Research Summary
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A research summary provides a brief overview of a study, typically following the structure of the original article. It involves several steps such as skimming the article, understanding key topics, taking notes, assembling a draft, and including key structural elements like title, abstract, methodology, and conclusion. Essential tips for writing include maintaining a coherent narrative, avoiding plagiarism, and proofreading for clarity and conciseness.
Research Summary
- 1. M. A. Rehman
- 2. ▪ A research summary is a type of paper designed to provide a brief overview of a given study - typically, an article from a peer-reviewed academic journal. ▪ It is a frequent type of task encountered in colleges and universities. ▪ It is important to teach students to properly interact with and interpret scientific literature and in particular, academic papers, which are the key way through which new ideas, theories, and evidence are presented to experts in many fields of knowledge. ▪ A research summary typically preserves the structure/ sections of the article it focuses on.
- 3. ▪ Following steps will allow you to go more efficiently through your academic writing process: ✓ Skim the article ✓ Analyze and understand the topic and article. ✓ Make notes as you read ✓ Assemble a draft ✓ Find additional literature
- 4. STEPS FOR WRITING RESEARCH SUMMARY ▪ Skim the article in order to get a rough idea of the content covered in each section and to understand the relative importance of content. ▪ For instance, how important different lines of evidence are. ▪ it helps you understand on which sections you should focus more when reading in detail.
- 5. STEPS FOR WRITING RESEARCH SUMMARY ▪ Analyze and understand the topic and article. Writing a summary of research paper involves becoming very familiar with the topic. ▪ Sometimes, it is impossible to understand the content without learning about the current state of knowledge, as well as key definitions, concepts, models. ▪ This is often performed while reading the literature review. ▪ As for the paper itself, understanding it means understanding analysis questions, hypotheses, listed evidence, how strongly this evidence supports the hypotheses, as well as analysis implications. Keep in mind that only a deep understanding allows to efficiently summarize content.
- 6. STEPS FOR WRITING RESEARCH SUMMARY ▪ Make notes as you read. You could highlight or summarize each paragraph with a brief sentence that would record the key idea delivered in it. ▪ However, be careful to not engage in extensive writing while still reading. ▪ This is important because, while reading, you might realize that some sections you initially considered important might actually be less important compared to information that follows. ▪ As for underlining or highlighting – do these only with most important evidence, otherwise, there is little use in “coloring” everything without distinction.
- 7. STEPS FOR WRITING RESEARCH SUMMARY ▪ Assemble a draft by bringing together key evidence and notes from each paragraph/ section. Make sure, all elements characteristic of a research summary are covered. ▪ Find Additional literature for forming or supporting your critical view (this is in case your critical view/ position is required), for instance, judgments about limitations of the study or contradictory evidence.
- 8. ▪ The research summary format resembles that found in the original paper but it is just a concise version of it. ▪ Content from all sections should be covered/reflected, regardless of whether corresponding headings are present or not. ▪ Key structural elements of any research summary are as follows: o Title o Abstract o Introduction o Methodology o Result Section o Discussion o Conclusion o References
- 9. STRUCTURE OF RESEARCH SUMMARY ▪ Title: It announces the exact topic / area of analysis and can even be formulated to briefly announce key finding(s) or argument(s) delivered. ▪ Abstract: This is a very concise and comprehensive description of the study, present virtually in any academic article (the length varies greatly, typically within 100-500 words). Unlike an academic article, your research summary is expected to have a much shorter abstract. ▪ Introduction: This is an important part of any research summary which provides necessary context (the literature review) that helps introduce readers into the subject (by presenting the current state of investigation, an important concept or definition, etc.). An introduction typically lists investigation questions and hypotheses advanced by authors, which are normally mentioned in detail in any research summary.
- 10. STRUCTURE OF RESEARCH SUMMARY ▪ Methodology: Regardless of its location, this section details experimental methods or data analysis methods used. In a research summary, many of these details would have to be omitted, hence, it is important to understand what is most important to mention. ▪ Result Section: This section lists in detail evidence obtained from all experiments with some primary data analysis, conclusions, observations, and primary interpretations being made. It is typically the largest section of any analysis paper, hence, it has to be concisely rewritten, which implies understanding which content is worth omitting and which is worth leaving. ▪ Discussion: This is where results are being discussed. This section contains interpretations of results, theoretical models explaining the observed results, study strengths and especially limitations, complementary future exploration to be undertaken, conclusions, etc. All these are important elements that need to be conveyed in a summary.
- 11. STRUCTURE OF RESEARCH SUMMARY ▪ Conclusion: In the original article, this section could be absent or merged with “Discussion”. Specific research summary instructions might require this to be a standalone section. In a conclusion, hypotheses are revisited and validated or denied, based on how convincing the evidence is (key lines of evidence could be highlighted). ▪ References: This section is for mentioning those works that were cited directly in your summary. One has to provide appropriate citations at least for the original article. Mentioning other works might be relevant when your critical opinion is also required.
- 12. ▪ Below is a checklist of useful research paper tips worth considering when writing research summaries: 1. Make sure you are always aware of the bigger picture/ direction. You need to keep in mind a complete and coherent picture of the story delivered by the original article. It might be useful rereading it or scanning it quickly to remind yourself of the declared goals, hypotheses, key evidence, and conclusions – this awareness offers constant sense of direction, which ensures that no written sentence is out of context. It is useful doing this even after you have written a fourth, a third, or half of the paper (to make sure no deviation happens).
- 13. TIPS FOR WRITING RESEARCH SUMMARY 2. Consider writing a detailed research outline before writing the draft – it might be of great use when structuring your paper. A research summary template is also very likely to help you structure your paper. 3. Sketch the main elements of the conclusion before writing it. This is because a conclusion has to do a number of things: validate/invalidate hypotheses; enumerate key evidence supporting or invalidating them, list potential implications; mention the subject’s importance; mention study limitations and future directions for research. In order to include them all, it is useful having them written down and handy.
- 14. TIPS FOR WRITING RESEARCH SUMMARY ▪ Consider writing the introduction and discussion last. It makes sense to first list hypotheses, goals, questions, key results. Latter, information contained in introduction and discussion can be adapted as needed (for instance, to match a preset word count limit). Apart from this, follow a natural order. ▪ Include visuals – you could summarize a lot of text using graphs or charts and improving readability. ▪ Be very careful about plagiarism. It is very tempting to “borrow” or quote entire phrases from article, provided how well-written these are, but you need to summarize your paper without plagiarizing at all (forget entirely about copy-paste – it is only allowed to paraphrase and even this should be done carefully). The best way to stay safe is by formulating your own thoughts from scratch.
- 15. TIPS FOR WRITING RESEARCH SUMMARY ▪ Keep your word count in check. You don’t want your summary to be as long as the original paper (just reformulated). In addition, you might need to respect an imposed word count limit, which requires being careful about how much you write for each section. ▪ Proofread your work, for grammar, spelling, wordiness, and formatting issues (feel free to use our convert case tool to convert case for titles, headings, subheadings, etc.). ▪ Watch your writing style – when summarizing content, it should be impersonal, precise, and purely evidence-based. A personal view/attitude should be provided only in the critical section (if required). ▪ Ask a colleague to read your summary and test whether he/she could understand everything without reading the article – this will help ensure that you haven’t skipped some important content, explanations, concepts, etc.