UNLV Reading an Academic Article

Purpose

By completing this research journal, you will be able to:

• Critically read and annotate an academic argument
• Summarize and analyze an academic article’s argument

Task

Step 1: For this research journal, you will first read the two sample articles on generative AI contained in this module (see links below)

Step 2: After you’ve read both articles, you will need to write short summaries for each of them. The summaries should be within 50-100 words and describe only the main points of both texts; review pages 59-61 of your textbook if you need help summarizing. Then, you will analyze the articles using the rhetorical analysis framework from “Chapter 2: Analyzing Rhetorical Situations” in your textbook and describe how they compare based on the framework. Your analysis should be at least 200 words long. Consider the following questions:

• Author: Who are the authors of this articles? Do these authors seem like a credible or trustworthy source, why or why not? What specific evidence from the text helps you determine if the author is credible? How big of a role does the author’s credibility play in establishing each text’s trustworthiness?
• Purpose: What is the authors’ purpose in each article? What specific evidence from the texts helps you determine the purpose? How do the texts compare in terms of their purposes?
• Audience: Who is the audience for each article? What specific evidence from the text helps you determine who the intended audience is? What are the differences in terms of audience between the two articles?
• Genre: These articles follow the conventions of two different genres: an academic overview (similar to a literature review) and an original research article. What do you already know about the academic research article genre? What are the typical conventions of an academic research article (who typically writes this genre, why do people write in this genre, who is the audience for this genre, what content and language is typically expected in this genre?)? Does this article “fit” with what you know about academic research article? Compare this text to the second article. What key differences do you see in terms of genre?
• Stance: In each article, what is the author’s stance on the article topic? What specific evidence from the text helps you determine the author’s stance? How does the stance varies between the two articles, and what might explain the differences?