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Review Article

21W.036: Writing and the Environment

Cynthia Taft

 

Review Article

Minimum final length of the text: 2400 words (8 pages)

Follow the guidelines set out by Penrose and Katz in section 4.2 of Writing in the Sciences: “Reviewing as a genre: The review article” (pp.85-87 in 2nd edition).

Read this short section with care.  The goal of the review article, as Penrose and Katz explain it, is “to describe what the field has learned so far: what, if any, consensus is developing, and what questions remain to be answered?”  To accomplish this goal, you will need to draw on a broad array of recent articles in the field.  In an ideal world (without endless p-sets and tests), you might aim for the comprehensiveness of the Bednarek article on the “Undamming Rivers.”  For the purposes of this assignment, your review article must draw on a minimum of nine recent articles in the field you have chosen.  The articles must present current research (ideally, published within the last five years), not just a compendium of information on your topic.

While your pre-existing opinion on your topic should not affect your discussion of current findings, you cannot count on the findings to speak for themselves.  You will need to organize and interpret the “trends and patterns” evident in recent studies.  The impact of your review article will depend on your skills as a reader, thinker, and writer.

Your review article will not be considered complete unless you integrate precise references within the text and a comprehensive list of sources at the end.    Section 4.7 of Writing in the Sciences provides guidelines for citing sources.  After the publication of Writing in the Sciences, the Council of Science Editors (CSE) approved three citation systems.  You may choose any one of the three CSE systems for your review article.  The system you choose will determine the format of the list of works cited.  Consult your writer’s manual for CSE guidelines.

 

Angles 2014

Editorial Board
Karen Boiko, Lucy Marx, Cynthia Taft, Andrea Walsh

Co-Editors
Karen Boiko, Lucy Marx, Cynthia Taft

Student Editorial Assistant
Dalia Walzer