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• How to write a feature...

How to write a feature article

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• Peer review
• Rebecca Ghani , freelance journalist, London
• bexghani{at}live.co.uk

Interested in writing for a medical journal? Rebecca Ghani finds out from the experts where you can start

You have an excellent idea for a feature article that you would like to publish: you know that the topic is relevant; you’re sure the audience would be interested; you can access the facts and statistics; and you know that you could source a great interview or two.

So where do you go from here?

Know the publication

Read the latest copies of the publication or journal to get a feel for the style and tone. Think about the different sections and where your idea would best fit.

Scan the online archives for similar subjects: it’s unlikely that your piece will be commissioned if the topic has already been covered recently.

Edward Davies, editor of BMJ Careers, says, “The first thing that I would say is absolutely crucial for anyone submitting a pitch is to make sure we haven’t done it before. Google is your friend on this; Google the idea you’re thinking of—and search within the BMJ , BMJ Careers, and Student BMJ websites to see if there’s anything that’s been done on this before.”

Know your audience

If you’re writing for the Student BMJ , and you’re a medical student, you’ll have a good idea of what your peers will be interested in reading about. Sound it out with your colleagues and get input about your idea. Remember that the Student BMJ has an international readership and that your piece should be accessible and relevant to a worldwide audience.

Other medical journals have an even wider reach: the BMJ has a circulation of over 100 000 and a mixed audience of hospital doctors, GPs, retired doctors, and almost 5000 international doctors. 1

Even though most of your readers will be medics, don’t assume knowledge: there is always a lay audience, and keep in mind that the mainstream media often pick up on stories published in medical journals. Don’t dumb it down, but ensure it is accessible to a layperson.

In particular, spell out acronyms, explain colloquialisms, and use straightforward language. It shouldn’t be written as a research piece, so steer clear of academic jargon.

Udani Samarasekera, senior editor at the Lancet , makes the point that features are different from academic work: “Features are actually very different from essays: they’re a lot more colourful and journalistic and much more engaging. My advice would be not to think too much along the lines of an essay, which can be some students’ downfall,” she says.

Samarasekera also advises researching what makes a good feature: “There is a certain structure: they have an intro, background, new development, and then some debate. And often if it’s a journalistic piece it will describe the scene or have a character that draws you into the beginning of the story as well. So, very different from essays.”

When is a feature not a feature?

It’s important to understand what a feature is. Such articles showcase a topic or subject and weave in quotes, facts, and statistics to frame a topic and give it context and flavour. Although there is a place for opinion writing, this is a distinct type of writing and should be approached differently. A straight feature should not include your opinions: it will be your writing style that adds personality to the piece, not your viewpoint.

Davies outlines why it’s important to avoid airing your views if you’re pitching a standard feature: “We get a lot of things pitched as features that are actually opinion—so, people who’ve done a little survey or found a topic that bugs them. And actually what they’re writing about is their feelings on it, what they think of it. And you’ve got to be quite careful with that.”

Features will generally take straightforward news items or topical stories and examine them in more depth, bringing in original quotes from experts and often adding a human interest angle.

Profile articles focus on one person and should include a first hand interview and contextual information about the subject. The BMJ , BMJ Careers, and Student BMJ all publish profiles of eminent doctors or healthcare professionals, as do most general medical journals: the Lancet publishes a profile in its perspectives section.

This section of a publication can include editorials and first hand experience pieces; in Student BMJ and BMJ there’s the personal view section, and in BMJ Careers there is an opinion slot each week. Here, your voice and your opinions shape the piece and give readers an understanding of your experience and viewpoint. You should still support your opinions with facts and evidence, where appropriate.

Most features will have a peg or a hook on which the rest of the item will hang. This helps to shape the piece and give it a focus. Think about what will draw in your reader: something funny, controversial, or shocking; a new angle on an old subject; or something that generates conflicting viewpoints.

Human interest stories usually work well and can liven up an otherwise dry feature. Generally, features published in medical journals have a topical peg. One example is “The case of M,” 2 which took a recent court ruling about a patient’s right to die and then looked more closely at the current debate and research about ethics and the law surrounding this issue.

Samarasekera of the Lancet emphasises the importance of this: “Topicality is a big thing,” she says. “A feature needs to have something that’s interesting—maybe a recent controversy with an issue, but also a recent development to expand the feature—and to tell your readers why you’re covering it now.” She goes on to say the peg can be “a new piece of research, a report, a pending court case, or something like the first world hepatitis day or some big global health news.”

Once you have a firm idea of your subject, the publication, the audience, and the appropriate section, you are ready to make a pitch to the editor.

Be targeted —Once you’ve selected the journal, think about which section to target within the journal, and make this clear.

Be concise —Your pitch should be one or two paragraphs in the main body of an email. Do not send attachments, as editors may not have time to open them. Ensure that the subject line of the email is descriptive and introduces the pitch in a few words.

Engage —Say why your idea is relevant, why the audience will be interested, and what it adds to existing published work.

Follow up —If you don’t hear back within two weeks, follow up with a phone call to talk your idea through.

Davies says: “Put it down in writing—send an email pitch. And then if you haven’t heard within two weeks, get the phone number and pester them.

“And while the editor might not like it, giving them a quick nag on the phone is no bad thing, as your pitch comes back to the top of their pile and they reconsider it,” he advises.

Liaise with your editor

If your pitch is successful, your editor might allow you to run with it in your own style or could be more prescriptive and will brief you with some guidelines on tone, style, and what to include or avoid.

Make sure you and your editor are thinking along the same tracks. Should the piece be informal, chatty, or serious? Is there anyone specific you should be interviewing? Do you need to reference any other research or articles—particularly if the BMJ itself has published a relevant piece.

Agree a word count and deadline and stick to them.

Be organised

Although the final product will be one article, you will use many sources of information to inform your piece, which can easily get lost or mixed up.

Approach writing a feature like a mini-project. Keep your electronic files in a properly labelled folder and use descriptive file names—labelling a file “interview” probably won’t be that useful. Use dates and names to help you keep track of your research and interviews.

Log all requested interviews with latest notes, press office details, contact details, and any other notes that could be useful. Note whether a potential interviewee is in your own time zone or abroad and calculate time differences to make sure that you don’t call them in the middle of the night.

Keep links to any online research. You might find the perfect statistic or fact to back up your article, but it will be of no use if you can’t reference it properly.

Interviews can be face to face or on the phone. Although face to face is best, Skype is a great way to conduct international interviews.

Keep interviews to the point. Although it’s tempting to veer off to other topics, this can waste time and means that you have more audio to wade through.

Record or take shorthand notes. If you’re quoting someone directly, this needs to be an accurate representation of what they have said. Request permission if recording, and check equipment beforehand.

Don’t allow copy approval. It’s sometimes acceptable to show interviewees their words before publication, but for viewing—not for approval.

Interviewees

Features should contain original quotes from experts in the subject area. This will give your piece a fresh angle on a subject and first hand quotes will help to bring the story to life.

Allow interviews to shine through and don’t stifle with too much “framing”—often direct quotes don’t need much explanation and add to the authority of the piece.

Try not to use “quote sluts” 3 —overused media friendly sources who can churn out the same old line to each interviewer they speak to. Think about who might give a different, fresh, and possibly more controversial viewpoint.

Approach more interviewees than required. People may not respond, may be too busy, or just might not be interested. The risk here is that you end up with too much material, but that is better than not enough.

Your piece needs to be accurate, and any statements should be backed up by well sourced references. Try to verify statistics and facts from at least two sources, at first hand from the original source if possible. Don’t just repeat a fact you’ve read elsewhere. Libel laws apply each time a defamatory comment is repeated. If you’re using a non-primary quote or text, reference it properly so that the reader can see it in its original context.

Unlike news stories, which are written with the least important information at the end, the final paragraphs of a feature often tie up the loose ends. This could be an answer to the original question; a quote that sums up the gist of the piece; or a weighing up of the arguments within.

Competing interests: None declared.

From the Student BMJ .

• ↵ BMJ Group Journals Division. Media Pack 2012 http://group.bmj.com/group/advertising/BMJ%20Group%20Journals%20Division%20Media%20Pack%202012.pdf .
• ↵ Jacobs B. The case of M. Student BMJ 2012 ; 20 : e236 . OpenUrl
• ↵ Matalin M, Carville J. All’s fair. Random House, 1994.

The do’s and don’ts of writing review articles

If you (or a global pandemic) take the bench away from the scientist, what do they do? They write reviews of course!

As many of us are now far too familiar with, crafting a review article presents a series of unique challenges. Unlike a manuscript, in which the nature of your data inherently shapes the narrative of the article, a review requires synthesizing one largely from scratch. Reviews are often initiated without a well-defined scope going in, which can often leave us feeling overwhelmed, like we’re faced with covering an entire field.

With these challenges in mind, here are a few tips and tricks to make review writing as painless as possible, for the next time you lose your pipette:

• Defining this viewpoint can be extremely helpful in limiting the scope of your literature search, preventing the overwhelming feeling of having to read every paper ever — focus your time and energy on deep-dives into those papers most important to this motivating viewpoint.
• Ask yourself: Who do you want reading your review? What could you cover that would be most helpful to them?
• This will be an iterative process — the focus of your review will likely change significantly over the writing process, as you read more papers and start organizing your thoughts.
• For each review, ask: What are their take-home messages? How can you differentiate your own from each of these?
• As a member of the field, look out for things you wish they had covered: “I wish they had a figure on this, I wish they discussed this, I wish they clarified this…”
• Are there key papers that they missed?
• Are there key papers that have been published since these reviews have been published?
• Cite other reviews to save yourself some writing! If a tangentially related topic is outside of the scope of your review, it’s commonplace to reference other reviews for the sake of brevity, and to recognize their hard work: “X is outside of the scope of this review, but is covered in-depth here [Ref]”).
• For each paper, ask: What was known before this paper, what did this paper show, and what are its limitations?
• It’s important to accept the fact that it is impossible to read, let alone discuss in-depth, hundreds and hundreds of papers.
• Depending on how each paper will fit into your article’s narrative, it may only be necessary to review specific sections or figures. [ I don’t have to read every word of every paper?! ]
• Given the unstructured nature of a non-data-driven article, this is a hugely important step in the process that will make writing infinitely less painful.
• Which key papers are you going to discuss in which sections?
• Outline subsections and transitions under each major section.
• Engage with your PI early and often in the process of crafting your outline, and try to get explicit approval of the finished product before you start writing — this can save you from a lot of painful backtracking later!
• Writing and structuring your review should be iterative as you continue to refine, read more papers, and start to actually get words down on the page
• The most helpful reviews synthesize the findings of multiple papers into a cohesive take-home message.
• Think about how specific findings relate to your overarching motivation for this article
• Think about how different papers relate to each other — do different studies align, or do they contradict each other?
• Keep in mind how people generally skim articles, by skimming the figures — reviews are no different
• Figures should be included in your structural outline
• For example, many people pull schematics from their own reviews to use directly in background slides of future presentations
• While you cannot avoid citing and discussing major, high impact papers from larger journals, consider that these have likely already been discussed in great depth by other reviews given their high visibility. Good research exists in smaller journals, and you can do your part to cast a light on this work.
• You can provide a fresh perspective by looking outside your field for analogous research, provided you can find a creative way to fit it into the scope of your review’s narrative.

Blog post written by Caleb Perez , with input from Tyler Toth, Viraat Goel , and Prerna Bhargava .

Reviews versus Perspectives- It’s important to draw the distinction between reviews and perspectives here. Although we believe that both should review the field in the context of some overarching scientific viewpoint, perspective articles allow the author much more freedom to craft a more opinionated argument and are generally more forward-thinking. If you have that freedom, definitely use it!

Belonging to a group- Of course, the extent to which you can do this may be limited, depending on how familiar you are with the field. First-year graduate students getting into a new field, for example, may not have as great of a grasp on the gaps in the field — you may have to lean on the advice of your PI and colleagues to help guide you here, especially in the early stages of the process before you start your in-depth literature search.

