Summarizing Journal Articles
Article Annotation Procedures: Students are required to annotate (i.e.,
summarized systematically) four peer reviewed journal articles over the
duration of the course. These articles, linked below, supplement the required
textbook reading materials. Please review the Course Schedule for
information on annotation due dates. Assignments are always due the last day of
the week assigned. Students will submit the annotations below.
Annotation Format
At the top of the assignment, please provide the full citation of
the article in APA format. For example:
Kane, R., and White, M. (2009). Bad cops: A study of career-ending
misconduct among New York City police officers. Criminology & Public Policy, 8,
737-769.
Where:
Kane, R., and White, M. = authors
(2009) = year of publication
Criminology & Public Policy = journal title (in italics)
8 = journal volume number
737-769 = journal page range that contains the article
In summarizing the articles, please report the following:
- What
was studied -- e.g., describe the central purpose of the research; list
any research hypotheses. This description should be a couple of
paragraphs;
- Who
was studied -- Tell whether it was a sample of people or a group of
aggregate places, such as communities. Were the study subjects police
officers, burglars, residents of a certain community? This section should
take no more than a few sentences;
- How
was it studied - Provide a brief discussion of research methodology here;
and I understand that you're not an expert on methods and statistics, but
you should be able to at least describe the strategies to me. For example,
did the researchers interview people, did they survey people, or did they
use official sources of crime, such as the UCR? This information can be
found in the methodology section of the article.
- What
was found - Describe the major findings, as well as any ancillary findings
that seemed important. Did the authors indicate if their findings
supported or didn't support their research hypotheses? If so, you should
report this. This section should be a couple of paragraphs in length;
- Discussion
- Write a final paragraph in which you give your impressions of the
article, it's relevance, whether the study made sense to you, etc.
Each annotation should be no more than one page
(single spaced with headings). I assign the annotations for two reasons: (1) to
get students reading the original research published in scientific journals,
and (2) to give students experience with objectively reporting research
findings using a concise and systematic method. I realize that not all students
will have taken research methodology and/or statistics before taking this
class. Although I do not expect any methodological or statistical expertise
from you, I do expect that students will take the time necessary to read,
understand, and report the findings.
Please Note: Unless crucial to
your annotation, students are not allowed to use direct quotes when
annotating/summarizing studies. On limited occasions direct quotations are
necessary because authors sometimes write statements in ways that are very
difficult to summarize without quoting them. Under these circumstances, you may
directly quote them, making full and proper use of quotation marks and page
number(s). Under general circumstances, however, students must not directly
quote studies. I impose this rule to encourage students to think about how to
summarize in your own words. This method requires students to think about the
meaning of the study and its findings far more than simply transcribing direct
statements from the article do.
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Articles
Select from the following articles:
