This week’s topics
How a non-fiction article is organised
- Title, introduction, main body and conclusion
- Headings and paragraphs
- Where to find the main idea
What you will be able to do
- 1.1 Identify the structure of an academic article (abstract, introduction, body, conclusion).
Activity
Label the parts of a short news or magazine article.
Study materials
Further resources
- Writing for Success, ch. 9.4: Introductory and concluding paragraphs · PDF · Saylor (2012), how texts open and close around a main idea; pp. 359–365 · for registered students
- Writing for Success, ch. 6.2: Topic sentences and paragraph structure · PDF · Saylor (2012), where the main idea sits in a paragraph; pp. 232–248 · for registered students
- College Success, ch. 5.2: Effective reading strategies · PDF · OpenStax (2020), previewing titles and headings; pp. 141–151 · for registered students
- Ten simple rules for reading a scientific paper · Open-access article · Carey et al. (2020), PLOS Computational Biology. Shows how an article is organised and where to find the main idea before reading in detail. · for registered students
- Scaffolding Critical Reading · Open-access article · Corrigan (2023), Teaching & Learning Inquiry. Simple templates for finding the main idea and argument in a text. · for registered students
Materials marked “for registered students” open in the student portal, which is set up as soon as you receive final acceptance.