How to read a paper- There are many situations in which a narrower, targeted paper review is warranted. As one example, imagine a section of a review in which you are comparing different technologies for application X. In this context, you may only need to do a detailed review of the methods sections and any figures they have that benchmark their method for your particular application of interest. The rest of the paper is less relevant, so there’s no need to waste your valuable time and energy. 

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• CAREER FEATURE
• 04 December 2020
• Correction 09 December 2020

How to write a superb literature review

Andy Tay is a freelance writer based in Singapore.

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Literature reviews are important resources for scientists. They provide historical context for a field while offering opinions on its future trajectory. Creating them can provide inspiration for one’s own research, as well as some practice in writing. But few scientists are trained in how to write a review — or in what constitutes an excellent one. Even picking the appropriate software to use can be an involved decision (see ‘Tools and techniques’). So Nature asked editors and working scientists with well-cited reviews for their tips.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-03422-x

Interviews have been edited for length and clarity.

Updates & Corrections

Correction 09 December 2020 : An earlier version of the tables in this article included some incorrect details about the programs Zotero, Endnote and Manubot. These have now been corrected.

Hsing, I.-M., Xu, Y. & Zhao, W. Electroanalysis 19 , 755–768 (2007).

Article   Google Scholar  

Ledesma, H. A. et al. Nature Nanotechnol. 14 , 645–657 (2019).

Article   PubMed   Google Scholar  

Brahlek, M., Koirala, N., Bansal, N. & Oh, S. Solid State Commun. 215–216 , 54–62 (2015).

Choi, Y. & Lee, S. Y. Nature Rev. Chem . https://doi.org/10.1038/s41570-020-00221-w (2020).

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Writing a Scientific Review Article: Comprehensive Insights for Beginners

Ayodeji amobonye.

1 Department of Biotechnology and Food Science, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Durban University of Technology, P.O. Box 1334, KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 4000, South Africa

2 Writing Centre, Durban University of Technology, P.O. Box 1334 KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 4000, South Africa

Japareng Lalung

3 School of Industrial Technology, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Gelugor 11800, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia

Santhosh Pillai

Associated data.

The data and materials that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Review articles present comprehensive overview of relevant literature on specific themes and synthesise the studies related to these themes, with the aim of strengthening the foundation of knowledge and facilitating theory development. The significance of review articles in science is immeasurable as both students and researchers rely on these articles as the starting point for their research. Interestingly, many postgraduate students are expected to write review articles for journal publications as a way of demonstrating their ability to contribute to new knowledge in their respective fields. However, there is no comprehensive instructional framework to guide them on how to analyse and synthesise the literature in their niches into publishable review articles. The dearth of ample guidance or explicit training results in students having to learn all by themselves, usually by trial and error, which often leads to high rejection rates from publishing houses. Therefore, this article seeks to identify these challenges from a beginner's perspective and strives to plug the identified gaps and discrepancies. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to serve as a systematic guide for emerging scientists and to summarise the most important information on how to write and structure a publishable review article.

1. Introduction

Early scientists, spanning from the Ancient Egyptian civilization to the Scientific Revolution of the 16 th /17 th century, based their research on intuitions, personal observations, and personal insights. Thus, less time was spent on background reading as there was not much literature to refer to. This is well illustrated in the case of Sir Isaac Newton's apple tree and the theory of gravity, as well as Gregor Mendel's pea plants and the theory of inheritance. However, with the astronomical expansion in scientific knowledge and the emergence of the information age in the last century, new ideas are now being built on previously published works, thus the periodic need to appraise the huge amount of already published literature [ 1 ]. According to Birkle et al. [ 2 ], the Web of Science—an authoritative database of research publications and citations—covered more than 80 million scholarly materials. Hence, a critical review of prior and relevant literature is indispensable for any research endeavour as it provides the necessary framework needed for synthesising new knowledge and for highlighting new insights and perspectives [ 3 ].

Review papers are generally considered secondary research publications that sum up already existing works on a particular research topic or question and relate them to the current status of the topic. This makes review articles distinctly different from scientific research papers. While the primary aim of the latter is to develop new arguments by reporting original research, the former is focused on summarising and synthesising previous ideas, studies, and arguments, without adding new experimental contributions. Review articles basically describe the content and quality of knowledge that are currently available, with a special focus on the significance of the previous works. To this end, a review article cannot simply reiterate a subject matter, but it must contribute to the field of knowledge by synthesising available materials and offering a scholarly critique of theory [ 4 ]. Typically, these articles critically analyse both quantitative and qualitative studies by scrutinising experimental results, the discussion of the experimental data, and in some instances, previous review articles to propose new working theories. Thus, a review article is more than a mere exhaustive compilation of all that has been published on a topic; it must be a balanced, informative, perspective, and unbiased compendium of previous studies which may also include contrasting findings, inconsistencies, and conventional and current views on the subject [ 5 ].

Hence, the essence of a review article is measured by what is achieved, what is discovered, and how information is communicated to the reader [ 6 ]. According to Steward [ 7 ], a good literature review should be analytical, critical, comprehensive, selective, relevant, synthetic, and fully referenced. On the other hand, a review article is considered to be inadequate if it is lacking in focus or outcome, overgeneralised, opinionated, unbalanced, and uncritical [ 7 ]. Most review papers fail to meet these standards and thus can be viewed as mere summaries of previous works in a particular field of study. In one of the few studies that assessed the quality of review articles, none of the 50 papers that were analysed met the predefined criteria for a good review [ 8 ]. However, beginners must also realise that there is no bad writing in the true sense; there is only writing in evolution and under refinement. Literally, every piece of writing can be improved upon, right from the first draft until the final published manuscript. Hence, a paper can only be referred to as bad and unfixable when the author is not open to corrections or when the writer gives up on it.

According to Peat et al. [ 9 ], “everything is easy when you know how,” a maxim which applies to scientific writing in general and review writing in particular. In this regard, the authors emphasized that the writer should be open to learning and should also follow established rules instead of following a blind trial-and-error approach. In contrast to the popular belief that review articles should only be written by experienced scientists and researchers, recent trends have shown that many early-career scientists, especially postgraduate students, are currently expected to write review articles during the course of their studies. However, these scholars have little or no access to formal training on how to analyse and synthesise the research literature in their respective fields [ 10 ]. Consequently, students seeking guidance on how to write or improve their literature reviews are less likely to find published works on the subject, particularly in the science fields. Although various publications have dealt with the challenges of searching for literature, or writing literature reviews for dissertation/thesis purposes, there is little or no information on how to write a comprehensive review article for publication. In addition to the paucity of published information to guide the potential author, the lack of understanding of what constitutes a review paper compounds their challenges. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to serve as a guide for writing review papers for journal publishing. This work draws on the experience of the authors to assist early-career scientists/researchers in the “hard skill” of authoring review articles. Even though there is no single path to writing scientifically, or to writing reviews in particular, this paper attempts to simplify the process by looking at this subject from a beginner's perspective. Hence, this paper highlights the differences between the types of review articles in the sciences while also explaining the needs and purpose of writing review articles. Furthermore, it presents details on how to search for the literature as well as how to structure the manuscript to produce logical and coherent outputs. It is hoped that this work will ease prospective scientific writers into the challenging but rewarding art of writing review articles.

2. Benefits of Review Articles to the Author

Analysing literature gives an overview of the “WHs”: WHat has been reported in a particular field or topic, WHo the key writers are, WHat are the prevailing theories and hypotheses, WHat questions are being asked (and answered), and WHat methods and methodologies are appropriate and useful [ 11 ]. For new or aspiring researchers in a particular field, it can be quite challenging to get a comprehensive overview of their respective fields, especially the historical trends and what has been studied previously. As such, the importance of review articles to knowledge appraisal and contribution cannot be overemphasised, which is reflected in the constant demand for such articles in the research community. However, it is also important for the author, especially the first-time author, to recognise the importance of his/her investing time and effort into writing a quality review article.

Generally, literature reviews are undertaken for many reasons, mainly for publication and for dissertation purposes. The major purpose of literature reviews is to provide direction and information for the improvement of scientific knowledge. They also form a significant component in the research process and in academic assessment [ 12 ]. There may be, however, a thin line between a dissertation literature review and a published review article, given that with some modifications, a literature review can be transformed into a legitimate and publishable scholarly document. According to Gülpınar and Güçlü [ 6 ], the basic motivation for writing a review article is to make a comprehensive synthesis of the most appropriate literature on a specific research inquiry or topic. Thus, conducting a literature review assists in demonstrating the author's knowledge about a particular field of study, which may include but not be limited to its history, theories, key variables, vocabulary, phenomena, and methodologies [ 10 ]. Furthermore, publishing reviews is beneficial as it permits the researchers to examine different questions and, as a result, enhances the depth and diversity of their scientific reasoning [ 1 ]. In addition, writing review articles allows researchers to share insights with the scientific community while identifying knowledge gaps to be addressed in future research. The review writing process can also be a useful tool in training early-career scientists in leadership, coordination, project management, and other important soft skills necessary for success in the research world [ 13 ]. Another important reason for authoring reviews is that such publications have been observed to be remarkably influential, extending the reach of an author in multiple folds of what can be achieved by primary research papers [ 1 ]. The trend in science is for authors to receive more citations from their review articles than from their original research articles. According to Miranda and Garcia-Carpintero [ 14 ], review articles are, on average, three times more frequently cited than original research articles; they also asserted that a 20% increase in review authorship could result in a 40–80% increase in citations of the author. As a result, writing reviews can significantly impact a researcher's citation output and serve as a valuable channel to reach a wider scientific audience. In addition, the references cited in a review article also provide the reader with an opportunity to dig deeper into the topic of interest. Thus, review articles can serve as a valuable repository for consultation, increasing the visibility of the authors and resulting in more citations.

3. Types of Review Articles

The first step in writing a good literature review is to decide on the particular type of review to be written; hence, it is important to distinguish and understand the various types of review articles. Although scientific review articles have been classified according to various schemes, however, they are broadly categorised into narrative reviews, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses [ 15 ]. It was observed that more authors—as well as publishers—were leaning towards systematic reviews and meta-analysis while downplaying narrative reviews; however, the three serve different aims and should all be considered equally important in science [ 1 ]. Bibliometric reviews and patent reviews, which are closely related to meta-analysis, have also gained significant attention recently. However, from another angle, a review could also be of two types. In the first class, authors could deal with a widely studied topic where there is already an accumulated body of knowledge that requires analysis and synthesis [ 3 ]. At the other end of the spectrum, the authors may have to address an emerging issue that would benefit from exposure to potential theoretical foundations; hence, their contribution would arise from the fresh theoretical foundations proposed in developing a conceptual model [ 3 ].

3.1. Narrative Reviews

Narrative reviewers are mainly focused on providing clarification and critical analysis on a particular topic or body of literature through interpretative synthesis, creativity, and expert judgement. According to Green et al. [ 16 ], a narrative review can be in the form of editorials, commentaries, and narrative overviews. However, editorials and commentaries are usually expert opinions; hence, a beginner is more likely to write a narrative overview, which is more general and is also referred to as an unsystematic narrative review. Similarly, the literature review section of most dissertations and empirical papers is typically narrative in nature. Typically, narrative reviews combine results from studies that may have different methodologies to address different questions or to formulate a broad theoretical formulation [ 1 ]. They are largely integrative as strong focus is placed on the assimilation and synthesis of various aspects in the review, which may involve comparing and contrasting research findings or deriving structured implications [ 17 ]. In addition, they are also qualitative studies because they do not follow strict selection processes; hence, choosing publications is relatively more subjective and unsystematic [ 18 ]. However, despite their popularity, there are concerns about their inherent subjectivity. In many instances, when the supporting data for narrative reviews are examined more closely, the evaluations provided by the author(s) become quite questionable [ 19 ]. Nevertheless, if the goal of the author is to formulate a new theory that connects diverse strands of research, a narrative method is most appropriate.

