goals they want to achieve? Keep open communication, so your employees don’t feel unheard during reviews.

Performance Review Samples

There are many employee qualities that you can evaluate in a performance review. Here are some of these qualities, along with some sample reviews.

Professionalism

Professionalism refers to the competence or skill expected of a professional. In the context of performance reviews, professionalism means exhibiting high ethical and moral standards, focusing on commitment and fairness.

  • Develops professional relationships with individuals who benefit the company and contribute to the organization’s growth.
  • How he behaves with his fellow employees and his job is highly professional.
  • Ensures to gather proper information about various aspects of his job to stay updated with the company’s needs

Communication Skills

Workplaces are built on a culture of proper communication, and employees must have good communication skills. When giving feedback about their communication skills, you can say:

  • He is a good listener with excellent communication skills and uses them to advise his team about any issue that may arise.
  • Is capable of speaking frankly with colleagues and team members without being too authoritative.
  • Having the ability to provide input to his team members has earned him their respect, helping him prevent potential problems from arising.

Employees with high aspirations must possess leadership and the ability to manage teams. These are also qualities most companies are looking for in an employee.

  • A leader who commands respect by treating his team members with the same level of respect.
  • He is approachable and makes his team members feel at ease if they have problems, improving intra-team relationships.
  • Team members feel confident as he leads with inspiration.

Stress Management

Burnout or stress plays a major role in attrition in professional settings today. In such a situation, it becomes critical that employees cope with the stress that comes with their job.

  • Has a good deal of experience dealing with stressful situations and can develop suitable solutions with minimal assistance.
  • He sets an example by making sure that he never loses his composure when it comes to the most stressful situations.
  • Has the ability to think of innovative solutions to crises.

Time Management

Most companies place a lot of emphasis on punctuality and the ability to manage your time to accomplish goals.

  • Sets a great example to others by always being punctual in meeting project deadlines.
  • Effectively takes charge of keeping a schedule for breaks and keeping the company’s schedules in order.
  • He exhibits excellent time management skills and is well-suited to handle all the work assigned to him within a stipulated time frame.

Wrapping Up

Reviewing employee performance is a crucial step in building a healthy company culture. It can also help employees utilize their strengths effectively and understand where they can improve.

With these helpful tips for writing a performance review summary , you’ll be able to write an honest and professional review for your employees.

A Guide to Writing Effective Performance Review Summaries

Abir Ghenaiet

Abir is a data analyst and researcher. Among her interests are artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language processing. As a humanitarian and educator, she actively supports women in tech and promotes diversity.

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Ask Any Difference

Review vs Summary: Difference and Comparison

A Review is a report highlighting someone’s opinion about something, its ideas, the theme, and how it affects someone or something.

Key Takeaways A review evaluates or critiques a work or product, providing opinions and insights on its quality, effectiveness, or value. At the same time, a summary is a condensed version of a work presenting its main points or ideas without offering personal opinions or judgments. Reviews include personal assessments, recommendations, and comparisons to similar works or products. In contrast, summaries focus on accurately conveying the core content or message of the original work without inserting personal opinions. Both reviews and summaries can be useful for understanding the content or value of a work. Still, they serve different purposes: reviews inform potential consumers or readers about the quality of work, while summaries provide a quick and concise understanding of the original content.

Review vs Summary

The difference between Review and a Summary is that Review reflects what the partaker thinks about the narrative in all aspects. In contrast, a Summary is just a shortened or condensed version of an artefact that gives the gist of the whole body.

Review vs Summary

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Review can also mean a revision or subsequent reading of a text or narrative. Whereas, Summary is a broad term which refers to the short restatement reflecting the critical points of any piece of literature, argument or lecture.

Comparison Table

What is review.

A review delineates the partaker’s opinion about the presented subject. It doesn’t require the exact points of the narrative but revolves around the ideas of it and the way it was presented.

This is used in formal and informal contexts like “a movie review” or “review of a research paper” and can be applied to any subject that can be presented to an audience.

There will exist no final review as every individual contemplates the subject differently. However, the study can be generalized as good or bad.

These reviews don’t necessarily account for the reviewer’s opinions and are closely related to a summary. However, unlike resumes, these reviews don’t have to highlight all the subject’s main points in the same order.

This review is not presented to an audience but is for the use of the partaker himself. The need for this kind of review arises when the partaker needs to demonstrate their knowledge on the subject, like examinations.

review 1

What is Summary?

A Summary is the concise report of any presented rendering or narrative used for a better and easier understanding. It covers all the text’s main points and gives the story’s essence in the exact order as the report does.

A summary sticks to the points of the subject and doesn’t deviate from them at all. It does not include the summarizer’s opinions or acknowledge any assessment of the issue.

Absoluteness is the backbone of a summary. Since the resume needs to hold on to the exact points of the subject, the summaries from different summarizers must be clear.

Summaries always proceed in the exact nature of the subject, starting from the introduction and terminating where the issue ends.

It is mainly used in academic contexts and for other narratives.

summary

Main Differences Between Review and Summary

  • A review revolves around the general idea of the subject, whereas a summary holds onto the exact points of the subject.
  • The opinion of the partaker is an integral part of a review, whereas it doesn’t hold any significance in the case of a review.

Difference Between X and Y 2023 04 06T181455.011

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Review
  • https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/summarize

Last Updated : 11 June, 2023

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what is review summary

What’s the Difference Between a Book Summary and a Book Review?

Published on April 21, 2014 by Igor Mateski

Our weekly Book Summaries here at Books At a Glance are available only to our premium members , and it was suggested that we explain what you are missing if you’ve not joined!

First, what is the difference between a Book Summary and a Book Review ? The easy way to say it is that a Book Review is evaluative in nature and interactive, whereas a Summary is simply a condensed re-presentation of the book’s contents. In a Review our staff will tell you generally what a book is about and then offer comments assessing the work, commending or criticizing this or that about its contents, and so on. But in our Summaries we “crunch” the book into 7-10 pages, condensing the argument(s) of each chapter into a paragraph or two.

Book summaries are the heart of what we do here. They are designed to help you keep up to date and informed regarding new and significant publications. After reading a given summary you will know what that book is about and how it develops its thoughts. From there you can decide if that is all you need or if you should purchase the book yourself to study the matter further.

“Executive summaries” like these have a long and proven value in the business world, and we are excited to bring the same to Christian readers and students of biblical studies.

As an example, we posted a summary of Greg Beale’s The Morality of God in the Old Testament (P&R, 2013), in which Beale addresses the question of the seemingly “cruel” treatment of the wicked, such as in Joshua and the imprecatory Psalms. Here is a sample paragraph from that Summary:

Some attempts to answer the question have been offered that Beale finds to be less than completely satisfying, and he recites them briefly. Most would acknowledge that there is a “wartime ethic” that stretches the normal bounds of justice, but even the extenuating circumstances of war do not account for the intentional extensiveness of the commands God gives to the Israelites concerning the Canaanites. So also, even if these commands were not to be understood literally, details remain that such considerations simply cannot handle. And in any case, it certainly appears that the commands were intended to be taken (at least essentially) literally. This latter suggestion (that the extermination commands are not to be understood literally) would dissolve the problem considerably, and as such it is an important consideration, and so Beale treats it separately in a 10-page excursus at the end of the book.

Beale proposes his own five-fold approach to the question. In his own words, this approach is as follows. First, how does the killing of the Canaanites demonstrate God’s justice and righteousness? Second ….

As you can see, our Book Summaries take you a long way in tracing out the book’s arguments, from beginning to end.

Our members receive a Book Summary every week, and you can see how quickly and easily they keep up to date!

Note that we offer a free, one-month trial membership with no obligation. Give us a try, and see what you’re missing!

Claim your free, one-month trial membership by clicking HERE .

Thanks for checking us out!

Jim Zaspel Business Manager, Books At a Glance

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  • How to Write a Summary | Guide & Examples

How to Write a Summary | Guide & Examples

Published on 25 September 2022 by Shona McCombes . Revised on 12 May 2023.

Summarising , or writing a summary, means giving a concise overview of a text’s main points in your own words. A summary is always much shorter than the original text.

There are five key steps that can help you to write a summary:

  • Read the text
  • Break it down into sections
  • Identify the key points in each section
  • Write the summary
  • Check the summary against the article

Writing a summary does not involve critiquing or analysing the source. You should simply provide an accurate account of the most important information and ideas (without copying any text from the original).

