Academic Research Worksheet

This worksheet is intended to serve as a guide for reading a scholarly article. Completing this sheet as you read an article will help you understand the point the author is making and how he or she has gone about doing so. It also provides an opportunity to evaluate the clarity and effectiveness of the article.

1) Identify what kind of article it is. Check all that apply and be ready to explain why.

a. ____ New Research. Does it present research on an important topic that has not yet been studied to any real extent? Articles of this type may present new research or the analysis and translation of a significant primary source.

b. ____ Old View/New View. Is the author presenting new research and/or analysis to show how previous analysis of the

____ Review Article. Is the author presenting summaries of past research on a topic (usually one that has a long history of study) by a variety of different scholars, in order to show the state of research on the topic?

d. ____ Standard Textbook or Encyclopedia Entry. Does the author seem to be presenting information in a way that suggests it is generally accepted in the field as correct? Articles of this type usually lack references to other published work and are relatively general and brief.

2) Identify unknown vocabulary and technical terms.

Read through the article, and at the arrow below, list all the unknown words and phrases you encounter. Look up the words you find and add the definition next to each. If you can’t find the meaning of a word (often the case with foreign words), offer a tentative definition for it based on context clues or any other means you can. Bring these to class for discussion.

• apauruṣeya- impersonal

•  śruti – that which can be

If it is a review article, identify the purpose for the author gives for presenting the review, and note if he proposes directions for further research.

d. If it is a Standard Entry (d. above), you need only summarize the material presented, unless a clear point can be determined.

State the author’s point and other information requested above after the arrow below. Be as detailed as you need to be. The author’s point is to ascertain the clarity of Vedic literature. The purposes of aiming to ascertain the clarity of Vedic literature include elimination of people’s doubts and increasing their faith in religious matters

4) Determine the organization of the article.

First, if the article has subheadings, identify each subheading with its page number. If there are no subheadings, work through the article paragraph by paragraph and divide the article into subsections that you assign subheadings to, based on what you see the author doing in each subsection. Give the page number on which each of your subsections begins. Then, sketch out a rough outline of the article using the subheadings you have, and briefly describe the sub-point the author is making under each subheading and what evidence the author uses to make each point. Be sure to distinguish between what the author is saying and what the other scholars he is quoting are saying. Also note, if you can, why the author has chosen to organize the article the way he or she has. Provide the information requested above at the arrow