3.2. Systematic Reviews

In contrast to narrative reviews, which are generally descriptive, systematic reviews employ a systematic approach to summarise evidence on research questions. Hence, systematic reviews make use of precise and rigorous criteria to identify, evaluate, and subsequently synthesise all relevant literature on a particular topic [ 12 , 20 ]. As a result, systematic reviews are more likely to inspire research ideas by identifying knowledge gaps or inconsistencies, thus helping the researcher to clearly define the research hypotheses or questions [ 21 ]. Furthermore, systematic reviews may serve as independent research projects in their own right, as they follow a defined methodology to search and combine reliable results to synthesise a new database that can be used for a variety of purposes [ 22 ]. Typically, the peculiarities of the individual reviewer, different search engines, and information databases used all ensure that no two searches will yield the same systematic results even if the searches are conducted simultaneously and under identical criteria [ 11 ]. Hence, attempts are made at standardising the exercise via specific methods that would limit bias and chance effects, prevent duplications, and provide more accurate results upon which conclusions and decisions can be made.

The most established of these methods is the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines which objectively defined statements, guidelines, reporting checklists, and flowcharts for undertaking systematic reviews as well as meta-analysis [ 23 ]. Though mainly designed for research in medical sciences, the PRISMA approach has gained wide acceptance in other fields of science and is based on eight fundamental propositions. These include the explicit definition of the review question, an unambiguous outline of the study protocol, an objective and exhaustive systematic review of reputable literature, and an unambiguous identification of included literature based on defined selection criteria [ 24 ]. Other considerations include an unbiased appraisal of the quality of the selected studies (literature), organic synthesis of the evidence of the study, preparation of the manuscript based on the reporting guidelines, and periodic update of the review as new data emerge [ 24 ]. Other methods such as PRISMA-P (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic review and Meta-Analysis Protocols), MOOSE (Meta-analysis Of Observational Studies in Epidemiology), and ROSES (Reporting Standards for Systematic Evidence Syntheses) have since been developed for systematic reviews (and meta-analysis), with most of them being derived from PRISMA.

Consequently, systematic reviews—unlike narrative reviews—must contain a methodology section which in addition to all that was highlighted above must fully describe the precise criteria used in formulating the research question and setting the inclusion or exclusion criteria used in selecting/accessing the literature. Similarly, the criteria for evaluating the quality of the literature included in the review as well as for analysing, synthesising, and disseminating the findings must be fully described in the methodology section.

3.3. Meta-Analysis

Meta-analyses are considered as more specialised forms of systematic reviews. Generally, they combine the results of many studies that use similar or closely related methods to address the same question or share a common quantitative evaluation method [ 25 ]. However, meta-analyses are also a step higher than other systematic reviews as they are focused on numerical data and involve the use of statistics in evaluating different studies and synthesising new knowledge. The major advantage of this type of review is the increased statistical power leading to more reliable results for inferring modest associations and a more comprehensive understanding of the true impact of a research study [ 26 ]. Unlike in traditional systematic reviews, research topics covered in meta-analyses must be mature enough to allow the inclusion of sufficient homogeneous empirical research in terms of subjects, interventions, and outcomes [ 27 , 28 ].

Being an advanced form of systematic review, meta-analyses must also have a distinct methodology section; hence, the standard procedures involved in the traditional systematic review (especially PRISMA) also apply in meta-analyses [ 23 ]. In addition to the common steps in formulating systematic reviews, meta-analyses are required to describe how nested and missing data are handled, the effect observed in each study, the confidence interval associated with each synthesised effect, and any potential for bias presented within the sample(s) [ 17 ]. According to Paul and Barari [ 28 ], a meta-analysis must also detail the final sample, the meta-analytic model, and the overall analysis, moderator analysis, and software employed. While the overall analysis involves the statistical characterization of the relationships between variables in the meta-analytic framework and their significance, the moderator analysis defines the different variables that may affect variations in the original studies [ 28 , 29 ]. It must also be noted that the accuracy and reliability of meta-analyses have both been significantly enhanced by the incorporation of statistical approaches such as Bayesian analysis [ 30 ], network analysis [ 31 ], and more recently, machine learning [ 32 ].

3.4. Bibliometric Review

A bibliometric review, commonly referred to as bibliometric analysis, is a systematic evaluation of published works within a specific field or discipline [ 33 ]. This bibliometric methodology involves the use of quantitative methods to analyse bibliometric data such as the characteristics and numbers of publications, units of citations, authorship, co-authorship, and journal impact factors [ 34 ]. Academics use bibliometric analysis with different objectives in mind, which includes uncovering emerging trends in article and journal performance, elaborating collaboration patterns and research constituents, evaluating the impact and influence of particular authors, publications, or research groups, and highlighting the intellectual framework of a certain field [ 35 ]. It is also used to inform policy and decision-making. Similarly to meta-analysis, bibliometric reviews rely upon quantitative techniques, thus avoiding the interpretation bias that could arise from the qualitative techniques of other types of reviews [ 36 ]. However, while bibliometric analysis synthesises the bibliometric and intellectual structure of a field by examining the social and structural linkages between various research parts, meta-analysis focuses on summarising empirical evidence by probing the direction and strength of effects and relationships among variables, especially in open research questions [ 37 , 38 ]. However, similarly to systematic review and meta-analysis, a bibliometric review also requires a well-detailed methodology section. The amount of data to be analysed in bibliometric analysis is quite massive, running to hundreds and tens of thousands in some cases. Although the data are objective in nature (e.g., number of citations and publications and occurrences of keywords and topics), the interpretation is usually carried out through both objective (e.g., performance analysis) and subjective (e.g., thematic analysis) evaluations [ 35 ]. However, the invention and availability of bibliometric software such as BibExcel, Gephi, Leximancer, and VOSviewer and scientific databases such as Dimensions, Web of Science, and Scopus have made this type of analysis more feasible.

3.5. Patent Review

Patent reviews provide a comprehensive analysis and critique of a specific patent or a group of related patents, thus presenting a concise understanding of the technology or innovation that is covered by the patent [ 39 ]. This type of article is useful for researchers as it also enhances their understanding of the legal, technical, and commercial aspects of an intellectual property/innovation; in addition, it is also important for stakeholders outside the research community including IP (intellectual property) specialists, legal professionals, and technology-transfer officers [ 40 ]. Typically, patent reviews encompass the scope, background, claims, legal implications, technical specifications, and potential commercial applications of the patent(s). The article may also include a discussion of the patent's strengths and weaknesses, as well as its potential impact on the industry or field in which it operates. Most times, reviews are time specified, they may be regionalised, and the data are usually retrieved via patent searches on databases such as that of the European Patent Office ( https://www.epo.org/searching.html ), United States Patent and Trademark Office ( https://patft.uspto.gov/ ), the World Intellectual Property Organization's PATENTSCOPE ( https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/structuredSearch.jsf ), Google Patent ( https://www.google.com/?tbm=pts ), and China National Intellectual Property Administration ( https://pss-system.cponline.cnipa.gov.cn/conventionalSearch ). According to Cerimi et al. [ 41 ], the retrieved data and analysed may include the patent number, patent status, filing date, application date, grant dates, inventor, assignee, and pending applications. While data analysis is usually carried out by general data software such as Microsoft Excel, an intelligence software solely dedicated to patent research and analysis, Orbit Intelligence has been found to be more efficient [ 39 ]. It is also mandatory to include a methodology section in a patent review, and this should be explicit, thorough, and precise to allow a clear understanding of how the analysis was carried out and how the conclusions were arrived at.

4. Searching Literature

One of the most challenging tasks in writing a review article on a subject is the search for relevant literature to populate the manuscript as the author is required to garner information from an endless number of sources. This is even more challenging as research outputs have been increasing astronomically, especially in the last decade, with thousands of new articles published annually in various fields. It is therefore imperative that the author must not only be aware of the overall trajectory in a field of investigation but must also be cognizant of recent studies so as not to publish outdated research or review articles. Basically, the search for the literature involves a coherent conceptual structuring of the topic itself and a thorough collation of evidence under the common themes which might reflect the histories, conflicts, standoffs, revolutions, and/or evolutions in the field [ 7 ]. To start the search process, the author must carefully identify and select broad keywords relevant to the subject; subsequently, the keywords should be developed to refine the search into specific subheadings that would facilitate the structure of the review.

Two main tactics have been identified for searching the literature, namely, systematic and snowballing [ 42 ]. The systematic approach involves searching literature with specific keywords (for example, cancer, antioxidant, and nanoparticles), which leads to an almost unmanageable and overwhelming list of possible sources [ 43 ]. The snowballing approach, however, involves the identification of a particular publication, followed by the compilation of a bibliography of articles based on the reference list of the identified publication [ 44 ]. Many times, it might be necessary to combine both approaches, but irrespective, the author must keep an accurate track and record of papers cited in the search. A simple and efficient strategy for populating the bibliography of review articles is to go through the abstract (and sometimes the conclusion) of a paper; if the abstract is related to the topic of discourse, the author might go ahead and read the entire article; otherwise, he/she is advised to move on [ 45 ]. Winchester and Salji [ 5 ] noted that to learn the background of the subject/topic to be reviewed, starting literature searches with academic textbooks or published review articles is imperative, especially for beginners. Furthermore, it would also assist in compiling the list of keywords, identifying areas of further exploration, and providing a glimpse of the current state of the research. However, past reviews ideally are not to serve as the foundation of a new review as they are written from someone else's viewpoint, which might have been tainted with some bias. Fortunately, the accessibility and search for the literature have been made relatively easier than they were a few decades ago as the current information age has placed an enormous volume of knowledge right at our fingertips [ 46 ]. Nevertheless, when gathering the literature from the Internet, authors should exercise utmost caution as much of the information may not be verified or peer-reviewed and thus may be unregulated and unreliable. For instance, Wikipedia, despite being a large repository of information with more than 6.7 million articles in the English language alone, is considered unreliable for scientific literature reviews, due to its openness to public editing [ 47 ]. However, in addition to peer-reviewed journal publications—which are most ideal—reviews can also be drawn from a wide range of other sources such as technical documents, in-house reports, conference abstracts, and conference proceedings. Similarly, “Google Scholar”—as against “Google” and other general search engines—is more appropriate as its searches are restricted to only academic articles produced by scholarly societies or/and publishers [ 48 ]. Furthermore, the various electronic databases, such as ScienceDirect, Web of Science, PubMed, and MEDLINE, many of which focus on specific fields of research, are also ideal options [ 49 ]. Advancement in computer indexing has remarkably expanded the ease and ability to search large databases for every potentially relevant article. In addition to searching by topic, literature search can be modified by time; however, there must be a balance between old papers and recent ones. The general consensus in science is that publications less than five years old are considered recent.

It is important, especially in systematic reviews and meta-analyses, that the specific method of running the computer searches be properly documented as there is the need to include this in the method (methodology) section of such papers. Typically, the method details the keywords, databases explored, search terms used, and the inclusion/exclusion criteria applied in the selection of data and any other specific decision/criteria. All of these will ensure the reproducibility and thoroughness of the search and the selection procedure. However, Randolph [ 10 ] noted that Internet searches might not give the exhaustive list of articles needed for a review article; hence, it is advised that authors search through the reference lists of articles that were obtained initially from the Internet search. After determining the relevant articles from the list, the author should read through the references of these articles and repeat the cycle until saturation is reached [ 10 ]. After populating the articles needed for the literature review, the next step is to analyse them individually and in their whole entirety. A systematic approach to this is to identify the key information within the papers, examine them in depth, and synthesise original perspectives by integrating the information and making inferences based on the findings. In this regard, it is imperative to link one source to the other in a logical manner, for instance, taking note of studies with similar methodologies, papers that agree, or results that are contradictory [ 42 ].

5. Structuring the Review Article

The title and abstract are the main selling points of a review article, as most readers will only peruse these two elements and usually go on to read the full paper if they are drawn in by either or both of the two. Tullu [ 50 ] recommends that the title of a scientific paper “should be descriptive, direct, accurate, appropriate, interesting, concise, precise, unique, and not be misleading.” In addition to providing “just enough details” to entice the reader, words in the titles are also used by electronic databases, journal websites, and search engines to index and retrieve a particular paper during a search [ 51 ]. Titles are of different types and must be chosen according to the topic under review. They are generally classified as descriptive, declarative, or interrogative and can also be grouped into compound, nominal, or full-sentence titles [ 50 ]. The subject of these categorisations has been extensively discussed in many articles; however, the reader must also be aware of the compound titles, which usually contain a main title and a subtitle. Typically, subtitles provide additional context—to the main title—and they may specify the geographic scope of the research, research methodology, or sample size [ 52 ].