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Table of contents

When to write a summary, step 1: read the text, step 2: break the text down into sections, step 3: identify the key points in each section, step 4: write the summary, step 5: check the summary against the article, frequently asked questions.

There are many situations in which you might have to summarise an article or other source:

  • As a stand-alone assignment to show you’ve understood the material
  • To keep notes that will help you remember what you’ve read
  • To give an overview of other researchers’ work in a literature review

When you’re writing an academic text like an essay , research paper , or dissertation , you’ll integrate sources in a variety of ways. You might use a brief quote to support your point, or paraphrase a few sentences or paragraphs.

But it’s often appropriate to summarize a whole article or chapter if it is especially relevant to your own research, or to provide an overview of a source before you analyse or critique it.

In any case, the goal of summarising is to give your reader a clear understanding of the original source. Follow the five steps outlined below to write a good summary.

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You should read the article more than once to make sure you’ve thoroughly understood it. It’s often effective to read in three stages:

  • Scan the article quickly to get a sense of its topic and overall shape.
  • Read the article carefully, highlighting important points and taking notes as you read.
  • Skim the article again to confirm you’ve understood the key points, and reread any particularly important or difficult passages.

There are some tricks you can use to identify the key points as you read:

  • Start by reading the abstract . This already contains the author’s own summary of their work, and it tells you what to expect from the article.
  • Pay attention to headings and subheadings . These should give you a good sense of what each part is about.
  • Read the introduction and the conclusion together and compare them: What did the author set out to do, and what was the outcome?

To make the text more manageable and understand its sub-points, break it down into smaller sections.

If the text is a scientific paper that follows a standard empirical structure, it is probably already organised into clearly marked sections, usually including an introduction, methods, results, and discussion.

Other types of articles may not be explicitly divided into sections. But most articles and essays will be structured around a series of sub-points or themes.

Now it’s time go through each section and pick out its most important points. What does your reader need to know to understand the overall argument or conclusion of the article?

Keep in mind that a summary does not involve paraphrasing every single paragraph of the article. Your goal is to extract the essential points, leaving out anything that can be considered background information or supplementary detail.

In a scientific article, there are some easy questions you can ask to identify the key points in each part.

If the article takes a different form, you might have to think more carefully about what points are most important for the reader to understand its argument.

In that case, pay particular attention to the thesis statement —the central claim that the author wants us to accept, which usually appears in the introduction—and the topic sentences that signal the main idea of each paragraph.

Now that you know the key points that the article aims to communicate, you need to put them in your own words.

To avoid plagiarism and show you’ve understood the article, it’s essential to properly paraphrase the author’s ideas. Do not copy and paste parts of the article, not even just a sentence or two.

The best way to do this is to put the article aside and write out your own understanding of the author’s key points.

Examples of article summaries

Let’s take a look at an example. Below, we summarise this article , which scientifically investigates the old saying ‘an apple a day keeps the doctor away’.

An article summary like the above would be appropriate for a stand-alone summary assignment. However, you’ll often want to give an even more concise summary of an article.

For example, in a literature review or research paper, you may want to briefly summarize this study as part of a wider discussion of various sources. In this case, we can boil our summary down even further to include only the most relevant information.

Citing the source you’re summarizing

When including a summary as part of a larger text, it’s essential to properly cite the source you’re summarizing. The exact format depends on your citation style , but it usually includes an in-text citation and a full reference at the end of your paper.

You can easily create your citations and references in APA or MLA using our free citation generators.

APA Citation Generator MLA Citation Generator

Finally, read through the article once more to ensure that:

  • You’ve accurately represented the author’s work
  • You haven’t missed any essential information
  • The phrasing is not too similar to any sentences in the original.

If you’re summarising many articles as part of your own work, it may be a good idea to use a plagiarism checker to double-check that your text is completely original and properly cited. Just be sure to use one that’s safe and reliable.

A summary is a short overview of the main points of an article or other source, written entirely in your own words.

Save yourself some time with the free summariser.

A summary is always much shorter than the original text. The length of a summary can range from just a few sentences to several paragraphs; it depends on the length of the article you’re summarising, and on the purpose of the summary.

With the summariser tool you can easily adjust the length of your summary.

You might have to write a summary of a source:

  • As a stand-alone assignment to prove you understand the material
  • For your own use, to keep notes on your reading
  • To provide an overview of other researchers’ work in a literature review
  • In a paper , to summarise or introduce a relevant study

To avoid plagiarism when summarising an article or other source, follow these two rules:

  • Write the summary entirely in your own words by   paraphrasing the author’s ideas.
  • Reference the source with an in-text citation and a full reference so your reader can easily find the original text.

An abstract concisely explains all the key points of an academic text such as a thesis , dissertation or journal article. It should summarise the whole text, not just introduce it.

An abstract is a type of summary , but summaries are also written elsewhere in academic writing . For example, you might summarise a source in a paper , in a literature review , or as a standalone assignment.

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the ‘Cite this Scribbr article’ button to automatically add the citation to our free Reference Generator.

McCombes, S. (2023, May 12). How to Write a Summary | Guide & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved 22 February 2024, from https://www.scribbr.co.uk/working-sources/how-to-write-a-summary/

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How to Write an Article Review: Template & Examples

An article review is an academic assignment that invites you to study a piece of academic research closely. Then, you should present its summary and critically evaluate it using the knowledge you’ve gained in class and during your independent study. If you get such a task at college or university, you shouldn’t confuse it with a response paper, which is a distinct assignment with other purposes (we’ll talk about it in detail below).

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In this article, prepared by Custom-Writing experts, you’ll find: 

  • the intricacies of article review writing;
  • the difference between an article review and similar assignments;
  • a step-by-step algorithm for review composition;
  • a couple of samples to guide you throughout the writing process.

So, if you wish to study our article review example and discover helpful writing tips, keep reading.

❓ What Is an Article Review?

  • ✍️ Writing Steps

📑 Article Review Format

🔗 references.

An article review is an academic paper that summarizes and critically evaluates the information presented in your selected article. 

This image shows what an article review is.

The first thing you should note when approaching the task of an article review is that not every article is suitable for this assignment. Let’s have a look at the variety of articles to understand what you can choose from.

Popular Vs. Scholarly Articles

In most cases, you’ll be required to review a scholarly, peer-reviewed article – one composed in compliance with rigorous academic standards. Yet, the Web is also full of popular articles that don’t present original scientific value and shouldn’t be selected for a review.  

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Not sure how to distinguish these two types? Here is a comparative table to help you out.

Article Review vs. Response Paper

Now, let’s consider the difference between an article review and a response paper:

  • If you’re assigned to critique a scholarly article , you will need to compose an article review .  
  • If your subject of analysis is a popular article , you can respond to it with a well-crafted response paper .  

The reason for such distinctions is the quality and structure of these two article types. Peer-reviewed, scholarly articles have clear-cut quality criteria, allowing you to conduct and present a structured assessment of the assigned material. Popular magazines have loose or non-existent quality criteria and don’t offer an opportunity for structured evaluation. So, they are only fit for a subjective response, in which you can summarize your reactions and emotions related to the reading material.  

All in all, you can structure your response assignments as outlined in the tips below.

✍️ How to Write an Article Review: Step by Step

Here is a tried and tested algorithm for article review writing from our experts. We’ll consider only the critical review variety of this academic assignment. So, let’s get down to the stages you need to cover to get a stellar review.  

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Read the Article

As with any reviews, reports, and critiques, you must first familiarize yourself with the assigned material. It’s impossible to review something you haven’t read, so set some time for close, careful reading of the article to identify:

  • Its topic.  
  • Its type.  
  • The author’s main points and message. 
  • The arguments they use to prove their points. 
  • The methodology they use to approach the subject. 

In terms of research type , your article will usually belong to one of three types explained below. 

Summarize the Article

Now that you’ve read the text and have a general impression of the content, it’s time to summarize it for your readers. Look into the article’s text closely to determine:

  • The thesis statement , or general message of the author.  
  • Research question, purpose, and context of research.  
  • Supporting points for the author’s assumptions and claims.  
  • Major findings and supporting evidence.  

As you study the article thoroughly, make notes on the margins or write these elements out on a sheet of paper. You can also apply a different technique: read the text section by section and formulate its gist in one phrase or sentence. Once you’re done, you’ll have a summary skeleton in front of you.

