Material Detail

This site includes a video, infographic, and accessible text of the infographic on reading a scholarly article. They are all presented in an easy-to-access, straightforward and clear manner. This is a good brief introduction to those unfamiliar with reading scholarly articles.

This infographic/handout provides important strategic advice on doing an initial read of a scholarly article. I like how it provides a practical approach to strategic reading and helps readers break down a complex process into smaller steps. I think the infographic is most effective when presented as a follow-up to the video introduction that appears above it on the page. For example, while the infographic on its own does not fully indicate where in a paper to find things like the abstract and conclusion, the video does an excellent job pointing out these key areas using a real example of a scholarly article. As such, it seems important to think about the video and the infographic as two connected instructional materials that together reinforce a set of learning outcomes. One thing that might be a helpful addition to this set of strategies could be tips and advice on annotation and note-taking. For example - what notes might a reader take while reading the abstract and conclusion? How might the reader ask questions (e.g., using the first sentence of each paragraph to generate questions) during the reading process to guide and direct their reading? From a design perspective, I wonder if the left, right, left, right, right presentation of the numbers for each step, as well as the switch from right justified to left justified text helps or impedes readability. Similarly, I am curious about whether the dotted pathway lines that lead between parts of the infographic communicate a connected or disconnected sequence of steps. Also important to note: it is clear that the creators of the video took care and attention to representation, both in terms of the characters that appear on screen and in terms of the choice of scholarly material used in the example.