Just like primary research articles, there are many debates about the optimum length of a review article's title. However, the general consensus is to keep the title as brief as possible while not being too general. A title length between 10 and 15 words is recommended, since longer titles can be more challenging to comprehend. Paiva et al. [ 53 ] observed that articles which contain 95 characters or less get more views and citations. However, emphasis must be placed on conciseness as the audience will be more satisfied if they can understand what exactly the review has contributed to the field, rather than just a hint about the general topic area. Authors should also endeavour to stick to the journal's specific requirements, especially regarding the length of the title and what they should or should not contain [ 9 ]. Thus, avoidance of filler words such as “a review on/of,” “an observation of,” or “a study of” is a very simple way to limit title length. In addition, abbreviations or acronyms should be avoided in the title, except the standard or commonly interpreted ones such as AIDS, DNA, HIV, and RNA. In summary, to write an effective title, the authors should consider the following points. What is the paper about? What was the methodology used? What were the highlights and major conclusions? Subsequently, the author should list all the keywords from these answers, construct a sentence from these keywords, and finally delete all redundant words from the sentence title. It is also possible to gain some ideas by scanning indices and article titles in major journals in the field. It is important to emphasise that a title is not chosen and set in stone, and the title is most likely to be continually revised and adjusted until the end of the writing process.

5.2. Abstract

The abstract, also referred to as the synopsis, is a summary of the full research paper; it is typically independent and can stand alone. For most readers, a publication does not exist beyond the abstract, partly because abstracts are often the only section of a paper that is made available to the readers at no cost, whereas the full paper may attract a payment or subscription [ 54 ]. Thus, the abstract is supposed to set the tone for the few readers who wish to read the rest of the paper. It has also been noted that the abstract gives the first impression of a research work to journal editors, conference scientific committees, or referees, who might outright reject the paper if the abstract is poorly written or inadequate [ 50 ]. Hence, it is imperative that the abstract succinctly represents the entire paper and projects it positively. Just like the title, abstracts have to be balanced, comprehensive, concise, functional, independent, precise, scholarly, and unbiased and not be misleading [ 55 ]. Basically, the abstract should be formulated using keywords from all the sections of the main manuscript. Thus, it is pertinent that the abstract conveys the focus, key message, rationale, and novelty of the paper without any compromise or exaggeration. Furthermore, the abstract must be consistent with the rest of the paper; as basic as this instruction might sound, it is not to be taken for granted. For example, a study by Vrijhoef and Steuten [ 56 ] revealed that 18–68% of 264 abstracts from some scientific journals contained information that was inconsistent with the main body of the publications.

Abstracts can either be structured or unstructured; in addition, they can further be classified as either descriptive or informative. Unstructured abstracts, which are used by many scientific journals, are free flowing with no predefined subheadings, while structured abstracts have specific subheadings/subsections under which the abstract needs to be composed. Structured abstracts have been noted to be more informative and are usually divided into subsections which include the study background/introduction, objectives, methodology design, results, and conclusions [ 57 ]. No matter the style chosen, the author must carefully conform to the instructions provided by the potential journal of submission, which may include but are not limited to the format, font size/style, word limit, and subheadings [ 58 ]. The word limit for abstracts in most scientific journals is typically between 150 and 300 words. It is also a general rule that abstracts do not contain any references whatsoever.

Typically, an abstract should be written in the active voice, and there is no such thing as a perfect abstract as it could always be improved on. It is advised that the author first makes an initial draft which would contain all the essential parts of the paper, which could then be polished subsequently. The draft should begin with a brief background which would lead to the research questions. It might also include a general overview of the methodology used (if applicable) and importantly, the major results/observations/highlights of the review paper. The abstract should end with one or few sentences about any implications, perspectives, or future research that may be developed from the review exercise. Finally, the authors should eliminate redundant words and edit the abstract to the correct word count permitted by the journal [ 59 ]. It is always beneficial to read previous abstracts published in the intended journal, related topics/subjects from other journals, and other reputable sources. Furthermore, the author should endeavour to get feedback on the abstract especially from peers and co-authors. As the abstract is the face of the whole paper, it is best that it is the last section to be finalised, as by this time, the author would have developed a clearer understanding of the findings and conclusions of the entire paper.

5.3. Graphical Abstracts

Since the mid-2000s, an increasing number of journals now require authors to provide a graphical abstract (GA) in addition to the traditional written abstract, to increase the accessibility of scientific publications to readers [ 60 ]. A study showed that publications with GA performed better than those without it, when the abstract views, total citations, and downloads were compared [ 61 ]. However, the GA should provide “a single, concise pictorial, and visual summary of the main findings of an article” [ 62 ]. Although they are meant to be a stand-alone summary of the whole paper, it has been noted that they are not so easily comprehensible without having read through the traditionally written abstract [ 63 ]. It is important to note that, like traditional abstracts, many reputable journals require GAs to adhere to certain specifications such as colour, dimension, quality, file size, and file format (usually JPEG/JPG, PDF, PNG, or TIFF). In addition, it is imperative to use engaging and accurate figures, all of which must be synthesised in order to accurately reflect the key message of the paper. Currently, there are various online or downloadable graphical tools that can be used for creating GAs, such as Microsoft Paint or PowerPoint, Mindthegraph, ChemDraw, CorelDraw, and BioRender.

5.4. Keywords

As a standard practice, journals require authors to select 4–8 keywords (or phrases), which are typically listed below the abstract. A good set of keywords will enable indexers and search engines to find relevant papers more easily and can be considered as a very concise abstract [ 64 ]. According to Dewan and Gupta [ 51 ], the selection of appropriate keywords will significantly enhance the retrieval, accession, and consequently, the citation of the review paper. Ideally, keywords can be variants of the terms/phrases used in the title, the abstract, and the main text, but they should ideally not be the exact words in the main title. Choosing the most appropriate keywords for a review article involves listing down the key terms and phrases in the article, including abbreviations. Subsequently, a quick review of the glossary/vocabulary/term list or indexing standard in the specific discipline will assist in selecting the best and most precise keywords that match those used in the databases from the list drawn. In addition, the keywords should not be broad or general terms (e.g., DNA, biology, and enzymes) but must be specific to the field or subfield of study as well as to the particular paper [ 65 ].

5.5. Introduction

The introduction of an article is the first major section of the manuscript, and it presents basic information to the reader without compelling them to study past publications. In addition, the introduction directs the reader to the main arguments and points developed in the main body of the article while clarifying the current state of knowledge in that particular area of research [ 12 ]. The introduction part of a review article is usually sectionalised into background information, a description of the main topic and finally a statement of the main purpose of the review [ 66 ]. Authors may begin the introduction with brief general statements—which provide background knowledge on the subject matter—that lead to more specific ones [ 67 ]. It is at this point that the reader's attention must be caught as the background knowledge must highlight the importance and justification for the subject being discussed, while also identifying the major problem to be addressed [ 68 ]. In addition, the background should be broad enough to attract even nonspecialists in the field to maximise the impact and widen the reach of the article. All of these should be done in the light of current literature; however, old references may also be used for historical purposes. A very important aspect of the introduction is clearly stating and establishing the research problem(s) and how a review of the particular topic contributes to those problem(s). Thus, the research gap which the paper intends to fill, the limitations of previous works and past reviews, if available, and the new knowledge to be contributed must all be highlighted. Inadequate information and the inability to clarify the problem will keep readers (who have the desire to obtain new information) from reading beyond the introduction [ 69 ]. It is also pertinent that the author establishes the purpose of reviewing the literature and defines the scope as well as the major synthesised point of view. Furthermore, a brief insight into the criteria used to select, evaluate, and analyse the literature, as well as the outline or sequence of the review, should be provided in the introduction. Subsequently, the specific objectives of the review article must be presented. The last part of the “introduction” section should focus on the solution, the way forward, the recommendations, and the further areas of research as deduced from the whole review process. According to DeMaria [ 70 ], clearly expressed or recommended solutions to an explicitly revealed problem are very important for the wholesomeness of the “introduction” section. It is believed that following these steps will give readers the opportunity to track the problems and the corresponding solution from their own perspective in the light of current literature. As against some suggestions that the introduction should be written only in present tenses, it is also believed that it could be done with other tenses in addition to the present tense. In this regard, general facts should be written in the present tense, specific research/work should be in the past tense, while the concluding statement should be in the past perfect or simple past. Furthermore, many of the abbreviations to be used in the rest of the manuscript and their explanations should be defined in this section.

5.6. Methodology

Writing a review article is equivalent to conducting a research study, with the information gathered by the author (reviewer) representing the data. Like all major studies, it involves conceptualisation, planning, implementation, and dissemination [ 71 ], all of which may be detailed in a methodology section, if necessary. Hence, the methodological section of a review paper (which can also be referred to as the review protocol) details how the relevant literature was selected and how it was analysed as well as summarised. The selection details may include, but are not limited to, the database consulted and the specific search terms used together with the inclusion/exclusion criteria. As earlier highlighted in Section 3 , a description of the methodology is required for all types of reviews except for narrative reviews. This is partly because unlike narrative reviews, all other review articles follow systematic approaches which must ensure significant reproducibility [ 72 ]. Therefore, where necessary, the methods of data extraction from the literature and data synthesis must also be highlighted as well. In some cases, it is important to show how data were combined by highlighting the statistical methods used, measures of effect, and tests performed, as well as demonstrating heterogeneity and publication bias [ 73 ].

The methodology should also detail the major databases consulted during the literature search, e.g., Dimensions, ScienceDirect, Web of Science, MEDLINE, and PubMed. For meta-analysis, it is imperative to highlight the software and/or package used, which could include Comprehensive Meta-Analysis, OpenMEE, Review Manager (RevMan), Stata, SAS, and R Studio. It is also necessary to state the mathematical methods used for the analysis; examples of these include the Bayesian analysis, the Mantel–Haenszel method, and the inverse variance method. The methodology should also state the number of authors that carried out the initial review stage of the study, as it has been recommended that at least two reviews should be done blindly and in parallel, especially when it comes to the acquisition and synthesis of data [ 74 ]. Finally, the quality and validity assessment of the publication used in the review must be stated and well clarified [ 73 ].

5.7. Main Body of the Review

Ideally, the main body of a publishable review should answer these questions: What is new (contribution)? Why so (logic)? So what (impact)? How well it is done (thoroughness)? The flow of the main body of a review article must be well organised to adequately maintain the attention of the readers as well as guide them through the section. It is recommended that the author should consider drawing a conceptual scheme of the main body first, using methods such as mind-mapping. This will help create a logical flow of thought and presentation, while also linking the various sections of the manuscript together. According to Moreira [ 75 ], “reports do not simply yield their findings, rather reviewers make them yield,” and thus, it is the author's responsibility to transform “resistant” texts into “docile” texts. Hence, after the search for the literature, the essential themes and key concepts of the review paper must be identified and synthesised together. This synthesis primarily involves creating hypotheses about the relationships between the concepts with the aim of increasing the understanding of the topic being reviewed. The important information from the various sources should not only be summarised, but the significance of studies must be related back to the initial question(s) posed by the review article. Furthermore, MacLure [ 76 ] stated that data are not just to be plainly “extracted intact” and “used exactly as extracted,” but must be modified, reconfigured, transformed, transposed, converted, tabulated, graphed, or manipulated to enable synthesis, combination, and comparison. Therefore, different pieces of information must be extracted from the reports in which they were previously deposited and then refined into the body of the new article [ 75 ]. To this end, adequate comparison and combination might require that “qualitative data be quantified” or/and “quantitative data may be qualitized” [ 77 ]. In order to accomplish all of these goals, the author may have to transform, paraphrase, generalize, specify, and reorder the text [ 78 ]. For comprehensiveness, the body paragraphs should be arranged in a similar order as it was initially stated in the abstract or/and introduction. Thus, the main body could be divided into thematic areas, each of which could be independently comprehensive and treated as a mini review. Similarly, the sections can also be arranged chronologically depending on the focus of the review. Furthermore, the abstractions should proceed from a wider general view of the literature being reviewed and then be narrowed down to the specifics. In the process, deep insights should also be provided between the topic of the review and the wider subject area, e.g., fungal enzymes and enzymes in general. The abstractions must also be discussed in more detail by presenting more specific information from the identified sources (with proper citations of course!). For example, it is important to identify and highlight contrary findings and rival interpretations as well as to point out areas of agreement or debate among different bodies of literature. Often, there are previous reviews on the same topic/concept; however, this does not prevent a new author from writing one on the same topic, especially if the previous reviews were written many years ago. However, it is important that the body of the new manuscript be written from a new angle that was not adequately covered in the past reviews and should also incorporate new studies that have accumulated since the last review(s). In addition, the new review might also highlight the approaches, limitations, and conclusions of the past studies. But the authors must not be excessively critical of the past reviews as this is regarded by many authors as a sign of poor professionalism [ 3 , 79 ]. Daft [ 79 ] emphasized that it is more important for a reviewer to state how their research builds on previous work instead of outright claiming that previous works are incompetent and inadequate. However, if a series of related papers on one topic have a common error or research flaw that needs rectification, the reviewer must point this out with the aim of moving the field forward [ 3 ]. Like every other scientific paper, the main body of a review article also needs to be consistent in style, for example, in the choice of passive vs. active voice and present vs. past tense. It is also important to note that tables and figures can serve as a powerful tool for highlighting key points in the body of the review, and they are now considered core elements of reviews. For more guidance and insights into what should make up the contents of a good review article, readers are also advised to get familiarised with the Boote and Beile [ 80 ] literature review scoring rubric as well as the review article checklist of Short [ 81 ].

