Article Review Writing Guide: APA Format, Outline, and Examples

What Is an Article Review?

An article review is a critical evaluation and analysis of a scholarly or professional article. It involves summarizing the strengths and weaknesses of the article's content, methodology, and relevance to the field.

To write one well, you need to fully understand the main points, insights, and observations in the original article before you can present a logical evaluation. This is what separates a real review from a summary with opinions sprinkled on top.

It is worth clarifying upfront that a research article and an article review are not the same thing. A research article is a primary source, written by researchers reporting their own findings. An article review is a secondary source, written by you, analyzing someone else's work.

Why Article Reviews Matter

Writing an article review builds three skills your professor is actually grading you on:

• Clear and accurate writing. Reviewing someone else's article forces you to notice what works and what doesn't, which sharpens your own writing.
• Exposure to other perspectives. A review pushes you to engage with how someone else approached a topic, which broadens how you think about it.
• Grammar and style. Close reading and structured evaluation naturally improve your own command of academic tone.

What Are the Types of Article Reviews? 

Most college assignments fall into one of three categories. Knowing which one you've been assigned changes how you should approach the writing. 

1. Journal Article Review

Evaluates a paper published in an academic journal. You are assessing the publication's strengths and flaws and explaining its significance to the reader. CollegeEssay.org's APA formatted journal article review example, further down this page, follows the journal review type, the most commonly assigned category. 

2. Research Article Review

Closely related to a journal article review, but with a sharper focus on the study's methodology. You will spend more time evaluating how the research was conducted than summarizing what it found.

3. Scientific Article Review

Covers research articles from the sciences specifically. These often include detailed methodology and data sections, and your review needs to evaluate whether the author used and presented that data well.

What Should You Do Before Writing an Article Review: The Pre-Writing Process

Reading the source article with a plan in mind saves significant time later. 

Step 1: Plan Your Evaluation's Structure

Knowing how you'll structure your paper changes how you should read the source article. Work through these four questions as you read:

1. Summarize based on your research. Identify the major points, claims, and basic information the article presents.
2. Define the strong points. Note where the author makes a successful argument or a genuinely perceptive observation.
3. Look for gaps. Check for inconsistencies, contradictions, or claims the author doesn't back up with evidence.
4. Identify unanswered questions. Note anything the article raises but never resolves.

Step 2: Read Strategically, Not Just Once

Scanning the article's title, abstract, and conclusion before a full read gives you its argument in advance. 

• Scan the components first. Look at the title, abstract, headings, the first sentence of each paragraph, and the conclusion.
• Read the beginning and end closely. Writers put their core argument in the introduction and conclusion, so reading these two sections first gives you the article's spine before you fill in the details.
• Then read the whole thing. Once you know where it's headed, a full read-through goes faster and you retain more.

Article Review Outline

Once you understand the article, build your outline before you draft. Here is a standard structure:

Some assignments also ask for supplementary material attached at the end. If yours does, our appendix writing guide covers exactly how to format that section correctly.

How to Write an Article Review in 9 Steps

Writing an article review takes nine steps from first read to final proofread. 

Step 1: Read and Annotate the Article

Engage with the article actively before you try to review it. You cannot evaluate what you haven't fully understood.

• Highlight key ideas, arguments, and conclusions.
• Note the author's tone, purpose, and intended audience.
• Underline evidence, examples, and statistics the author uses.
• Flag unclear or questionable sections to revisit during analysis.

Step 2: Write the Title

Your title should give the reader a clear sense of what your review covers.

• Reference the article's title or topic.
• Reflect your overall focus or impression.
• Keep it specific and professional.

Step 3: Write the Abstract

Summarize your entire review in 150 to 250 words.

• Name the article's title and author.
• State the original article's purpose and scope.
• Briefly outline your evaluation.
• Summarize the key strengths and weaknesses you found.
• Keep the tone objective.

Step 4: Write the Introduction

Identify the article and state your evaluation up front.

• Name the article's author and source.
• Briefly describe the article's topic or purpose.
• End with a thesis that reflects your overall judgment.

Step 5: Summarize the Article

Present the article's key ideas in your own words, without your opinion mixed in yet. If you're rusty on condensing a source down to its core points, our guide on how to write a summary walks through the same skill in more depth.

• Identify the main argument or purpose.
• Paraphrase the key supporting points.
• Keep personal critique out of this section.
• Keep it tight and clear.

Step 6: Critically Evaluate the Article

Critical evaluation means judging the article's evidence, bias, and structure, not just summarizing it. 

• Examine how clearly the argument is made.
• Assess the quality of the evidence used.
• Identify bias or flawed assumptions.
• Look at the organization, tone, and structure.
• Pull specific examples from the article to support your points.

Forming and defending your own argument here is the same skill an opinion essay asks for, just applied to someone else's work instead of your own topic.

Step 7: Write the Conclusion

Close with a final judgment that reinforces your evaluation.

• Restate your thesis in different words.
• Summarize the strengths and weaknesses you identified.
• Comment on the article's overall usefulness or impact.

Step 8: Create a Proper Citation

Cite the article correctly before you consider the review finished. A correct citation gives your review credibility.

• Use the required style: APA, MLA, or Chicago.
• Include the author's name, title, source, publication date, and page numbers.
• Place the citation according to your style's specific rules.

Step 9: Proofread and Revise

Review your draft for clarity, accuracy, and tone.

• Check grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
• Confirm your ideas flow logically from one to the next.
• Make sure the tone stays formal and objective throughout.
• Double check every citation is correct and complete.

Article Review Format

An article review follows five sections: introduction, summary, analysis, discussion, and conclusion. 

How to Format in APA Style

How to Format in MLA Style

If your assignment uses Chicago or Turabian style instead, the same core elements apply: author, title, source, and date, just arranged according to that style's specific punctuation and ordering rules. Check your syllabus or citation guide for the exact format your professor expects.

Article Review Examples

The fastest way to understand what a finished review looks like is to study one built for your exact citation style and article type. CollegeEssay.org's writers built the APA article review example on this page around the standard five part structure. 

Journal Article Review Sample (APA PDF): a full downloadable example showing APA title page, abstract, and reference formatting for a journal source.

Research Article Review (PDF): a detailed sample showing how to critically assess a research paper by analyzing its research question, methods, evidence, results, and conclusion.

Scientific Article Review (PDF): a longer scientific-source example with a methodology-heavy evaluation section.

Article Review Example (APA): a shorter worked example you can read straight through to see how a thesis carries through the body and conclusion.

When picking an example to model, match it to your citation style first and your article type second. An APA example built around a journal source will not transfer cleanly if your assignment is MLA or your source is a scientific paper with a data section to evaluate, so check your syllabus before you start copying structure.

Article Review Topic Ideas

Communication, substance abuse, and global warming are reliable article review topics when you're picking your own source. 

1. Communication differences between men and women.
2. The importance of extracurricular activities for students.
3. The negative effects of drug and substance abuse.
4. The use of drugs and steroids in competitive sports.
5. Obesity and its long-term health consequences.
6. Causes and affordable treatment options for infectious diseases.
7. The causes of illegal immigration in the United States.
8. Changing gender roles and their broader social effects.
9. The causes and effects of global warming.
10. The rise of multicultural families and what's driving it.