How to Read Academic Articles

Strategies for English Learners

Developed for ENGL B2b

The following tips will help you read and understand college-level articles
written in English. The key is to read an article several times, with a different
Keep a reading purpose each time. This approach will help you focus your attention on one
journal in
which you aspect of the article at a time.
write new You should keep a reading journal in which you write responses to the
vocabulary questions in the following activities and keep a vocabulary list for each article.
words and
their meanings
Before You Read
and your notes
and reflections
on the articles One of the most important strategies for understanding what you read is to
you read. examine the article to make some guesses about the content before you read it. If
you have some expectations for what you are going to read, you will have a
framework to help you understand the article.

• Examine the title.

Some of the o Ask yourself:
most  What topic does the article address?
important
reading  What are the most important words in the title? Do I understand
comprehension the meaning of these words? (Look them up if you do not.)
strategies take  What do I already know about the topic?
place before • Examine any information available on the author or publisher.
you read the
o Ask yourself:
article.
 What is the author’s or publisher’s area of expertise?
• Examine the pictures.
• Some articles have a short summary at the beginning called an abstract.
Read the abstract to get an overall idea of what the article is about.
• Read the introduction or first paragraph.
o Ask yourself:
 What do the pictures, abstract, or introduction tell me about the
article?
o Write one sentence that begins, “I think the article will be about …”

Read the Article

Now that you have some ideas about the content of the article, you are ready
to read the whole article. You should read the article several times with a
different purpose in mind for each reading, as explained below.

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 First Reading
Read the • Read quickly to get an overall impression of the article; do not stop to
article quickly look up words. It is important to read for fluency this first time, rather
the first time to than stopping to make sure you understand the meaning of each word.
get a general
• When you are done, write a one-sentence summary of what you read. (If
impression of
what it is the article has sections separated by subheadings, stop at the end of each
about. section and write a summary sentence.) If you’re not sure you
Summarize understood the full meaning, don’t worry. You can guess and either
what you read confirm your initial impression or change it as you read the article again
in a few
for more for meaning.
sentences.

Second Reading
• Read more slowly and underline or highlight words that you do not
understand.
If you did not • Look up these words and keep a vocabulary list to help you with your
understand next reading.
very much • Analyze sentences you did not understand by identifying the subject and
about the
article during
predicate or verb (who or what the sentence is about and what action
your first occurred); then examine the descriptive words, phrases, and clauses that
reading, you provide more information about the subject and predicate.
will need to • You may choose to use a translation program, but don’t rely on the
spend a lot program to provide the full meaning of the article. Translation programs
more time
during the may provide definitions for words, but the full meaning of academic
second reading articles goes far beyond matching words to meanings. You should use
to understand translation programs only as an aid to help you learn vocabulary words.
the vocabulary You will still have to do the hard work of finding meaning in the article.
and sentences.
Third Reading
• Read the whole article again slowly.
• Underline or highlight what you think are the most important ideas.
Make sure you understand the sentences and the vocabulary words in
these ideas.
• When you finish reading, review your first impressions of the article and
the one-sentence summary you wrote.
o Ask yourself:
 Were my first impressions or summary correct? How are they
now different?
 Did I understand the article? Could I explain what the article is
about to someone else? (If you did not understand the article,
read it again to see if you need to look up more vocabulary
words or identify more key ideas.)
 What are the key points the article was making?

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 After You Read

Reflect on What you Read

In order to remember what you read, it is important to spend a few minutes
Reflection is reflecting on what you learned from the article. This helps your brain process
the most the information and store it.
critical part of • Ask yourself:
the learning
o What did I learn from the article?
process.
Reflection is o How do these new ideas differ from what I first thought about the
essential for topic?
remembering o Do I agree or disagree with the author?
what you read. o What additional questions do I have about the topic that I might
want to research later?

Summary Points

1. Understanding academic writing involves reading an article several times.

2. Before you read, you should examine the article to make some guesses about
the content of the article. This will provide you with a framework for your
reading.
3. Read the article once quickly for fluency and overall impressions; read the
article again very slowly to look up words and analyze sentences; read the
article again so that you can identify key points and summarize the meaning.
4. Reflecting on the article will enable you to commit the meaning to memory.

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