Evaluate the Article

The next step of review is content evaluation. Keep in mind that various research types will require a different set of review questions. Here is a complete list of evaluation points you can include.

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Write the Text

After completing the critical review stage, it’s time to compose your article review.

The format of this assignment is standard – you will have an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. The introduction should present your article and summarize its content. The body will contain a structured review according to all four dimensions covered in the previous section. The concluding part will typically recap all the main points you’ve identified during your assessment.  

It is essential to note that an article review is, first of all, an academic assignment. Therefore, it should follow all rules and conventions of academic composition, such as:

  • No contractions . Don’t use short forms, such as “don’t,” “can’t,” “I’ll,” etc. in academic writing. You need to spell out all those words.  
  • Formal language and style . Avoid conversational phrasing and words that you would naturally use in blog posts or informal communication. For example, don’t use words like “pretty,” “kind of,” and “like.”  
  • Third-person narrative . Academic reviews should be written from the third-person point of view, avoiding statements like “I think,” “in my opinion,” and so on.  
  • No conversational forms . You shouldn’t turn to your readers directly in the text by addressing them with the pronoun “you.” It’s vital to keep the narrative neutral and impersonal.  
  • Proper abbreviation use . Consult the list of correct abbreviations , like “e.g.” or “i.e.,” for use in your academic writing. If you use informal abbreviations like “FYA” or “f.i.,” your professor will reduce the grade.  
  • Complete sentences . Make sure your sentences contain the subject and the predicate; avoid shortened or sketch-form phrases suitable for a draft only.  
  • No conjunctions at the beginning of a sentence . Remember the FANBOYS rule – don’t start a sentence with words like “and” or “but.” They often seem the right way to build a coherent narrative, but academic writing rules disfavor such usage.  
  • No abbreviations or figures at the beginning of a sentence . Never start a sentence with a number — spell it out if you need to use it anyway. Besides, sentences should never begin with abbreviations like “e.g.”  

Finally, a vital rule for an article review is properly formatting the citations. We’ll discuss the correct use of citation styles in the following section.

When composing an article review, keep these points in mind:

  • Start with a full reference to the reviewed article so the reader can locate it quickly.  
  • Ensure correct formatting of in-text references.  
  • Provide a complete list of used external sources on the last page of the review – your bibliographical entries .  

You’ll need to understand the rules of your chosen citation style to meet all these requirements. Below, we’ll discuss the two most common referencing styles – APA and MLA.

Article Review in APA

When you need to compose an article review in the APA format , here is the general bibliographical entry format you should use for journal articles on your reference page:  

  • Author’s last name, First initial. Middle initial. (Year of Publication). Name of the article. Name of the Journal, volume (number), pp. #-#. https://doi.org/xx.xxx/yyyy

Horigian, V. E., Schmidt, R. D., & Feaster, D. J. (2021). Loneliness, mental health, and substance use among US young adults during COVID-19. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 53 (1), pp. 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1080/02791072.2020.1836435

Your in-text citations should follow the author-date format like this:

  • If you paraphrase the source and mention the author in the text: According to Horigian et al. (2021), young adults experienced increased levels of loneliness, depression, and anxiety during the pandemic. 
  • If you paraphrase the source and don’t mention the author in the text: Young adults experienced increased levels of loneliness, depression, and anxiety during the pandemic (Horigian et al., 2021). 
  • If you quote the source: As Horigian et al. (2021) point out, there were “elevated levels of loneliness, depression, anxiety, alcohol use, and drug use among young adults during COVID-19” (p. 6). 

Note that your in-text citations should include “et al.,” as in the examples above, if your article has 3 or more authors. If you have one or two authors, your in-text citations would look like this:

  • One author: “According to Smith (2020), depression is…” or “Depression is … (Smith, 2020).”
  • Two authors: “According to Smith and Brown (2020), anxiety means…” or “Anxiety means (Smith & Brown, 2020).”

Finally, in case you have to review a book or a website article, here are the general formats for citing these source types on your APA reference list.

Article Review in MLA

If your assignment requires MLA-format referencing, here’s the general format you should use for citing journal articles on your Works Cited page: 

  • Author’s last name, First name. “Title of an Article.” Title of the Journal , vol. #, no. #, year, pp. #-#. 

Horigian, Viviana E., et al. “Loneliness, Mental Health, and Substance Use Among US Young Adults During COVID-19.” Journal of Psychoactive Drugs , vol. 53, no. 1, 2021, pp. 1-9.

In-text citations in the MLA format follow the author-page citation format and look like this:

  • According to Horigian et al., young adults experienced increased levels of loneliness, depression, and anxiety during the pandemic (6).
  • Young adults experienced increased levels of loneliness, depression, and anxiety during the pandemic (Horigian et al. 6).

Like in APA, the abbreviation “et al.” is only needed in MLA if your article has 3 or more authors.

If you need to cite a book or a website page, here are the general MLA formats for these types of sources.

✅ Article Review Template

Here is a handy, universal article review template to help you move on with any review assignment. We’ve tried to make it as generic as possible to guide you in the academic process.

📝 Article Review Examples

The theory is good, but practice is even better. Thus, we’ve created three brief examples to show you how to write an article review. You can study the full-text samples by following the links.

📃 Men, Women, & Money   

This article review examines a famous piece, “Men, Women & Money – How the Sexes Differ with Their Finances,” published by Amy Livingston in 2020. The author of this article claims that men generally spend more money than women. She makes this conclusion from a close analysis of gender-specific expenditures across five main categories: food, clothing, cars, entertainment, and general spending patterns. Livingston also looks at men’s approach to saving to argue that counter to the common perception of women’s light-hearted attitude to money, men are those who spend more on average.  

📃 When and Why Nationalism Beats Globalism   

This is a review of Jonathan Heidt’s 2016 article titled “When and Why Nationalism Beats Globalism,” written as an advocacy of right-wing populism rising in many Western states. The author illustrates the case with the election of Donald Trump as the US President and the rise of right-wing rhetoric in many Western countries. These examples show how nationalist sentiment represents a reaction to global immigration and a failure of globalization.  

📃 Sleep Deprivation   

This is a review of the American Heart Association’s article titled “The Dangers of Sleep Deprivation.” It discusses how the national organization concerned with the American population’s cardiovascular health links the lack of high-quality sleep to far-reaching health consequences. The organization’s experts reveal how a consistent lack of sleep leads to Alzheimer’s disease development, obesity, type 2 diabetes, etc.  

✏️ Article Review FAQ

A high-quality article review should summarize the assigned article’s content and offer data-backed reactions and evaluations of its quality in terms of the article’s purpose, methodology, and data used to argue the main points. It should be detailed, comprehensive, objective, and evidence-based.

The purpose of writing a review is to allow students to reflect on research quality and showcase their critical thinking and evaluation skills. Students should exhibit their mastery of close reading of research publications and their unbiased assessment.

The content of your article review will be the same in any format, with the only difference in the assignment’s formatting before submission. Ensure you have a separate title page made according to APA standards and cite sources using the parenthetical author-date referencing format.

You need to take a closer look at various dimensions of an assigned article to compose a valuable review. Study the author’s object of analysis, the purpose of their research, the chosen method, data, and findings. Evaluate all these dimensions critically to see whether the author has achieved the initial goals. Finally, offer improvement recommendations to add a critique aspect to your paper.

  • Scientific Article Review: Duke University  
  • Book and Article Reviews: William & Mary, Writing Resources Center  
  • Sample Format for Reviewing a Journal Article: Boonshoft School of Medicine  
  • Research Paper Review – Structure and Format Guidelines: New Jersey Institute of Technology  
  • Article Review: University of Waterloo  
  • Article Review: University of South Australia  
  • How to Write a Journal Article Review: University of Newcastle Library Guides  
  • Writing Help: The Article Review: Central Michigan University Libraries  
  • Write a Critical Review of a Scientific Journal Article: McLaughlin Library  
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Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Review

A world worth fighting for..

Michael Higham Avatar

Standing on the edge of Midgar's expressway at the end of Final Fantasy VII Remake, the seemingly infinite possibilities of what could come next left me overwhelmed with a yearning I hadn't really felt from a game before – there was a whole world full of iconic moments awaiting modern revisions ahead, as well as whatever twists this now clearly diverging path might bring to them. In several ways, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is my wildest imagination made manifest, simultaneously another stunning reconstruction of my childhood memories and an interesting (if sometimes a little messy) new interpretation of a story I've cherished since 1997.

