Tutorial: Using the Library Level 1 Humanities and Social Sciences
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Image: Comparing different disciplines writing styles
How to read a scholarly article
Different disciplines have different writing conventions. The social sciences (sociology, education, etc...) and the humanities (literature, philosophy,etc...) writing styles rely on a combination of
established and subjective information
new, original information from the author(s)
Both structures typically include
summary
introduction
context
approach
discussion/analysis
conclusion
Differences can typically be found in
the abstract (included or not)
methodological versus theoretical approach
citation style (APA versus MLA)
When reading and referring to an article
start with the abstract, introduction and conclusion to get an over all sense of the content.