Summarizing or Critiquing Periodical Articles

Class Assignment: find a journal or periodical article in your subject area, read the article and write a summary about the article or a critique about the article’s content.

There are two ways to go about completing this assignment:

• One approach is to choose a topic first and then find a periodical in our library that has an article on that topic.
• The second approach is to choose a periodical you know we take and look for your topic in that periodical.

If you follow the first approach, pickup the handout How to Find an Article and follow the guidelines.

If you are going to use the second approach look for the Periodical Holdings Calumet College of St. Joseph Subject List posted on the ends of the Periodical Shelves.  Find the list of periodicals in your subject area and choose a title.  Current periodicals are arranged alphabetically on the shelves. 

Most professors require formatted citations when reviewing journal articles.  Listed below are the style manuals used at CCSJ:

• The Chicago Manual of Style.  14^th ed.   Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1993.
• [Ref. Z 253 .U69 1993]


• Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers.  5^th ed.  New York:  The Modern Language Association, 1999.    
• [Ref. LB 2369 .G53 1999]


• Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.  4^th ed.  Washington, D.C.:  American Psychological Association, 1994.
• [Ref. BF 76.7 .P82 1994]


• Turabian, Kate L.  A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. 6^th ed.  Chicago:  The University of Chicago Press, 1996.    
• [Ref.  LB 2369 .T8 1996]

For examples of citing electronic sources see handout How to Cite Books, Articles, and Electronic Sources.