My group was assigned to research and analyze aquatic scientific inquires and journals. After reading and surveying our scientific journal entry regarding the: “Conservation Status Of The Oyster Reef Ecosystem Of Southern & Eastern Australia”, I fully understood the structure of a scientific paper. It was extremely intimidating (being that it was a pretty lengthy paper, 16 pages to be exact), however, the abstract and format really helped to obtain the information one may be trying to acquire at a glance. Having the ability to read these journals or articles on electronic platforms further simplifies the process of finding the information needed to formulate your own conclusion. I was able to look back and search for the keywords throughout the article in order to fill out my worksheet.
Work Sheet: Journal Article Worksheet 2021.pdf
Article Link: Conservation status of the Oyster Reef Ecosystem of Southern and Eastern Australia – ScienceDirect
Nicely done! Make sure your Main Points are complete, specific ideas – some are a little vague and seem like topics rather than the substance of the paper (“Their effects on the ecosystem and endangerment.” for example).
Good point about the data collection being second-hand, but that is typical in certain fields of research, sometimes called a review paper or meta-analysis (e.g. in medical studies).
Hello Latesha, I too found this process intimidating, however, I totally agree with you regarding how good it is that these articles are available digitally and how that really does make it easier to word search the document for keywords as a means to assist with understanding. It was the Abstract for me, too, that provided the main key for my understanding of the paper as a whole. It is interesting how we come to these journals and there is so much information contained in them, and so much jargon, that our initial thought is to run away, but when you sit down and go through the document in a methodical way, starting generally and later hitting the details, really opens up the information hidden within.
Hi Latesha,
I was also intimidated and overwhelmed by the lengthiness of the article. I agree that finding keywords at first helped; it helped give an idea of the subject and what I’d be reading prior to tackling the long article.