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How to Read a Scholarly Article

Anatomy of a Scholarly Article

image of a scholarly article with the parts labeled

Natural Science or Social Science Article

Diagram of the sections of an article in the Sciences or Social Sciences

Most articles in the natural or social sciences have these sections, conveniently labeled to help you read.

Humanities Article

diagram of a Humanities articleArticles in the Humanities read more like complete essays.  They are not set up as experiments.  They are more of a guided discussion with author observations and commentary throughout.  Therefore, they have different parts.  The parts may not be labeled, but section headers may guide the reader to different topics of discussion.

Humanities articles are organized around a conversation flow and are designed to be read as presented.