5.8. Tables and Figures

An ideal review article should be logically structured and efficiently utilise illustrations, in the form of tables and figures, to convey the key findings and relationships in the study. According to Tay [ 13 ], illustrations often take a secondary role in review papers when compared to primary research papers which are focused on illustrations. However, illustrations are very important in review articles as they can serve as succinct means of communicating major findings and insights. Franzblau and Chung [ 82 ] pointed out that illustrations serve three major purposes in a scientific article: they simplify complex data and relationships for better understanding, they minimise reading time by summarising and bringing to focus on the key findings (or trends), and last, they help to reduce the overall word count. Hence, inserting and constructing illustrations in a review article is as meticulous as it is important. However, important decisions should be made on whether the charts, figures, or tables to be potentially inserted in the manuscript are indeed needed and how best to design them [ 83 ]. Illustrations should enhance the text while providing necessary information; thus, the information described in illustrations should not contradict that in the main text and should also not be a repetition of texts [ 84 ]. Furthermore, illustrations must be autonomous, meaning they ought to be intelligible without having to read the text portion of the manuscript; thus, the reader does not have to flip back and forth between the illustration and the main text in order to understand it [ 85 ]. It should be noted that tables or figures that directly reiterate the main text or contain extraneous information will only make a mess of the manuscript and discourage readers [ 86 ].

Kotz and Cals [ 87 ] recommend that the layout of tables and figures should be carefully designed in a clear manner with suitable layouts, which will allow them to be referred to logically and chronologically in the text. In addition, illustrations should only contain simple text, as lengthy details would contradict their initial objective, which was to provide simple examples or an overview. Furthermore, the use of abbreviations in illustrations, especially tables, should be avoided if possible. If not, the abbreviations should be defined explicitly in the footnotes or legends of the illustration [ 88 ]. Similarly, numerical values in tables and graphs should also be correctly approximated [ 84 ]. It is recommended that the number of tables and figures in the manuscript should not exceed the target journal's specification. According to Saver [ 89 ], they ideally should not account for more than one-third of the manuscript. Finally, the author(s) must seek permission and give credits for using an already published illustration when necessary. However, none of these are needed if the graphic is originally created by the author, but if it is a reproduced or an adapted illustration, the author must obtain permission from the copyright owner and include the necessary credit. One of the very important tools for designing illustrations is Creative Commons, a platform that provides a wide range of creative works which are available to the public for use and modification.

5.9. Conclusion/Future Perspectives

It has been observed that many reviews end abruptly with a short conclusion; however, a lot more can be included in this section in addition to what has been said in the major sections of the paper. Basically, the conclusion section of a review article should provide a summary of key findings from the main body of the manuscript. In this section, the author needs to revisit the critical points of the paper as well as highlight the accuracy, validity, and relevance of the inferences drawn in the article review. A good conclusion should highlight the relationship between the major points and the author's hypothesis as well as the relationship between the hypothesis and the broader discussion to demonstrate the significance of the review article in a larger context. In addition to giving a concise summary of the important findings that describe current knowledge, the conclusion must also offer a rationale for conducting future research [ 12 ]. Knowledge gaps should be identified, and themes should be logically developed in order to construct conceptual frameworks as well as present a way forward for future research in the field of study [ 11 ].

Furthermore, the author may have to justify the propositions made earlier in the manuscript, demonstrate how the paper extends past research works, and also suggest ways that the expounded theories can be empirically examined [ 3 ]. Unlike experimental studies which can only draw either a positive conclusion or ambiguous failure to reject the null hypothesis, four possible conclusions can be drawn from review articles [ 1 ]. First, the theory/hypothesis propounded may be correct after being proven from current evidence; second, the hypothesis may not be explicitly proven but is most probably the best guess. The third conclusion is that the currently available evidence does not permit a confident conclusion or a best guess, while the last conclusion is that the theory or hypothesis is false [ 1 ]. It is important not to present new information in the conclusion section which has link whatsoever with the rest of the manuscript. According to Harris et al. [ 90 ], the conclusions should, in essence, answer the question: if a reader were to remember one thing about the review, what would it be?

5.10. References

As it has been noted in different parts of this paper, authors must give the required credit to any work or source(s) of information that was included in the review article. This must include the in-text citations in the main body of the paper and the corresponding entries in the reference list. Ideally, this full bibliographical list is the last part of the review article, and it should contain all the books, book chapters, journal articles, reports, and other media, which were utilised in the manuscript. It has been noted that most journals and publishers have their own specific referencing styles which are all derived from the more popular styles such as the American Psychological Association (APA), Chicago, Harvard, Modern Language Association (MLA), and Vancouver styles. However, all these styles may be categorised into either the parenthetical or numerical referencing style. Although a few journals do not have strict referencing rules, it is the responsibility of the author to reference according to the style and instructions of the journal. Omissions and errors must be avoided at all costs, and this can be easily achieved by going over the references many times for due diligence [ 11 ]. According to Cronin et al. [ 12 ], a separate file for references can be created, and any work used in the manuscript can be added to this list immediately after being cited in the text [ 12 ]. In recent times, the emergence of various referencing management software applications such as Endnote, RefWorks, Mendeley, and Zotero has even made referencing easier. The majority of these software applications require little technical expertise, and many of them are free to use, while others may require a subscription. It is imperative, however, that even after using these software packages, the author must manually curate the references during the final draft, in order to avoid any errors, since these programs are not impervious to errors, particularly formatting errors.

6. Concluding Remarks

Writing a review article is a skill that needs to be learned; it is a rigorous but rewarding endeavour as it can provide a useful platform to project the emerging researcher or postgraduate student into the gratifying world of publishing. Thus, the reviewer must develop the ability to think critically, spot patterns in a large volume of information, and must be invested in writing without tiring. The prospective author must also be inspired and dedicated to the successful completion of the article while also ensuring that the review article is not just a mere list or summary of previous research. It is also important that the review process must be focused on the literature and not on the authors; thus, overt criticism of existing research and personal aspersions must be avoided at all costs. All ideas, sentences, words, and illustrations should be constructed in a way to avoid plagiarism; basically, this can be achieved by paraphrasing, summarising, and giving the necessary acknowledgments. Currently, there are many tools to track and detect plagiarism in manuscripts, ensuring that they fall within a reasonable similarity index (which is typically 15% or lower for most journals). Although the more popular of these tools, such as Turnitin and iThenticate, are subscription-based, there are many freely available web-based options as well. An ideal review article is supposed to motivate the research topic and describe its key concepts while delineating the boundaries of research. In this regard, experience-based information on how to methodologically develop acceptable and impactful review articles has been detailed in this paper. Furthermore, for a beginner, this guide has detailed “the why” and “the how” of authoring a good scientific review article. However, the information in this paper may as a whole or in parts be also applicable to other fields of research and to other writing endeavours such as writing literature review in theses, dissertations, and primary research articles. Finally, the intending authors must put all the basic rules of scientific writing and writing in general into cognizance. A comprehensive study of the articles cited within this paper and other related articles focused on scientific writing will further enhance the ability of the motivated beginner to deliver a good review article.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of South Africa under grant number UID 138097. The authors would like to thank the Durban University of Technology for funding the postdoctoral fellowship of the first author, Dr. Ayodeji Amobonye.

Data Availability

Conflicts of interest.

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

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Writing a Feature Article? Here's Everything You Need to Know

• 10-Mar-2022

There is no one formula for writing a great feature article. However, there are some important tips that you can follow to make sure your article stands out from the rest. You actually don't need to be a professional feature article writer to know how to write great feature articles that leave a lasting impression on your readers-- like these ones. 

All you need is a little of this and that and you'll be on your way to bringing your story to life.   

Tag along and get to learn what makes a great feature article. But first...

What is a Feature Article?

A feature article is an in-depth exploration of a specific topic. It provides the reader with analysis and opinion about issues that are important to them. The purpose of this type of article is to give readers more insight into a subject matter than would normally be found in other forms of reporting such as news stories or editorials. 

Feature articles are also aimed to persuade and entertain readers. 

Feature articles are typically written for magazines and newspapers, but they can also appear on websites or blogs as well. They're often longer than traditional pieces of journalism (around 1000 words) because it takes time to fully explore a subject matter without rushing through the process. While there are no set rules about how long your piece should be, it's important to make sure that every sentence is essential to your argument as well as relevant and relatable to your audience. 

Now, take that knowledge a little bit further and explore article writing in all its enterity. Here's our detailed guide on article writing .

Types of Feature Articles

There are a number of different types of feature articles. Here are examples of a few of them. 

• Profiles- An in-depth look at a person or place that relates to a current newsworthy event or issue that allows readers to get more insight of the person or place. E.g  What we know of the life of Vladimir Putin
• Human interest story - A story that focuses on someone’s experience. It can be an achievement or a problem that evokes emotions and can teach the audience a lesson or raise awareness. E.g How George Floyd Was Killed in Police Custody
• Instructional- An article that provides information or advice on a particular topic. They give a step-by-step guide on how to do something. E.g How to Kiss
• Personal- A story about the writer's own experiences or someone they know. E.g My BeyondBlue personal story
• Seasonal- A story that is tied to a specific time of year, often holidays or special events. E.g History behind thanksgiving 
• Behind the Scenes- A look at how something is made or the people who are involved in making it happen. This can be anything from a movie to a sporting event. E.g Money Heist behind the scene

How to Write a Captivating Feature Article

Now that you know what a feature article is and the different types we have, let's discuss some tips on how to write either of them and ensure it's captivating to your audience.

1. Start With a Strong Lead

Your lead is the opening paragraph of your article, and it's important to make sure that it grabs the reader's attention. You want to introduce your audience to your topic in an interesting way so that they will be compelled to read on. Make sure your lead is clear, concise, and to the point. How? 

• Have something unique to say about the topic (you can use statistics here), 
• State the importance of the article
• Create tension or speculation by setting up a question as to why that particular feature article is worth reading
• Speak directly to the reader (use "you" at least once)
• Don't repeat the title
• Keep the first sentence short. 

2. Do Your Research

As we mentioned earlier, feature articles are in-depth explorations of a specific topic. This means that you need to do your research and ideation in order to gather all of the relevant information. Make sure you know as much as possible about the topic at hand and be prepared to answer any questions that may come up. How? 

• Talk to experts, 
• Read up on previous articles about the subject
• Make sure that you have a well-rounded understanding of what you're writing about. 

Here are some 11 insanely helpful ways to come up with topics for your blog.