Remake’s already impeccable blend of action and turn-based RPG combat has been made fresh again with new mechanics and party members, and revamping the way the original overworld worked by splitting it into sprawling open regions full of enjoyable optional activities enriches places I thought I knew so well. There's a magic to doing all this with characters I love so much too, as their personal stories and pivotal moments have a new grandeur to them. However, Rebirth’s sweeping ambition to create a new timeline for Final Fantasy VII bounces between being absolutely sublime and too convoluted for its own good. That’s left me conflicted about parts of the execution of that new direction – but after spending more than 80 hours to finish the main story and a decent chunk of side content, there's no denying that Rebirth is an amazing journey despite that, and one I'll remember fondly as I eagerly anticipate the third act of this rebuilt Final Fantasy VII.

A major part of what makes that journey special is its impressive scale. As soon as I set foot onto the Grasslands, the first of six regions that make up Rebirth, a sense of awe washed over me. Looking out over the far-reaching horizon or seeing a backdrop of vast and distant mountain ranges, I was stunned by how gorgeously the previously low-poly world of Final Fantasy VII had been reimagined. An early cutscene shows Aerith taking in the beauty of a natural world she was never able to see before, only to have Red XIII remind her that it's still dying from the inside out. In doing so, the story reinforces the ongoing theme of environmental preservation from the outset, and instills that this is a planet worth fighting for. That's a feeling that consistently surfaced as I went from region to region, connecting with the people of each one and helping with their struggles through both the main story and a huge amount of sidequests.

However, that wonder also came with some intimidation as I pulled up the world map, realizing how massive Rebirth was going to be – and that it has embraced many modern open-world design conventions. The nerdy researcher boy Chadley returns in a big way, acting as your liaison for most of the optional activities under the guise of furthering his scientific research, which includes activating towers spread throughout each region to mark tasks on your map. As familiar as that task is, Rebirth manages to transcend the negative connotations of this well-worn trope – the more I began to peel back the layers of all the activities that fill these zones, the more engrossed I got in clearing every icon I could from the map. That context made it more than just a checklist of chores.

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There's also something powerful in simply exploring each corner of these regions just to see how they've clung onto life in spite of the destructive effect of the relentless reliance on Mako energy. Scaling a cliff in Junon on my way to a side objective comes with the treat of a breathtaking but tainted view, such as the sunset splashing the desolate region with a cozy orange tint while the city's massive cannon looms in the background. You can see the contrast of Costa Del Sol's vibrant beachside next to the barren wasteland of Corel – a consequence of the iconic Gold Saucer's energy demand. Exploration in Rebirth evokes a similar feeling to one I had with Xenoblade Chronicles 3, where the sheer scope and spectacle of their respective worlds drew me into uncovering all they had to offer. Wondrous sights like these are their own little rewards.

Later areas in Rebirth change up how you move around them with unique abilities for your rideable chocobo. Bouncing off launchpad mushrooms to get around Gongaga's labyrinthine jungle and chaining boost pads to stay airborne in Cosmo Canyon started out cute, but eventually became more tedious than necessary. Rebirth also loves to make you climb cliffsides or swing across gaps with a grappling hook, Uncharted-style, which don't feel as fluid as they ought to be, though the sense of adventure these actions provide at least makes them tolerable.

Whether you’re tracking down Lifesprings to learn more about the region, fighting uniquely tough enemies in the wild while fulfilling specific battle conditions, or chasing down Protorelics for bespoke side stories, everything you do feeds into one gameplay system or another. For example, Lifesprings can unveil Divine Intel locations which can make the battles to unlock new Summons easier, or they can reveal the objective of an ongoing sidequest that didn't seem connected at first blush. Not all of the optional tasks are terribly exciting (like digging up treasure with your chocobo or doing silly timing-based inputs to activate Summon shrines) but the rewards are a decent enough incentive to at least prevent them from feeling like outright filler.

Who are you definitely keeping in your party at all times?

Sidequests pop up at every major town's Community Noticeboard, and they paint a more complete picture of Rebirth's vision for its reimagined open world. A certain party member is typically tied to each individual sidequest, so you'll get to see a side of them you wouldn't be able to otherwise, and also increase their Bond level in the process (a new feature that’s mainly relevant in a later part of the story I won’t get into here). These are more than mere fetch quests, instead featuring multiple objectives that take you across regions and encourage exploration, and they often tell their own compelling little stories or uplift the human element of Final Fantasy VII. Some of the later sidequests even provide context that's almost essential in order to fully understand the world and a few supporting characters as well.

Regardless of which tasks you take on, you'll be rewarded with XP for your Party Level, a separate progression system that advances your access to Folios. You can think of Folios as a system like Final Fantasy X ’s Sphere Grid, where you spend a pool of skill points to unlock new perks and abilities for each character. The biggest addition within Folios are Synergy Abilities, powerful partner attacks between specific characters that lay on heavy damage and can grant bonuses like extending stagger windows, filling the Limit Break bar, or temporarily negating all MP costs. You'll also access Synergy Skills that can be used on the fly to make combat more flexible, such as having Cloud launch Tifa into the air to get into melee range of flying enemies, or letting Barret soak up incoming damage for Aerith. Synergies are yet another tool in a bag full of tricks that complements the already intricate combat from Remake – and instead of bloating what's already quite a busy system, they work to fill gaps and reward you for expending ATB bars, making the combat loop feel more complete.

The returning Pressure and Stagger systems once again push you toward understanding combat on a deeper level, since bosses and strong enemies won't go down through simple button mashing. Like in Remake, using the Assess ability reveals how you can exploit enemy vulnerabilities outside of their elemental weaknesses (if they even have any). That makes both the tactical foresight to line up an offensive push at just the right time and the skill necessary to execute it imperative. When it all comes together and you're firing off Limit Breaks, chunky weapon skills, and cinematic Synergy Abilities against a staggered formidable foe, it's undeniably satisfying – not just because of the weight behind each hit, but also in the gratification of having orchestrated it all under the pressure of aggressive and sometimes unforgiving enemies.

As was the case in Remake, each character has a distinct fighting style, with Cloud, Tifa, Barret, and Aerith functioning just as they did before. But with new enemies and additional mechanics layered on, Rebirth pushes you to bring out the best in your party members. Yuffie plays like she did in Remake’s Intergrade DLC and can be an absolute menace by covering all elements with Ninjutsu, cloning herself to multiply the impact of every action, and having the best mobility of anyone in the party. Now with a full party around her and a full game to build on her skillset, she stands out as the most dynamic of the bunch. The finally playable Red XIII brings something different to the table by turning defense into offense with his Vengeance stance, yet it's his fast combos and absolutely destructive Stardust Ray that make short work of enemies. No matter your party composition, switching between them on the fly while setting the others up to play their parts offers a constant variety in both the moment-to-moment action and the satisfaction of playing the field general.

The depth of how all of these combat systems interconnect can be overwhelming, but it’s incredibly rewarding when you start to unravel their intricacies and put them together in battle. Much of that comes from the returning Materia system, which lets you customize each party member's build to fill certain roles with magic spells, stat boosts, and passive skills. While it's largely the same as before, it's no worse for wear because of just how smart it is, providing a level of flexibility that has a dramatic effect on how everyone functions. Along with Synergies unlocked in Folios, the multitude of weapon skills earned throughout the journey, and powerful Summons that can turn the tide of any fight, Rebirth's combat offers an embarrassment of riches without making you too overpowered when it really counts.

Important encounters can get extremely challenging even with all the tools you have – bosses push you to really work for your victory with how much they throw at you, and that level of effort is crucial for making combat so satisfying. You're expected to juggle their onslaught while trying to build ATB and exploit their specific vulnerabilities. However, at times, it did feel as though the way some of these tougher enemies were designed betrayed the principles of the combat system itself, as if there's a dissonance between how your party functions and what the enemy is capable of doing. Certain foes zip around the battlefield at high speeds that even the lock-on system has trouble tracking in a way that doesn’t feel intentional, and getting constantly knocked back or caught in multi-hit combos is an occasional annoyance. It's obnoxious at best and actively frustrating at worst when an attack like this interrupts a spell and your ATB bar has already been burned, adding insult to injury. Thankfully, these exasperating moments don't overshadow the heights Rebirth reaches – with enough practice, preparation, and wits, even the hardest battles are a surmountable thrill to conquer.

While the larger story Rebirth tells is a heart wrenching and compelling one, it does take a while for it to initially come into focus. After opening with the hard-hitting flashback of the tragedy at Cloud and Tifa's hometown of Nibelheim, you'll spend a lot of time getting acquainted with the flow of the open regions as you follow a chain of events that’s familiar from the 1997 original. But by frontloading a lot of those diversions, it can lose the thread of what Cloud and the gang were even supposed to be doing in the first place. From Junon to Costa del Sol, you'll be spending more time in minigames than anything else, and that's all before getting to the Gold Saucer, which is the capital of minigames. Don't get me wrong, many of these activities are a joy in their own right, and a few of them make for memorable moments of levity. But a little bit of restraint could have helped keep the focus on the parts I cared about most.

It seems like nitpicking, but that’s especially true with things such as slow-paced crate-moving puzzles, stealth sections to unlock a region's chocobo, or the box-throwing microgames with Cait Sith in later chapters. That all said, these are ultimately minor inconveniences in what is largely a fantastic revision of Final Fantasy VII’s story. If anything, the more robust minigames capture just how absolutely goofy the PS1 classic always was, livening up the adventure while still staying true to its identity.

Every IGN Final Fantasy Game Review

IGN has published more than 90 different Final Fantasy reviews over the last two and a half decades since 1997's Final Fantasy VII, and we've rounded each one up into this handy slideshow.

Rebirth manages to strike that delicate balance well, which is impressive given there was always a darkness and sorrow that permeated Final Fantasy VII, with the planet's very existence at risk, Shinra's destructive nature, and Sephiroth's calamitous ambitions looming. Cloud himself is a broken man, an unreliable narrator, and a complicated protagonist – and in the highest fidelity of modern tech, his slight but telling mannerisms speak as loud as anything he said in the original script. Nearly every party member has their moment to shine in this arc of Final Fantasy VII, and through impeccable cinematic stylings and top-tier voice performances, the cast's teetering between hope and despair is on full display. Barret's backstory was already unforgettable, but between the raw, emotional performance of voice actor John Eric Bentley and the graphical prowess of today's hardware, there's a newfound authenticity to the struggles he faces and painful resolutions that await him. Those modern qualities, along with a reimagined script, also give additional depth to Red XIII to round him out as a more complete character.

All the while, Aerith becomes an emotional leader and the relationship between her and Tifa grows stronger and more believable as they confide in each other and bear the brunt of Cloud's baggage. Rebirth is often cheesy in its writing and revels in its melodrama, but that's part of its charm. Within the cloying displays of friendship and theatrical pleas to protect the environment are undeniably genuine messages about how we carry ourselves in our own lives. That tone is what lets this particular brand of storytelling strike a chord as effectively as it does, elevating Rebirth above many of its contemporaries.

The concept of rebuilding Final Fantasy VII’s story for a new generation came with the theme of defying your supposed fate, which was made explicit toward the end of Remake with the convergence of alternate timelines affecting each other. It took me a while to come around on this idea, and although the mechanisms that turn the wheels of fate in Rebirth are as obtuse as they've ever been, it's a direction I've wanted to embrace. But while this new-ish story has the potential to be equally as powerful as the original, it pains me to say that Rebirth fumbles the execution. Avoiding any spoilers, the events of its conclusion and the ensuing aftermath are portrayed in a way that is both convoluted and undefined, robbing it of its impact. It's a case of trying to do too much without the connective tissue to bring it all together. Cryptic messages and nuanced meanings can be well and good, but sometimes stories also have to speak plainly about what is actually happening, and Rebirth does not when it needs to most.

Michael Higham's Personal Final Fantasy Rankings

Final Fantasy XIV Online: Shadowbringers

Even with the baffling delivery of its conclusion, some of the new scenes surrounding that finale do offer sobering messages about grief, letting go, and the acceptance of life's inevitable end – and sometimes that also means finding something worth fighting for. These quiet moments encourage a different kind of reflection that the original wasn't able to touch on. How we make sense of our lives and our place in a world full of tragedy is a complicated and messy endeavor that seems full of contradictions, and Rebirth makes that fittingly clear. So even though the new path these remakes are trying to forge is both fascinating and flawed, Final Fantasy VII’s story still manages to hold a poignant mirror up to our own world, 27 years later.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth impressively builds off of what Remake set in motion as both a best-in-class action-RPG full of exciting challenge and depth, and as an awe-inspiring recreation of a world that has meant so much to so many for so long. After 82 hours to finish the main story and complete a decent chunk of sidequests and optional activities, there's still much to be done, making this pivotal section of the original feel absolutely massive. Minigames, sidequests, and other enticing diversions fill the spaces of its vast and sprawling regions, painting a new and more vivid picture of these familiar locations. But more than just being filled with things to do, Rebirth is often a powerful representation of Final Fantasy VII's most memorable qualities. It does fumble the execution of its ending, getting caught up in the mess of its multiple twisting timelines, but new moments and the overarching journey manage to evoke a deeper sense of reflection in spite of that. So, for as flawed as parts of how this classic has been reimagined might be, Rebirth still stands out as something both thrilling and unexpectedly impactful.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Review

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Disaster follows an astronaut back to Earth in the thriller 'Constellation'

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David Bianculli

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Noomi Rapace plays an astronaut on the International Space Station in the Apple TV+ series Constellation. Apple TV+ hide caption

Noomi Rapace plays an astronaut on the International Space Station in the Apple TV+ series Constellation.

Constellation, the new drama series streaming on Apple TV+, starts in outer space, with an astronaut struggling to survive, and return safely to Earth, after things go horribly wrong.

This has long been familiar film territory, from the malfunction in Apollo 13 and the deadly stowaway in Alien, to the twisting perceptions of reality in Gravity . Constellation , created and written by former Doctor Who writer Peter Harness, borrows a bit from all of those. It's a very tricky story to follow – but in the end, and by the end, it's a very moving one.

In Constellation , the International Space Station, with a handful of astronauts aboard, is in orbit when it collides with an unidentified object, crippling most of the onboard systems. That's the Apollo 13 part. An emergency evacuation leaves a single astronaut waiting behind to repair and pilot the craft, while time, space and memory seem to shift – as does reality itself. That's what Sandra Bullock 's astronaut went through in Gravity . And finally, there's something mysterious and otherworldly on board – something potentially lethal. So there's Alien , sort of.

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But in Constellation , while the spacebound scenes are thrilling and creepy, there's less frantic action in this series overall, and more underlying tension. It's a slow build, and takes several episodes to establish what may or may not be really going on here. But the clues make more sense as you go along, and the more you watch this Constellation , the more profound and disturbing it becomes.

Noomi Rapace , from a previous outer-space thriller, Prometheus , stars here. She plays Jo Ericsson, an astronaut on the space station who, in an early scene, is communicating with her 10-year-old daughter, Alice, who's back on Earth. The daughter, Alice, is played by twin actresses, Rosie and Davina Coleman, who rotate in the role. That's somehow fitting, because, after a while, Jo begins to suspect that her daughter isn't the same little girl she left behind.

Jo isn't the only one with suspicions or identity issues. Jonathan Banks from Breaking Bad co-stars as a former astronaut named Henry Caldera, who's now a scientist with a top-secret experiment aboard the endangered space station. At times, he acts like two different people, and there may be a reason. Psychologists in the space program believe that both Jo and Henry suffer from "high altitude psychosis," which explains – to them – the astronauts' post-mission bouts of confusion, memory loss and paranoia.

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Complicated? Absolutely. Over the eight installments of Constellation, perspectives change. Stories change. Even people change. Scenes that look one way, and mean one thing, in episode one are turned inside out when they return in episode six or seven.

It's a story full of unreliable narrators, and a TV show where the images are more important and revealing than the dialogue. And because the visuals are crucial throughout, the directors of this series are crucial, too. Oliver Hirschbiegel and Joseph Cedar direct the later episodes, stunningly, but the mood and look are established in the all-important first ones by Michelle MacLaren, who directed some of the most brilliant episodes of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul.

