"Scaffolding on Princes Gate" by Canned Muffins is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Scaffolding of Research Articles

You probably learned about the structure of an essay in your English or writing classes. Scaffolding is a great word to describe the way an article is structured, and according to Merriam-Webster online dictionary scaffolding is defined as "a supporting framework." It's important to keep in mind this scaffolding in research articles because it is a support structure you will see quite often.

If you think of how a new building is erected you might recall how the foundation is laid to reinforce it and how the scaffolding and supports are put in to hold it up until it is a completed structure. You might also approach research articles in this way by looking at the internal structure of the article rather than the finished product. In your English or writing course you may have talked about developing a main thesis and providing three (or more) main supporting points, and the entire paper has a introduction, body, and conclusion. Research articles are similar, but with clearly identifiable (and predictable) areas where you can zero in on and get the information you need.

Parts of the Research Article

The article by Rachel Dunifon, "How to Read a Research Article", is included in this section of the Research Reading module and states, "[a] research article should contain the following sections - Literature Review, Data Description, Methods, Results, and Discussion" (2005, [p. 1]).

After reading the article by Rachel Dunifon and checking out the interactive tool, "Anatomy of a Scholarly Article" created by NCSU Libraries (linked in this section of the module), you should begin to see the pattern of the supporting framework for research articles. Looking for this framework can be helpful to you in your research, as it will allow you to move quickly through an article you have just found and begin to evaluate if it is an article appropriate to your research needs and if it fulfills the research article criteria.

SQ3R Method

Looking through tons of research articles on a particular topic can be exhausting. It's hard to determine how an article might be helpful in our research without getting immersed in it long enough to figure out what it's about. The SQ3R Method (see downloadable PDF in this section of the module) can be an effective tool for tackling research articles and getting a sense of what the article is about without getting down to the specifics. Should the article be integrated into your research process and final work, the SQ3R Method can also aid in avoiding plagiarism primarily through the Recite/ReWrite area, where you can put the research article away and reflect on what you read. You might also talk with peers, family, friends, your instructor, etc. about what you read in the article. As you engage in this Recite/ReWrite process you will be more comfortable putting what you learned from the research article into your own words, and avoiding plagiarism in your work.