Business: Article Analysis 1
Business
TheArticleAnalysis
A Brief Overview of the Article Analysis
The purpose of writing an article analysis is to demonstrate that you have
read, understood, and can apply scholarship in the business field, and to
demonstrate your critical thinking abilities. Typically, an article analysis does
three things:
Summarizes an article’s main points.
Analyzes the evidence offered to support the writer’s main point,
taking care to point out where there are flaws in the argument.
Reflects upon the significance of the article, its connection to other
reading/concepts in the course, and/or its importance in your field.
Your primary audience is your professor; as such, you should keep in mind
an academic audience interested in the topic about which you are writing. All
business writing should be done with an eye toward professionalism. After all,
outside of the university (and sometimes for academic courses), the audience
for your writing will be a colleague or client. Your writing should not be overly
formal, but rather should communicate with the reader in a respectful and
efficient manner.
You may choose to divide your paper into three sections labeled with headers,
or you could choose to write the piece in a more traditional “essay” format
without headers. Your professor may have a specific preference, so read the
assignment sheet carefully.
A Process for Writing An Article Analysis
A good article analysis can be written only if you’ve read the article carefully
and thoroughly–and preferably, multiple times. The following tips assume you
will read the article three times; even if you don’t do that, try to answer the
questions below. Difficulty answering these questions indicates you may need
to reread the article, read more carefully or slowly, or discuss the article with
your classmates or professor.
1) Read the article one time all the way through. Get a general sense of
what the article is about, and how the pieces of the article fit together. Do
this initial reading in a quiet place where you have plenty of time to complete
the article in one sitting. Stop reading only to look up terminology you don’t
understand. If you read a passage that you don’t quite understand, re-read
it 2-3 times; if you still do not understand the passage, mark it with a pen or
pencil and move on. Try not hold a pen or pencil as you read; the point is to
gain an overview of the entire article rather than to jot down detailed notes
about the article.
2) On your second reading of the article, answer these questions in
the margins. They are meant to help you understand what the writer did in
conducting research as well as discover the writer’s main points:
•
•
•
A good article analysis can
only be written if you’ve
read the article carefully and
thoroughly–and preferably,
multiple times.
The purpose of writing an article
analysis is to demonstrate that
you have read, understood,
and can apply scholarship
in the business field, and to
demonstrate your critical thinking
abilities.