Watching Constellation takes commitment, patience and attention, but you'll be rewarded for that effort with a haunting story that, at its center, is about the love between a mother and a daughter. It really touched me. At least it did in this universe.

Correction Feb. 22, 2024

In the audio of this story, as in a previous web version, we misidentify the cause of the Apollo 13 malfunction as an orbital collision. The cause was an onboard explosion.

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Methodology

  • Systematic Review | Definition, Example, & Guide

Systematic Review | Definition, Example & Guide

Published on June 15, 2022 by Shaun Turney . Revised on November 20, 2023.

A systematic review is a type of review that uses repeatable methods to find, select, and synthesize all available evidence. It answers a clearly formulated research question and explicitly states the methods used to arrive at the answer.

They answered the question “What is the effectiveness of probiotics in reducing eczema symptoms and improving quality of life in patients with eczema?”

In this context, a probiotic is a health product that contains live microorganisms and is taken by mouth. Eczema is a common skin condition that causes red, itchy skin.

Table of contents

What is a systematic review, systematic review vs. meta-analysis, systematic review vs. literature review, systematic review vs. scoping review, when to conduct a systematic review, pros and cons of systematic reviews, step-by-step example of a systematic review, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about systematic reviews.

A review is an overview of the research that’s already been completed on a topic.

What makes a systematic review different from other types of reviews is that the research methods are designed to reduce bias . The methods are repeatable, and the approach is formal and systematic:

  • Formulate a research question
  • Develop a protocol
  • Search for all relevant studies
  • Apply the selection criteria
  • Extract the data
  • Synthesize the data
  • Write and publish a report

Although multiple sets of guidelines exist, the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews is among the most widely used. It provides detailed guidelines on how to complete each step of the systematic review process.

Systematic reviews are most commonly used in medical and public health research, but they can also be found in other disciplines.

Systematic reviews typically answer their research question by synthesizing all available evidence and evaluating the quality of the evidence. Synthesizing means bringing together different information to tell a single, cohesive story. The synthesis can be narrative ( qualitative ), quantitative , or both.

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Systematic reviews often quantitatively synthesize the evidence using a meta-analysis . A meta-analysis is a statistical analysis, not a type of review.

A meta-analysis is a technique to synthesize results from multiple studies. It’s a statistical analysis that combines the results of two or more studies, usually to estimate an effect size .

A literature review is a type of review that uses a less systematic and formal approach than a systematic review. Typically, an expert in a topic will qualitatively summarize and evaluate previous work, without using a formal, explicit method.

Although literature reviews are often less time-consuming and can be insightful or helpful, they have a higher risk of bias and are less transparent than systematic reviews.

Similar to a systematic review, a scoping review is a type of review that tries to minimize bias by using transparent and repeatable methods.

However, a scoping review isn’t a type of systematic review. The most important difference is the goal: rather than answering a specific question, a scoping review explores a topic. The researcher tries to identify the main concepts, theories, and evidence, as well as gaps in the current research.

Sometimes scoping reviews are an exploratory preparation step for a systematic review, and sometimes they are a standalone project.

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A systematic review is a good choice of review if you want to answer a question about the effectiveness of an intervention , such as a medical treatment.

To conduct a systematic review, you’ll need the following:

  • A precise question , usually about the effectiveness of an intervention. The question needs to be about a topic that’s previously been studied by multiple researchers. If there’s no previous research, there’s nothing to review.
  • If you’re doing a systematic review on your own (e.g., for a research paper or thesis ), you should take appropriate measures to ensure the validity and reliability of your research.
  • Access to databases and journal archives. Often, your educational institution provides you with access.
  • Time. A professional systematic review is a time-consuming process: it will take the lead author about six months of full-time work. If you’re a student, you should narrow the scope of your systematic review and stick to a tight schedule.
  • Bibliographic, word-processing, spreadsheet, and statistical software . For example, you could use EndNote, Microsoft Word, Excel, and SPSS.

A systematic review has many pros .

  • They minimize research bias by considering all available evidence and evaluating each study for bias.
  • Their methods are transparent , so they can be scrutinized by others.
  • They’re thorough : they summarize all available evidence.
  • They can be replicated and updated by others.

Systematic reviews also have a few cons .

  • They’re time-consuming .
  • They’re narrow in scope : they only answer the precise research question.

The 7 steps for conducting a systematic review are explained with an example.

Step 1: Formulate a research question

Formulating the research question is probably the most important step of a systematic review. A clear research question will:

  • Allow you to more effectively communicate your research to other researchers and practitioners
  • Guide your decisions as you plan and conduct your systematic review

A good research question for a systematic review has four components, which you can remember with the acronym PICO :

  • Population(s) or problem(s)
  • Intervention(s)
  • Comparison(s)

You can rearrange these four components to write your research question:

  • What is the effectiveness of I versus C for O in P ?

Sometimes, you may want to include a fifth component, the type of study design . In this case, the acronym is PICOT .

  • Type of study design(s)
  • The population of patients with eczema
  • The intervention of probiotics
  • In comparison to no treatment, placebo , or non-probiotic treatment
  • The outcome of changes in participant-, parent-, and doctor-rated symptoms of eczema and quality of life
  • Randomized control trials, a type of study design

Their research question was:

  • What is the effectiveness of probiotics versus no treatment, a placebo, or a non-probiotic treatment for reducing eczema symptoms and improving quality of life in patients with eczema?

Step 2: Develop a protocol

A protocol is a document that contains your research plan for the systematic review. This is an important step because having a plan allows you to work more efficiently and reduces bias.

Your protocol should include the following components:

  • Background information : Provide the context of the research question, including why it’s important.
  • Research objective (s) : Rephrase your research question as an objective.
  • Selection criteria: State how you’ll decide which studies to include or exclude from your review.
  • Search strategy: Discuss your plan for finding studies.
  • Analysis: Explain what information you’ll collect from the studies and how you’ll synthesize the data.

If you’re a professional seeking to publish your review, it’s a good idea to bring together an advisory committee . This is a group of about six people who have experience in the topic you’re researching. They can help you make decisions about your protocol.

It’s highly recommended to register your protocol. Registering your protocol means submitting it to a database such as PROSPERO or ClinicalTrials.gov .

Step 3: Search for all relevant studies

Searching for relevant studies is the most time-consuming step of a systematic review.

To reduce bias, it’s important to search for relevant studies very thoroughly. Your strategy will depend on your field and your research question, but sources generally fall into these four categories:

  • Databases: Search multiple databases of peer-reviewed literature, such as PubMed or Scopus . Think carefully about how to phrase your search terms and include multiple synonyms of each word. Use Boolean operators if relevant.
  • Handsearching: In addition to searching the primary sources using databases, you’ll also need to search manually. One strategy is to scan relevant journals or conference proceedings. Another strategy is to scan the reference lists of relevant studies.
  • Gray literature: Gray literature includes documents produced by governments, universities, and other institutions that aren’t published by traditional publishers. Graduate student theses are an important type of gray literature, which you can search using the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) . In medicine, clinical trial registries are another important type of gray literature.
  • Experts: Contact experts in the field to ask if they have unpublished studies that should be included in your review.

At this stage of your review, you won’t read the articles yet. Simply save any potentially relevant citations using bibliographic software, such as Scribbr’s APA or MLA Generator .

  • Databases: EMBASE, PsycINFO, AMED, LILACS, and ISI Web of Science
  • Handsearch: Conference proceedings and reference lists of articles
  • Gray literature: The Cochrane Library, the metaRegister of Controlled Trials, and the Ongoing Skin Trials Register
  • Experts: Authors of unpublished registered trials, pharmaceutical companies, and manufacturers of probiotics

Step 4: Apply the selection criteria

Applying the selection criteria is a three-person job. Two of you will independently read the studies and decide which to include in your review based on the selection criteria you established in your protocol . The third person’s job is to break any ties.

To increase inter-rater reliability , ensure that everyone thoroughly understands the selection criteria before you begin.

If you’re writing a systematic review as a student for an assignment, you might not have a team. In this case, you’ll have to apply the selection criteria on your own; you can mention this as a limitation in your paper’s discussion.

You should apply the selection criteria in two phases:

  • Based on the titles and abstracts : Decide whether each article potentially meets the selection criteria based on the information provided in the abstracts.
  • Based on the full texts: Download the articles that weren’t excluded during the first phase. If an article isn’t available online or through your library, you may need to contact the authors to ask for a copy. Read the articles and decide which articles meet the selection criteria.

