You don't necessarily need to read an article straight through from beginning to end. This isn't a mystery--you won't spoil anything by skipping straight to the conclusion if you want. Reading articles in the following systematic manner can help you understand their complexities and arguments.
1. Start with the Title and Abstract - These will tell you about the article's focus and let you know if it's relevant to your research question.
- Look for keywords that may tell you what the article is about or be useful while conducting additional research.
2. Next, read the Introduction and Conclusion - These will give you the article's main arguments and its thesis/hypothesis, as well as what the author believes they proved through their study.
- When reading the Introduction, ask yourself the following questions:
- Will this article tell me anything new about the topic?
- What have other people already written about this topic, and what is left to discover? (Literature Review)
- When reading the conclusion, look for what the author considers the most important points their study proved, and ask yourself the following questions:
- What does this study mean, and why is it important?
- Do you find the author's conclusions to be valid?
3. Jump back to the Methods & Results - These sections tend to be heavier on details, and you may be able to skim them if they don't focus entirely upon your research question.
- When reading the Methods, ask yourself the following questions:
- How did the author do their research? Is this a quantitative or qualitative study?
- Could you repeat the author's work or experiment based on the information provided?
- When reading the Results, don't get too bogged down in charts, tables, and graphs--instead, look for explanations about the data, and ask yourself the following questions:
- What did the author find, and how did they find it?
- Are the results presented in a factual and unbiased way?
4. Move onto the Discussion - This is arguably the most important part of the article, because it's here that the author explains what everything means. This is also where reading the Introduction and Conclusion first can pay off, since you already know the author's arguments and what they proved.
- When reading the Discussion, ask yourself the following questions:
- Does the author's analysis agree with the data they provided in the Results section?
- What conclusions can you draw from this data? Do they agree with the author's conclusions?
5. Finish with the Citations/References - Don't just ignore these--if you need additional sources for your research, you may find them here. The author has made a list of other works on this topic, so make use of it.
- While reading the article, take note of any citations that may seem relevant to your research question, and track them down using this section.
- Also remember to use the Literature Review for ideas on other work about this subject. The author has done some of your work for you by explaining what others have written on the topic, so you can track them down, too.
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