The more knowledgeable you are about your subject, the more credible you will appear to readers.

3. Use Quotes From Experts or People Involved in the Story

Include direct quotes from experts or those who are directly impacted by your topic. This is a great way to strengthen your argument and give it some real-life context.

It's important that these quotes aren't too long, - try to keep them between one and two sentences. 

4. Provide Sufficient Evidence for Your Claims or Arguments

Make sure you provide adequate proof of any factual statements in your article. You don't want readers leaving your article with doubts about the credibility of what they just read. That's why it's important to include sources at all times. Also aim to connect the dots. Discuss the essential elements of who, when, what, how, and why. 

5. Be Objective

An amazing feature article should maintain objectivity. This means that you should present all of the facts about your subject matter and let the reader make their own judgment.

Don't try to sway them in one direction or another; simply provide them with the information they need to make an informed decision. At the same time don't be afraid to present a perspective or an angle on the topic. After all, your readers need to feel like it pays off to read your article. 

6. Write for Your Audience

When writing a feature article, it's important to remember who your target audience is.  

What are they interested in reading about this topic? What questions about the subject would they want answered? How much time do they have to spend on your article? 

These questions will help determine what kind of content you should include and how long it should be. 

7. Personalize Your Style of Writing

Use straightforward language that's easy for people to understand. How?

• Don't use jargon or technical terms unless it's absolutely necessary.
• Use a conversational tone. Picture you're talking directly to your reader as if they were sitting down next to you on the couch. 
• Avoid using passive voice and excessive adverbs like "very" or "really." Instead, try using strong verbs like "said" and "asked."
• Get to the point: Don't get caught up in long-winded explanations or flowery prose; instead, just get straight to the heart of what you want your reader to know!

Let Zoey Writers Write Your Feature Articles

Zoey Writers can help you write great feature articles that will capture your readers' attention. We know what makes a great article and how to present your story in a way that is both informative and engaging.

We are a professional writing and editing company that offers high-quality content writing services to businesses and individuals. We have years of experience in creating well-written, captivating content that can help you reach your target audience and achieve your desired results.

Visit our website today to learn more about our services, or contact us to discuss your specific needs. We would be happy to help you get started on your next project!

Photo by  Vlada Karpovich  from  Pexels: Thanks Vlada

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How to Write a Captivating Feature Story

Last Updated: June 27, 2024 Approved

Choosing a Topic

Interviewing subjects, preparing to write the article, writing the article, finalizing the article, how do you come up with an interesting angle for an article, sample feature article.

This article was co-authored by Mary Erickson, PhD . Mary Erickson is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Western Washington University. Mary received her PhD in Communication and Society from the University of Oregon in 2011. She is a member of the Modern Language Association, the National Communication Association, and the Society for Cinema and Media Studies. There are 7 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. This article has 41 testimonials from our readers, earning it our reader-approved status. This article has been viewed 1,464,272 times.

Writing a feature article involves using creativity and research to give a detailed and interesting take on a subject. These types of articles are different from typical news stories in that they often are written in a different style and give much more details and description rather than only stating objective facts. This gives the reader a chance to more fully understand some interesting part of the article's subject. While writing a feature article takes lots of planning, research, and work, doing it well is a great way to creatively write about a topic you are passionate about and is a perfect chance to explore different ways to write.

Quick Guide to Writing a Feature Article

• Find an interesting or compelling story.
• Research and find a unique angle to the story.
• Decide the audience who should read the story.
• Interview relevant people to gain information.
• Outline the article and decide on a length.
• Write the article with plenty of relevant quotes.
• Use engaging details and emotional appeals.

• Human Interest : Many feature stories focus on an issue as it impacts people. They often focus on one person or a group of people.
• Profile : This feature type focuses on a specific individual’s character or lifestyle. This type is intended to help the reader feel like they’ve gotten a window into someone’s life. Often, these features are written about celebrities or other public figures.
• Instructional : How-to feature articles teach readers how to do something. Oftentimes, the writer will write about their own journey to learn a task, such as how to make a wedding cake.
• Historical : Features that honor historical events or developments are quite common. They are also useful in juxtaposing the past and the present, helping to root the reader in a shared history.
• Seasonal : Some features are perfect for writing about in certain times of year, such as the beginning of summer vacation or at the winter holidays.
• Behind the Scenes : These features give readers insight into an unusual process, issue or event. It can introduce them to something that is typically not open to the public or publicized.

• Schedule about 30-45 minutes with this person. Be respectful of their time and don’t take up their whole day. Be sure to confirm the date and time a couple of days ahead of the scheduled interview to make sure the time still works for the interviewee.
• If your interviewee needs to reschedule, be flexible. Remember, they are being generous with their time and allowing you to talk with them, so be generous with your responses as well. Never make an interviewee feel guilty about needing to reschedule.
• If you want to observe them doing a job, ask if they can bring you to their workplace. Asking if your interviewee will teach you a short lesson about what they do can also be excellent, as it will give you some knowledge of the experience to use when you write.

• Be sure to ask your interviewee if it’s okay to audio-record the interview. If you plan to use the audio for any purpose other than for your own purposes writing up the article (such as a podcast that might accompany the feature article), you must tell them and get their consent.
• Don't pressure the interviewee if they decline audio recording.

• Another good option is a question that begins Tell me about a time when.... This allows the interviewee to tell you the story that's important to them, and can often produce rich information for your article.

• Start by describing a dramatic moment and then uncover the history that led up to that moment.
• Use a story-within-a-story format, which relies on a narrator to tell the story of someone else.
• Start the story with an ordinary moment and trace how the story became unusual.

• Check with your editor to see how long they would like your article to be.

• Consider what you absolutely must have in the story and what can be cut. If you are writing a 500-word article, for example, you will likely need to be very selective about what you include, whereas you have a lot more space to write in a 2,500 word article.

• Start with an interesting fact, a quote, or an anecdote for a good hook.
• Your opening paragraph should only be about 2-3 sentences.

• Be flexible, however. Sometimes when you write, the flow makes sense in a way that is different from your outline. Be ready to change the direction of your piece if it seems to read better that way.

• You can choose to incorporate or not incorporate their suggestions.

• Consult "The Associated Press Stylebook" for style guidelines, such as how to format numbers, dates, street names, and so on. [7] X Research source

• If you want to convey slightly more information, write a sub-headline, which is a secondary sentence that builds on the headline.

Community Q&A

• Ask to see a proof of your article before it gets published. This is a chance for you to give one final review of the article and double-check details for accuracy. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

• Be sure to represent your subjects fairly and accurately. Feature articles can be problematic if they are telling only one side of a story. If your interviewee makes claims against a person or company, make sure you talk with that person or company. If you print claims against someone, even if it’s your interviewee, you might risk being sued for defamation. [9] X Research source Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

You Might Also Like

• ↑ http://morrisjournalismacademy.com/how-to-write-a-feature-article/
• ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/learning/students/writing/voices.html
• ↑ http://careers.bmj.com/careers/advice/view-article.html?id=20007483
• ↑ http://faculty.washington.edu/heagerty/Courses/b572/public/StrunkWhite.pdf
• ↑ https://www.apstylebook.com/
• ↑ http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/166662
• ↑ http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/libel-vs-slander-different-types-defamation.html

About This Article

To write a feature article, start with a 2-3 sentence paragraph that draws your reader into the story. The second paragraph needs to explain why the story is important so the reader keeps reading, and the rest of the piece needs to follow your outline so you can make sure everything flows together how you intended. Try to avoid excessive quotes, complex language, and opinion, and instead focus on appealing to the reader’s senses so they can immerse themselves in the story. Read on for advice from our Communications reviewer on how to conduct an interview! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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How to Write an Article Review: Tips, Outline, Format, & Examples

• Icon Calendar 15 May 2024
• Icon Page 5804 words
• Icon Clock 26 min read

This guideline is about how to write an article review, pointing out what students should do to produce high-standard texts, such as preparing themselves, setting the stage, and perfecting the documents by revising and editing words, sentences, and paragraphs to eliminate grammatical and formatting flaws and logical inconsistencies. Basically, an article review presents a constructive analysis of the literature. In this case, scholars use summary, classification, investigation, and appraisal when reviewing scholarly sources. Moreover, such papers help people to identify knowledge gaps in a source and recommend new research areas. In turn, target groups are experts in specific fields, novice researchers, and decision-makers. Other vital information includes a sample outline and an example of an article review paper, the dos and don’ts, and essential tips for writing this type of text. Therefore, reading this guideline prepares one to write an outstanding article review paper that meets the instructor’s expectations and satisfies the rules of academic writing.

General Aspects of How to Write an Outstanding Article Review Paper & Example

Students are individually responsible for excellent academic performance. Anyone in college must develop a mindset that promotes this noble goal. Writing is an activity that helps individuals in a learning institution to convert ideas into text, enhancing intellectual creativity. There are various types of papers that students write as part of ongoing or end-year assessments. Writing different types of essays requires learners to review and apply what they have learned in class or private study to produce a logical document. Therefore, individuals must always endeavor to learn more because no one knows when such knowledge may prove valuable. This article outlines essential details that college students should read, comprehend, and utilize when writing an article review paper. Thus, reading this guideline equips one with valid knowledge that proves fundamental when writing this type of academic text.

Definition of What Is an Article Review and Its Meaning

An article review is a document that examines a literary text and summarizes it by addressing the most critical elements, such as the topic and its background, and its relevance. Ideally, scholars review articles to address specific issues that stand out, such as the author’s controversial or erroneous arguments. Students may need to start writing an article review to demonstrate critical thinking because such a task requires one to state what is in the text and evaluate it and its significance. Therefore, when reviewing an article, it means that one must use intellectual creativity to interrogate the author’s ideas and presume their intention. However, an article review differs from academic texts, like an argumentative essay, a research proposal or research paper, and reports, because students use an author’s content as subject material.

Choose Wr1ter Team for reliable, plagiarism-free papers that meet your specific requirements.

Unique Structure Features of an Article Review

One reason why an article review differs from other scholarly texts is its set of unique features. The first is that it is based on an existing document. While writers begin other academic texts, like essays from scratch, students start writing their papers by reviewing the assigned source, or they search for it on their own. The second feature is a summary since writers focus on reading the article and highlighting the essential details, like the topic, thesis statement, and central ideas. The third unique feature is evaluation, while the purpose of an article review is not to report what the text says but evaluate its content from the reviewer’s perspective. In this case, people must know the topical area to assess the source. The fourth and most critical feature is significance because an article review must communicate the relevance of the text. In turn, students must incorporate all these four elements when writing an article review.

🔹 Title of an Article Review

An excellent article review must have a unique title. For example, an essay title should be informative, while the heading should include essential terms and indicate that the text is under review. In this case, the title of any article review paper should influence the audience to read the text. For instance, a compelling title should include a message about the review materials, and readers should understand the author’s goal. Thus, an article review must have a clear and relevant title.

🔹 Overview Paragraph or Introduction

The first paragraph of an article review must provide the background information on the source under investigation, like any college essay introduction presents a brief overview of the paper. In this case, the introductory section should include the title of the source under review and its authors, following the title case rule. Then, the introduction must describe the focus of the source, develops a knowledge question, and clarifies the organization of the text under evaluation. Along these lines, this paragraph must have a narrow focus on the relevant source. Therefore, the overview paragraph section must provide appropriate background information on the corresponding source and develop a research question.

🔹 Body of an Article Review or Its Content

The body of an article review must be relevant to the assigned source. For example, paragraph writing should present the material and method used in the source under consideration. In this case, some sections that people may consider when writing their papers reveal the data sources, research strategies, and selection criteria. Besides, the material and method sections should entail the number of studies included and statistical approaches used to analyze data. Thus, body paragraphs should cover the strategies used to gather and analyze data in the source under analysis.

🔹 Conclusion or Final Paragraph

Being the last section of an article review, the conclusion paragraph should answer the research question presented in the introductory paragraph and what the author intends to share. For instance, the conclusion should reveal the implication of the findings. Besides, this part of the paper should identify the interpretations by the author and unresolved knowledge questions. Thus, the ending paragraph must justify the research question identified in the introduction.