It’s very important to keep a meticulous record of why you included or excluded each article. When the selection process is complete, you can summarize what you did using a PRISMA flow diagram .

Next, Boyle and colleagues found the full texts for each of the remaining studies. Boyle and Tang read through the articles to decide if any more studies needed to be excluded based on the selection criteria.

When Boyle and Tang disagreed about whether a study should be excluded, they discussed it with Varigos until the three researchers came to an agreement.

Step 5: Extract the data

Extracting the data means collecting information from the selected studies in a systematic way. There are two types of information you need to collect from each study:

  • Information about the study’s methods and results . The exact information will depend on your research question, but it might include the year, study design , sample size, context, research findings , and conclusions. If any data are missing, you’ll need to contact the study’s authors.
  • Your judgment of the quality of the evidence, including risk of bias .

You should collect this information using forms. You can find sample forms in The Registry of Methods and Tools for Evidence-Informed Decision Making and the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations Working Group .

Extracting the data is also a three-person job. Two people should do this step independently, and the third person will resolve any disagreements.

They also collected data about possible sources of bias, such as how the study participants were randomized into the control and treatment groups.

Step 6: Synthesize the data

Synthesizing the data means bringing together the information you collected into a single, cohesive story. There are two main approaches to synthesizing the data:

  • Narrative ( qualitative ): Summarize the information in words. You’ll need to discuss the studies and assess their overall quality.
  • Quantitative : Use statistical methods to summarize and compare data from different studies. The most common quantitative approach is a meta-analysis , which allows you to combine results from multiple studies into a summary result.

Generally, you should use both approaches together whenever possible. If you don’t have enough data, or the data from different studies aren’t comparable, then you can take just a narrative approach. However, you should justify why a quantitative approach wasn’t possible.

Boyle and colleagues also divided the studies into subgroups, such as studies about babies, children, and adults, and analyzed the effect sizes within each group.

Step 7: Write and publish a report

The purpose of writing a systematic review article is to share the answer to your research question and explain how you arrived at this answer.

Your article should include the following sections:

  • Abstract : A summary of the review
  • Introduction : Including the rationale and objectives
  • Methods : Including the selection criteria, search method, data extraction method, and synthesis method
  • Results : Including results of the search and selection process, study characteristics, risk of bias in the studies, and synthesis results
  • Discussion : Including interpretation of the results and limitations of the review
  • Conclusion : The answer to your research question and implications for practice, policy, or research

To verify that your report includes everything it needs, you can use the PRISMA checklist .

Once your report is written, you can publish it in a systematic review database, such as the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews , and/or in a peer-reviewed journal.

In their report, Boyle and colleagues concluded that probiotics cannot be recommended for reducing eczema symptoms or improving quality of life in patients with eczema. Note Generative AI tools like ChatGPT can be useful at various stages of the writing and research process and can help you to write your systematic review. However, we strongly advise against trying to pass AI-generated text off as your own work.

If you want to know more about statistics , methodology , or research bias , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

  • Student’s  t -distribution
  • Normal distribution
  • Null and Alternative Hypotheses
  • Chi square tests
  • Confidence interval
  • Quartiles & Quantiles
  • Cluster sampling
  • Stratified sampling
  • Data cleansing
  • Reproducibility vs Replicability
  • Peer review
  • Prospective cohort study

Research bias

  • Implicit bias
  • Cognitive bias
  • Placebo effect
  • Hawthorne effect
  • Hindsight bias
  • Affect heuristic
  • Social desirability bias

A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources (such as books, journal articles, and theses) related to a specific topic or research question .

It is often written as part of a thesis, dissertation , or research paper , in order to situate your work in relation to existing knowledge.

A literature review is a survey of credible sources on a topic, often used in dissertations , theses, and research papers . Literature reviews give an overview of knowledge on a subject, helping you identify relevant theories and methods, as well as gaps in existing research. Literature reviews are set up similarly to other  academic texts , with an introduction , a main body, and a conclusion .

An  annotated bibliography is a list of  source references that has a short description (called an annotation ) for each of the sources. It is often assigned as part of the research process for a  paper .  

A systematic review is secondary research because it uses existing research. You don’t collect new data yourself.

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Bleeding Love (2024) – Review and Summary

“bleeding love” plot summary.

“Bleeding Love” is a road trip drama performed and executed with confidence and ease. The story and dramatic beats may be predictable, but the acting and direction keep us engaged. “Bleeding Love” is an intimate film that keeps us in the car, keeps us close to the family’s tears, and keeps us with this father and daughter in creative ways throughout their journey. 

“Bleeding Love” starts in harsh light and on the sun-baked faces of a daughter (Clara McGregor) and father (Ewan McGregor) on a road trip to God knows where. We immediately feel the distance between the two characters as the daughter keeps her earphones in and ignores her father’s existence. The first chance the car stops, the daughter bolts through the desert. The father chases after her, and the two share a defeated understanding with each other. 

We soon learn that the father is taking his daughter back home with him after she experienced a drug overdose. But the two have been separated and distant for some time. Between the silences and uncomfortable conversations, “Bleeding Love” splices in memories of the daughter when she was a child, enjoying time with her dad. Their road trip is filled with colorful characters, beautiful landscapes, heartbreak, and attempts to forgive. But whether there’s closure or true new beginnings depends on the daughter and father being able to trust each other again. 

Directed by Emma Westenberg with a screenplay by Ruby Caster, “Bleeding Love” is kept intriguing and gentle through bursts of wonder that feel like magical realism. The committed performances by the McGregors keep us aching and rooting for these two lost souls. While the addiction drama feels like well-trodden territory, that doesn’t mean it’s a road we still can’t learn from, and it doesn’t make this journey any less true. “Bleeding Love” will hit especially close to certain families coping with addiction,but it will also fill you with hope for a better tomorrow. 

Content Information

“Bleeding Love” is not rated but includes scenes of cursing, drug use, drinking, smoking, and some instances of potentially dangerous sexual situations. 

Other Noteworthy Information

  • Ewan McGregor and Clara McGregor are real-life father and daughter.
  • The initial title was “You Scream Loud, I Scream Louder.”

“Bleeding Love” General Information

Character descriptions.

Please Note: This character guide is not an exhaustive list of every cast member, and character descriptions may contain what can be considered spoilers.

Daughter (Clara McGregor)

The daughter is struggling with drug addiction and feels abandoned by her father. Despite a passion for art and comfort in her memories as a child, the daughter feels lost and unloved in her life.

  • The actor is also known for their role in “American Horror Story.”

Father (Ewan McGregor)

The father once battled his own addictions, and while he’s patient with his daughter, he’s also confronted by his past failures as a dad. He may love his daughter, but first he must earn her trust again.

  • The actor is also known for their role in “Trainspotting.”

“Bleeding Love” Review

Our Rating: Positive (Worth Seeing)

Let us know your thoughts in the comments:

  • What did you think of “Bleeding Love?” What did you enjoy, and what would you have changed?

Natural Chemistry Between the McGregors Shines Through in “Bleeding Love”

In plenty of scenes, Ewan McGregor holds his daughter close and kisses her head. Clara McGregor doesn’t hold back tears and wipes them on her father’s shoulder as he gives her a full embrace. While having an actual daughter-and-father duo star in “Bleeding Love” may be a marketing gimmick, there’s a natural intimacy and trust between the two that’s conveyed throughout the movie. The two are both committed to giving everything they have in these roles, and the film is strengthened because of their bond. 

Camera Choices and Montages Provide Realism and Fantasy

Emma Westenberg often puts us in the daughter’s shoes with handheld cameras tilted up at the father. We’re transported through time and become the daughter. Tight close-ups of freckles and wrinkles around the eyes say more than the dialogue could ever convey. Music montages of karaoke or a sex worker dancing may not work for everyone, but they provide some mysticism in the story and convey the absurdity and magic of our favorite family road trips. 

On The Fence

Predictability of drama may grow tiresome.

There are tropes in drug addiction stories and family dramas that we can expect to see coming from miles away. The relapse, the fights, and the rock bottom all happen in “Bleeding Love,” but I’d argue that doesn’t make them any less true to real life. Whether or not these moments are engaging drama is entirely subjective. 

