Drake Memorial Library - Frequently Asked Questions

Assignment description from the syllabus for AAS 100, Intro to African/African American Studies:

The goal of the article review is to familiarize students with library resources in the field of Africana studies. The paper is a review of research on African and African Diasporic culture and is worth a total of 15 points. Africana journal articles typically fall into one of three categories: (1) empirical (i.e., new research) related to some theory, (2) a literature review (review article that ties together previous articles), and (3) theoretical papers (paper presenting some new theory).

Your assignment requires you to locate one empirical study (category one mentioned above) published in a peer reviewed journal that investigated some aspect(s) of religion, racism, or education related to African and African diasporic culture. The article must have a publication date between 2014 and 2024. Students will need to become an expert on their chosen article. The total paper should be 3-5 pages not including the title page, abstract, or reference page (following APA format 7th edition). The paper should begin with an introduction to the topic and focus of the article you have selected. Then you should give a summary of the article addressing the following questions (1) What is the major question addressed by the research, (2) What theory is the author(s) testing or informs the study, (3) How was the research conducted, (4) What were the results, (5) How did the researcher(s) interpret the results, (6) What did the researcher(s) propose as next steps or directions for future studies of this topic. The final part of your paper should focus on your evaluation of the study. Your evaluation should focus on such things as (1) How effectively was the study conducted, (2) Are the findings generalizable, and (3) Was there a good correspondence between the evidence and their conclusions? The article you reviewed must also be submitted along with the paper to receive full credit.