Structure

UCOLL 300 - Unit IV - Article Organization

While journal article within the Social Sciences and Sciences can be quite difficult to understand in their totality - unless you have an extremely strong background or graduate level experience with the topic - they are often quite predictable in how they are written and organized. As an undergraduate, you will need to use this structural predictability to your advantage.

For the most part, we will leave Humanities articles out of the discussion, because they are less structured and, by and large, are less technical in their presentation of research. They are more narrative - meaning that you can read them more or less straight through without too much difficulty. Even at that, it doesn't hurt to apply some of the same principles you will learn here when looking at any type of research article.