Good If You Like

  • Father-and-daughter stories, drug recovery stories, and road trip movies. 

Recommendations

If you like this movie, we recommend:

  • Leave No Trace
  • A Star is Born

Check out our movies page for our latest movie reviews and recommendations.

The post Bleeding Love (2024) – Review and Summary first appeared on Wherever I Look and is written by Austin Estrada .

Clara McGregor and Ewan McGregor star in “Bleeding Love” (2024)

What's on the primary ballot in Licking County? Here is a summary of contested races, issues

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Early in-person voting for the March 19 primary election is underway across Ohio, including at the Licking County Board of Elections in Newark.

County Board of Elections Director Brian Mead said he expects a total primary election turnout of about 35,000, including about 3,000 early in-person voters and about 3,000 absentee ballots filed by mail. There are about 126,420 registered voters in the county.

Ohio registered voters decide in the primary election whether they want a Republican, Democratic or unaffiliated ballot. Unaffiliated voters can only cast ballots in local or statewide issues.

In Licking County, Republicans have multiple candidates to choose from for president, U.S. Senate, Ohio 5th District Court of Appeals judgeships and Ohio 69th House District representative. Democrats have choices for president, Ohio Supreme Court justice and Licking County commissioner.

Here is a quick summary of contested candidate races on Licking County ballots — not including races for county or state party committee posts — and local issues that voters in certain municipalities and school districts will face. (The issues listings do not include requests for local alcohol sales at particular businesses or entities where only registered voters in those neighborhood precincts will decide.)

President of the United States

Despite what you might think, Democratic incumbent Joe Biden and Republican Donald Trump are not the only candidates seeking to become president. Both have at least one challenger on their party's primary ballot in Ohio.

Biden is opposed by U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips, a Democrat from Minnesota's 3rd Congressional District.

Trump is opposed by Nikki Haley, former South Carolina governor and U.N. Ambassador. Although the other three candidates on the Republican ballot in Ohio have officially suspended their campaigns, their names remain on the ballot in the Buckeye state: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis; Vivek Ramaswamy, a Cincinnati native and biotech entrepreneur; and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

U.S. Senate

Incumbent Democrat Sherrod Brown is unopposed on his party's primary ballot, and in November will face the winner among three Republicans battling for their party's nomination: Matt Dolan , Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, whose office oversees the state's elections; and Bernie Moreno , who has the endorsement of former President Trump.

From Dispatch coverage on the Senate race:

Ohio GOP Debate: Where Candidates Stand

Dolan pledged to help GOP with new political action committee. Did he deliver?

Ohio Supreme Court

In the only contested primary race among the three seats up for grabs on the state's highest court, Democrats Lisa Forbes and Terri Jamison are competing for their party's nomination to face unopposed Republican Daniel R. Hawkins in November.

Ohio 5th District Court of Appeals

There are three seats up for election on the court, which is based in Canton but covers Delaware, Fairfield, Licking, Ashland, Coshocton, Guernsey, Holmes, Knox, Morgan, Morrow, Muskingum, Perry, Richland, Stark and Tuscarawas counties.

Two of the seats belong to current judges who are age-limited and cannot seek reelection: W. Scott Gwin and John W. Wise. No Democrats are listed on the ballot for any of the seats.

  • Seat 1:  Republicans Aletha M. Carver, of Canton; Jeff Furr, of Utica, and Robert G. Montgomery, of Blue Rock, are competing for their party's nomination. 
  • Seat 2:  Republicans Dixie Park, of Canton, and  Kevin W. Popham, of Powell, seek this seat. 
  • Seat 3: Incumbent Presiding Judge A. Delaney, of Delaware, is opposed by David Gormley, of Powell. 

69th House District: Incumbent Kevin Miller, of Newark, is being challenged by Daniel Kalmbach, of Thornville. The winner will face Democrat Jamie Hough in the November general election. Hough is unopposed on the Democratic ballot.

Licking County Commissioner

There is only one contested race in the primary among all Licking County offices.

Democrats Bryn Byrd, of Granville, and Daniel Crawford, of Newark, will compete for their party's nomination. The winner will face Republican incumbent Duane H. Flowers, of Newark, in the general election.

Local municipal and school issues

  • County Line Joint Fire District (serves Utica Village and Washington Township in Licking County and Morgan Township in Knox County): Proposed additional tax of 6.5 mills for five years to fund fire protection and emergency medical services. A current tax of more than 4 mills would be eliminated, the district's chief recently explained .
  • Village of Hartford: Additional property tax of 2.9 mills for a period of five years for police department operating expenses.
  • Hanover Township: 1-mill replacement property tax for five years for fire and EMS.
  • Hartford Township: Additional property tax of 2.5 mills for five years for fire and EMS.
  • Jersey Township: Proposed resolution allow sale of beer and alcohol on all days of the week, including Sunday, at the Jersey Township Revitalization District, community facility.
  • St. Albans Township: Additional, continuing property tax of 10 mills for fire and EMS.
  • Heath City School District seeks a property tax levy of 5.3 mills to cover a bond issue for 37 years to construct school facilities AND an additional, continuing property tax of 4.75 mills for land acquisition, construction, enlargement and renovation of school facilities and financing permanent improvements.
  • North Fork Local School District (overlaps into Knox County) seeks a property tax of 7.1 mills to fund a $58 million bond issue of 37 years for acquiring land and constructing school facilities — including a new middle school building — and renovating, improving and expanding existing school facilities as well as equipping those facilities.

Note: Granville village withdrew from the ballot a proposed issue question on whether to allow liquor sales on Sundays.

How can I see everything that is on my primary ballot?

You must be a registered voter as of Feb. 20 to vote in the March primary. To see everything that is on your individual ballot, go to the Licking County Board of Elections website .

What are the key dates for the Ohio primary election?

  • March 12:  Deadline for absentee ballot applications.
  • March 18:  Absentee ballots returned by mail must be postmarked by this day.
  • March 19:  Election Day.
  • March 23:  Absentee ballots mailed on or before March 18 must arrive at boards of elections by this day to be counted.

How to vote by mail

You can get an application to request an absentee mail-in ballot one of two ways: Ask your board of elections to mail you one, or  download the application online . You can request an absentee ballot for the March primary until close of business on  March 12 .

To cast a ballot by mail, voters must provide a copy of their photo ID, driver's license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number.

Completed ballots must be postmarked by  March 18  and received by boards of elections no later than  March 23  to be counted. If you don't mail your ballot in time, you can take it to your local board of elections before polls close on Election Day.

How to vote early in-person

Licking County residents can vote early at the Board of Elections office, 20 S. Second St., in downtown Newark.

Early in-person voting hours across Ohio for the March primary are:

  • February 21-23: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
  • February 26 - March 1: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
  • March 4-8: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
  • March 9: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
  • March 11: 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
  • March 12: 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.
  • March 13-15: 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
  • March 16: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
  • March 17: 1-5:00 p.m.

Per the new voting law, Ohio no longer offers early in-person voting on the Monday before the election (March 18).

What kind of ID do I need to vote in person?

Ohio now requires voters to show a photo ID when they cast in-person ballots, either early or on Election Day. The ID must be unexpired, but it doesn't need to have your current address on it. Other documents, such as utility bills and bank statements, are no longer accepted.

The following documents qualify:

  • Ohio driver's license
  • Ohio state ID
  • U.S. passport or passport card
  • U.S. Military ID, Ohio National Guard ID or U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs ID
  • Interim identification issued by the Bureau of Motor Vehicles

Free state IDs  are available to residents at BMV deputy registrar locations. More information can be found at  bmv.ohio.gov .

What if I forget my ID?

If you don't have your ID or run into other problems at the polls on Election Day, you can cast a provisional ballot.

Voters have four days to provide any missing information to election officials. Boards of elections have until eight days after the election to determine which provisional ballots can be counted.

Are ballot drop boxes available?

Yes. Each county has a drop box set up at the board of elections. You can bring your completed absentee ballot there any time before polls close on Election Day. All drop boxes are monitored by video surveillance.

How to vote on primary Election Day in Ohio

Polls are open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Election Day. You can find your polling place at  voteohio.gov .

Haley BeMiller, a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which includes The Columbus Dispatch, contributed to this report.

[email protected]

@kmallett1958

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  30. 'Mea Culpa' Review: Who's Really to Blame, and for What?

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