🔹 Reference List and Illustrations (Optional)

An excellent article review should contain a reference list to avoid plagiarism and illustrations that are optional. For example, the reference list should include the full bibliographic information of the evaluated sources to acknowledge credible sources. In turn, illustrations may help students to visualize the analyzed sources. For instance, a compelling article review paper may include concept maps. In turn, this method may help to show a clear relationship between perceptions and theories used by authors. Thus, this type of paper should acknowledge reliable sources and may include illustrations to enhance a better understanding of central concepts.

Possible Formatting Examples of Sources for an Article Review

Because an article review is a scholarly document, students must incorporate citations to indicate ideas they have borrowed from other scholars. There are four primary formatting styles: APA, MLA, Harvard, and Chicago/Turabian. Each style has unique features that make it distinct, although some of them have several similarities. When writing an article review, students should adopt the style their instructor explicitly specified. However, without such specifications, one should choose a style they have used before because they grasp the unique elements that the text should emphasize. These elements should appear in all formatting styles and include the author’s name, the source’s title, the date or year of publication, and the publisher’s name. All headings are in the title case for level one, two, and three headings across all the styles.

📕 APA (American Psychological Association) Formatting Style for an Article Review

The APA style is among the most common formatting styles for most academic texts. When using this style, students should focus on three aspects: outline, in-text citations, and References. The outline is the overall appearance of a document. Although most academic texts have a three-part outline (introduction, body, conclusion), writers use headings and subheadings to organize their work logically. Rules for APA headings require students to bold and center the first-level headings, bold and flush left the second-level headings, and bold, italicize, and flush left the third-level headings. In-text citations should capture the author’s surname, year of publication, and paragraph or page number. Essential details for entries in the References page are the author’s surname, publication year in brackets, source’s title italicized in sentence case, and the publisher. The following examples for a review show APA References entries and corresponding in-text citations:

Web article ‘References’ entry:

Paluch, J., & Herrera, J. (2023, February 21). Homeless populations are rising around California . Public Policy Institute of California. https://www.ppic.org/blog/homeless-populations-are-rising-around-california/

In-text citation at the end of a sentence:

(Paluch & Herrera, 2023, para. 2).

Scholarly or scientific article under review:

Somerville, P. (2013). Understanding homelessness. Housing, Theory, and Society , 30 (4), 384-415. https://doi.org/10.1080/14036096.2012.756096

News article under review:

Kang, J. C. (2023, July 2). What does California’s homeless population actually look like. The New Yorker . https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/what-does-californias-homeless-population-actually-look-like

📕 MLA (Modern Language Association) Formatting Style for an Article Review

Students should focus on the most critical features when adopting the MLA style to write an article review. They are the outline, in-text citations, and Works Cited. Concerning MLA format heading, writers should ensure the first level is in the title case, bolded, and flushed left; the second is in the title case, bolded, italicized, and flushed left; and the third is bolded and centered in the title case. For in-text citations, students should capture the author’s name and the paragraph or page number. However, for entries on the works cited page, one should provide more details, including the author’s name, the article in the title case, the publisher in italics, and the publication year. The following examples for a review show Works Cited entries for various sources:

Web article ‘Works Cited’ entry:

Paluch, Jennifer, and Joseph Herrera. “Homeless Populations Are Rising Around California.” Public Policy Institute of California , 2023, https://www.ppic.org/blog/homeless-populations-are-rising-around-california/

(Paluch and Herrera para. 2).

Somerville, Peter. “Understanding Homelessness.” Housing, Theory, and Society, vol. 30, no. 4, 2013, pp. 384-415, https://doi.org/10.1080/14036096.2012.756096.

Kang, Jay Caspian. “What Does California’s Homeless Population Actually Look Like.” The New Yorker , 2023. https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/what-does-californias-homeless-population-actually-look-like

📕 Harvard Formatting Style for an Article Review

The Harvard formatting style resembles the APA style in some aspects. When using this style, an article reviewer should focus on the outline, in-text citations, and the References List. Regarding the outline, writers should bold and center the first-level headings and write it in the title case. They should equally bold the second-level headings and write them in the title case but flush it left. Lastly, students should indent and bold the third-level headings but write them in sentence case. They should begin writing after the period. In-text citations should have the name of the author, publication year, and page or paragraph number. The essential details for entries in the References List are the author’s name, the publication year, the source, and the publisher. Such entries for a review should appear differently for various sources as follows:

Web article ‘References List’ entry:

Paluch, J and Herrera, J 2023, ‘Homeless populations are rising around California,’ Public Policy Institute of California . Available from: <https://www.ppic.org/blog/homeless-populations-are-rising-around-california/>. [13 August 2023].

(Paluch & Herrera 2023, para. 2).

Somerville, P 2013, ‘Understanding homelessness,’ Housing, Theory, and Society , vol. 30, no. 4, pp. 384-415. https://doi.org/10.1080/14036096.2012.756096.

Kang, JC 2023, ‘What does California’s homeless population actually look like,’ The New Yorker . Available from: < https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/what-does-californias-homeless-population-actually-look-like>. [13 August 2023].

📕 Chicago/Turabian Formatting Style for an Article Review

The Chicago/Turabian formatting style is similar to the MLA style in some aspects. When writing an article review, students should focus on the outline, in-text citations, and the Bibliography. Regarding the outline, they should center and bold the first-level headings and write them in the title case. They should also center and write the second-level headings in the title case without the boldface. Finally, writers should bold and flush left the third-level headings and ensure they are in the title case. In-text citations should appear in the footnotes, while the most critical elements for Bibliography entries are the author’s name, the source’s title, the publisher, and the publication year. These entries for a review should read as follows for various sources:

Web article ‘Bibliography’ entry:

Paluch, Jennifer, and Joseph Herrera. “Homeless Populations Are Rising Around California.” Public Policy Institute of California , 2023, https://www.ppic.org/blog/homeless-populations-are-rising-around-california/.

In-text citation appears in the footnote as:

Jennifer Paluch and Joseph Herrera, “Homeless Populations Increasing in California,” Public Policy Institute of California , 2023, par. 6, https://www.ppic.org/blog/homeless-populations-are-rising-around-california/.

Kang, Jay Caspian. “What Does California’s Homeless Population Actually Look Like.” The New Yorker , 2023. https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/what-does-californias-homeless-population-actually-look-like.

Enhance your academic performance with our top-notch, plagiarism-free papers.

Common Types of Article Reviews

Article reviews come in different forms precisely because different sources are emerging across multiple platforms daily. The common platforms include the Web, online publications, news outlets, and online databases. Therefore, when reviewing an article, students should consider the platform upon which it exists because such details must appear when formatting the paper.

The Web is the most robust platform for scholarly and other types of documents. Ideally, anyone who writes an article can post it on this platform because of fewer rules or limitations, such as the need for a standard text. As such, students can access all types of documents on the Web, including articles addressing various societal issues like homelessness. Bloggers view the Web as the ideal place to spread ideas because of the enormous traffic of people that visit it daily. When reviewing articles from the Web, students should understand that such documents can be academically valid or invalid depending on the author. The best way to determine an article’s intellectual validity is to consider the author’s credentials. What they write must be valid if they are scholars, such as architects, physicians, or software engineers.

Online Publications

Online publications for a review include journals and magazines that provide professionals with a good place to share ideas and review them. Almost every profession has an online journal or magazine where individuals in the trade and those interested in it can exchange thoughts regarding various issues. For example, the scientific community has New Scientist , Architectural Digest , and Tech Briefs , which are online magazines where people interested in essay topics in science, architecture, and engineering can find intellectually nourishing articles. As such, writings on these online platforms are academically valid because the authors are professionals with experience in diverse fields. When reviewing such articles, students should not be casual but intellectually alert because those who consume their work may want to know how they appraise or critique a text by a professional.

Online News Outlets

With the Internet becoming the most accessible educational platform in the world in contemporary society, news organizations have developed online outlets to keep the public informed at all times. The advantage of these outlets for a review is that the public can read about breaking news before the mainstream broadcast and print media can communicate. Although news articles are not scholarly, they are academically valid because they undergo editing by professional journalists. Generally, these reading materials are about emerging issues across diverse fields, including politics, economy, society, and international relations. Therefore, when reviewing news articles, students should consider their topical area and mention how the author addresses or fails to include the most critical details, such as the pressing needs of the public if the source is about politics.

Online Databases

Online databases are the primary reservoirs of research knowledge because they hold various research studies and credible sources. Like online publications that are professionally based, these platforms are discipline-based. In other words, each online database is unique because it contains reliable articles within a specific field of study, such as anthropology, psychology, sociology, political science, law, and linguistics. Therefore, when reviewing research articles, students should find out the database they belong. However, since most researches exist in different databases, writers should focus on the journal that publishes the article. As previously stated, the journal’s name should appear in the citation at the end of the document. Examples of online databases where students can access research articles for a review include JSTOR, EBSCO, PubMed, Scopus, ScienceDirect, and others. Since most of these databases require students to have access credentials, most scholars use Google Scholar to find specific articles for their reviews.

Examples of Topics for Writing an Article Review

Based on the preceding sections, students can review articles from various platforms. The most important thing to note is that each platform specializes in a particular discipline, such as sociology or political science. Typically, instructors specify the assigned article students should review. However, they may sometimes choose reading materials themselves. The following are possible examples of topics for writing an article review paper that students can choose because they are based on articles.

• Review a research article, “Sex Differences Across Developmental Domains in Children With a Familial Risk of Severe Mental Disorders,” authored by Birgitte Klee Burton and colleagues, and explain the significance of the life continuum.
• What does Daniel Warton see as the real problem in American Politics in the article “‘Ripe for Political Violence’: US Election Officials Are Quitting at an Alarming Rate.”
• What does Chika Anekwe prescribe for physical fitness in the article “Can Fitness Counter Fatness.”
• What is Medha Mehta’s main message in the article “Hard Work Is the Key to Success…Or Is It Not?”
• Write an article review for “Administrators and Accountability: The Plurality of Value Systems in the Public Domain” by Udo Pesch.

Outline Sample Template for Writing a Good Article Review Paper

I. introduction section of an article review.

• Introduce the article and rationale for the review. Students should state why the article’s topic is essential, such as addressing a social issue.
• Clearly define what the review will discuss. Writers outline the order in which they will review each aspect of the article, such as the title, author, content, and significance.
• State the thesis. People communicate their main focus in reviewing the article, such as critiquing it.

II. Body Paragraphs Section

For each of the body paragraphs, students should incorporate:

• A topic sentence: The student communicates an idea that supports the thesis.
• Evidence: The student includes quotes or paraphrases information in the article, following the referencing rules.
• Evaluation: The student evaluates the information from the assigned article to make an argument, such as critique the author.
• A concluding sentence: It is a statement that summarizes the student’s thinking about the article under review.
• Transition: This sentence concludes the paragraph with a statement establishing a logical flow to the next paragraph or section.

III. Conclusion Section

• Remind the reader of the purpose of the review by rewording the thesis statement.
• Briefly mention the main points as they appear in body paragraphs, following their order.
• Make a final remark about the article under review that is intellectually stimulating.

Example of an Article Review Paper

Topic: Write an article review for “Administrators and Accountability: The Plurality of Value Systems in the Public Domain” by Udo Pesch

I. Introduction Sample for an Article Review

Udo Pesch’s article, “Administrators and Accountability: The Plurality of Value Systems in the Public Domain,” emphasizes the significance of the interplay between accountability and value systems in public administrators’ decision-making process. The researcher’s primary focus is whether society should hold public administrators accountable and responsible for their decisions. In this respect, Pesch’s article considers the various influences that impact public administrators’ decisions.

II. Example of the First Body Paragraph Review

From the start, Pesch points out that accountability in decision-making is a challenging matter in public administration. The article under review clarifies that codes of ethics are essential accountability systems in organizations because they define expected behaviors. As such, these explicit ethical systems influence people’s actions in the workplace and even elsewhere. However, the author cautions that differences between one’s moral values and the terms of the ethical codes can trigger conflict often characterized by a blatant failure to follow policies. In turn, public administrators’ motivations and inability to perceive the consequences of their decisions are the primary factors that complicate accountability.

III. Example of the Second Body Paragraph Review

The social context is another factor influencing public administrators’ sense of accountability. According to Pesch, diverse ethical domains in the social environment prescribe “their own standards of good and bad behavior.” In this respect, individuals operate in a social setting without clearly understanding what attitudes, behaviors, and actions they should demonstrate. This lack of clarity about ethical standards explains why many administrators make bad decisions or refuse to submit to accountability frameworks for reviewing them. Ideally, people feel trapped in a system that demands more without moral support. For example, while top leadership understands what they must do to be accountable, those at lower levels do not. This gap occurs because organizations invest heavily in top leadership, such as training seminars, but view lower cadre employees as the support base.

IV. Example of the Third Body Paragraph Review

In commenting about the context that makes accountability a complicated matter in public administration, Pesch blames the lack of universal moral codes as why this is the norm. According to the article, public administrators often violate codes of ethics because they do not believe a universal moral code demands civil servants “to live up to integrity standards.” For most administrators, laws and organizational procedures are perfect for holding individuals accountable. The author argues that acknowledging that civil servants have a sense of responsibility is the most effective approach in designing accountability frameworks like codes of ethics under review. However, this is not the case in most contexts because these accountability systems do not address the potential differences between authorized rules and universal principles of good behavior.

V. Conclusion Sample of an Article Review

Overall, Pesch’s article systematically addresses the issues that complicate the sense of accountability in public administration. The source identifies people’s moral values, ethical codes, and the social environment as the principal factors influencing civil servants’ sense of accountability. Pesch is adamant that codes of ethics are insufficient to motivate civil servants to be accountable and responsible because there is no universal understanding of ethical or moral behavior.

4 Easy Steps for Writing an Article Review Paper

Academic activities can be time-consuming and mentally challenging. While the former is easy to manage because one can be flexible, the latter is complicated and has little room for maneuver. Writing falls in this latter category because producing an article review is a complex process requiring students to grasp technical details. Notably, from times when an instructor tells students they need to write this type of text to when they submit completed work, several things must happen to ensure the final product is of high standard. The technical details one should focus on fall within four stages of writing: preparation, stage set-up, actual writing, and wrap-up. While some steps are simple, others are complex and require students’ utmost focus.

Step 1: Preparation

Like any vital activity or process, writing an article review should begin with preparation. In this initial step of writing, students should choose their article to review if the instructor has not explicitly specified what the class should use. One needs to select a good source from an online database if the requirement is to review a research article. The next task is to generate ideas through brainstorming sessions with classmates or peers. This activity should happen with the audience of an assigned source in mind. Writers need to review an article in a manner that makes sense to those who will consume their work. As such, students should produce an intellectually stimulating document. When writing an article review, people should know why they are writing it: appraise, critique, or summarize.

Step 2: Stage Set-Up

The next step of writing an article review paper is to set up the stage, meaning making the necessary arrangements to initiate the writing process. Students should search for a good article on the relevant platform while writing an article review. In essence, one should use the article’s title as the keyword to browse the Web or search online databases. However, if students choose their sources, they should use the study area, such as sociology or psychology, as their keywords. The next activity is to read articles available online while noting essential information, such as the author’s name and credentials, the topical area, the thesis, key concepts, and central arguments. Students also should create a clear essay outline comprising three main sections: introduction, body, and conclusion. Lastly, they should undertake expanded research to critique the chosen article under review.

Step 3: The Writing Process

The third step is to initiate the actual writing of an article review, where one puts ideas into paper. In this stage, article reviewers should focus on producing an initial draft by translating all the ideas they have generated into text. Since some ideas may need to be more for the length of an article review paper, students should search for more sources to generate additional points of discussion or analysis. However, deleting some sources may be necessary if the ideas are too many for a single article. Students can also replace sources if they find new ones with better, convincing content. A possible outcome of adding or deleting sources is the alteration of the outline. For example, one may add new body paragraphs to accommodate more ideas. Students should focus on their outlines when writing the first draft because it determines whether an article review document meets essential requirements.

Writing an Introduction for an Article Review Paper

The introduction is the first part of an article review. When writing this section, students should focus on three things: introducing the title and author(s), clarifying the primary focus of the evaluation, and creating a clear thesis. The first element concerns the source’s title under review and who wrote it, while the second concerns what the text is about, such as appraising, critiquing, or summarizing the article under review. The third element is where students state their focus emphatically to establish the ground for the ideas in body paragraphs. As a result, when writing the introduction of their article review paper, students should know their goal is to analyze an existing text and inform readers how they intend to accomplish this task.

Writing Body Paragraphs for an Article Review Paper

The body of an article review paper is the most comprehensive section because it comprises the ideas that writers use to analyze an existing document. In this respect, its main feature is body paragraphs, which may be two or more depending on the requirements of the paper’s length. While all body paragraphs capture different content, they have a uniform outline. The first element is the topic sentence, which means words that students use to open the section. This sentence must emphasize a central idea that reminds readers about the thesis. The next element is evidence from the source, such as a quote, since people need to include author’s statements, arguments, or other evidence for analysis. The third element is the evaluation of the evidence, which is the point at which students review articles. The final elements are a concluding sentence and a transition, and they help readers to connect to the next paragraph or section.

Writing a Conclusion Part for an Article Review

Every academic text must have a final paragraph, the stage at which writers complete the writing process. In this stage, writers should summarize their work by restating the thesis using different words and emphasizing the main points in body paragraphs. The last element is a final remark that allows writers to judge the chosen reading material using their own words. Students must understand that they must refrain from introducing new ideas at this stage. Therefore, when writing this part, one should focus on reminding readers of what they have read, emphasizing the most critical aspects of the article under review.

Step 4: Wrap Up

The last activity in writing any document is to wrap it up by ensuring its content follows a logical order. Students should wrap up article review papers by perfecting the initial draft. The primary focus at this stage is eliminating all flaws that might affect the article review paper’s quality, such as missing citations and punctuation or inconsistent arguments and ideas. Ideally, students perfect their documents by revising sections that seem illogical and editing sections to ensure they align with the initial outline. The greatest focus should be on body paragraphs because that is where students execute their objectives. Some details one should confirm include topic sentences, correct citing, concluding sentences, transition, and formatting. Formatting is critical because citations are a crucial feature of body paragraphs. In turn, students should cite all information from the source and other documents, following APA, MLA, Harvard, or Chicago/Turabian paper formats.

20 Tips for Writing an Article Review Paper

Based on the preceding sections, writing an article review paper is complex and technical. As such, students need to learn how to simplify the process because writing this type of text is a norm in college education. Generally, students should choose a source of interest that is less complicated in terms of language, identify and summarize the central ideas of the text, appraise and critique the document, and comment on the source’s significance for the area of study.

10 ‘Things to Do’ When Writing an Article Review Are:

•  choose a well-defined topic,
• thoroughly search the literature to find the right article,
• create an outline,
• develop a thesis,
• formulate the topic sentences,
• extract information (evidence) from the article (quotes),
• evaluate the information,
• create a first draft,
• perfect the draft to create a final paper,
• proofread the final document.

10 ‘Not to Do Things’ Are:

• do not choose an easy topic,
• do not pick articles that are not academically stimulating,
• do not skip writing the outline,
• do not generate ideas not backed by evidence,
• do not assume what the article says,
• do not be rigid in accommodating new ideas,
• do not consider sources that are not scholarly,
• do not simply summarize the article,
• do not ignore formatting rules,
• do not use informal language.

Summing Up on How to Write a Perfect Article Review Paper

An article review analyzes specific literature and targets experts in particular fields, novice researchers, and decision-makers. Basically, such papers should have a unique structure that helps to communicate important concepts. In this case, the acceptable structure of article reviews contains a compelling title, introduction, relevant body paragraphs, conclusion, and references. As a result, students should learn essential tips for producing a high-standard article review paper:

• The first tip is to choose a topic one has studied in class or private study. Doing so helps in idea generation because students have previous knowledge in their heads.
• The second tip is to choose an article one can support using scholarly sources. The best approach is to focus on online publications and databases because they contain scholarly articles.
• The third tip is to follow the standard outline: introduction, body, and conclusion.
• The fourth tip is to generate ideas using evidence from the article under review. One must understand that an article review can be done without creating new knowledge.
• The fifth tip is to consult widely through research to ensure the content is intellectually engaging.
• Other tips include incorporating expert opinion into the body paragraphs, creating logical sentences, correcting grammatical and formatting errors, and eliminating the illogical flow of ideas and thoughts.

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How to write a Feature Article

Need to write a Feature Article for a magazine or newspaper but not sure where to start?

This guide includes links to tools and resources that can help you.

What is a Feature Article?

A  feature article is an article written to dive deeper into a story than a regular article and give more depth to topical events, people or issues.

Feature articles are written by an expert or a journalist. They provide background information on a newsworthy topic as well as the writer's personal slant or experience.

You will find feature articles in newspapers, magazines and online.

Structure of a Feature Article

A well-written feature article  follows a specific format and will include the following:

Other elements you may wish to include in your Feature Article:

• Images / Photos / Illustrations
• Columns - split text into two or three columns
• Break-out boxes - boxes which separate text from the main part of the story

F eature Article Example

A Pocketful of Pennies. Teen Breathe , Issue 13, 10-13.

Tools to create a Feature Article

Use the following tools and resources to help you format your Feature article.

Templates  for magazine articles by Canva

This video shows you how to use Google Docs to format a magazine-style article. 

Run Time: 5:17 mins

This video includes tips and a guide to writing and "designing" a great feature article

Run Time: 4:00 mins

More tips for writing a newspaper or feature article

Image credits

Johnson, L. (2017, February 3).  How to Format Google Document as Magazine Style Article  [Video]. Youtube.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfCB2zAPh4Q&t=8s

mskrieger . (n.d.).  Smart tips for writing a great feature article   [Video]. Youtube.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ec0IsulAcXw

A Pocketful of Pennies.  Teen Breathe , Issue 13, 10-13.

Scholastic. (n.d.). Writing a Newspaper Article. https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/writing-newspaper-article/

Cover image credits

Angelova, N. (2019, April 4). [Photograph of a magazine on a bed] [Photograph]. Unsplash.  https://unsplash.com/photos/417kabtPFEU

Kenion, C. (2018, January 17). [Photograph of a magazine display][Photograph]. Unsplash.  https://unsplash.com/photos/cJkVMAKDYl0

Robertson, E. (2017, February 15). [Photograph of a magazine and glasses] [Photograph]. Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/4hH8MJBQYYE

Thought Catalog. (2018, March 2). Fashion magazine [Phoograph]. Unsplash.  https://unsplash.com/photos/p-th9JVqrkY

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How To Write An Amazing Feature Article In 5 Steps

Need to write a feature article for class? Don't worry, in this article, we show you how to write an amazing feature article in 5 steps!

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Unsure of the difference between a feature article and a newspaper report? Well, it’s time to find out! We will show you the different characteristics of an amazing feature article and how to write one!

To show you how to write an amazing feature article, we’ll discuss:

Characteristics of a feature article.

• Different types of feature articles

Language used in feature articles

• Research / Planning
• Header / Title
• Introduction

What is a feature article?

A feature article is a non-fiction piece of writing that focuses on a particular topic. You will find them in newspapers and news sites, online blogs, or magazines.

However, they are not the same as news reports! Whereas news reports are more factual…

Feature articles are more subjective and emotive.

They commonly present information in a more narratorial manner to make them more engaging.

Now that we have a general understanding of what a feature article is, let’s take a detailed look at their characteristics.

A feature article should,

• Explore a topic or issue of current importance
• Follows  narratorial conventions (i.e. There is a plot, complication, and conclusion)
• Written in short paragraphs
• Combine facts and opinions
• Provide a perspective or angle about the topic or issue
• Includes catchy features (eg. Catchy title, images etc.).

Different types of feature articles:

There are many different types of feature articles. Each one has a different focus and purpose.

So, let’s see a few examples of feature articles!

• eg.  ‘ Charlie Kaufman’s debut novel, ‘Antkind’, is just as loopy and clever as his movies ‘
• eg. ‘ A Former High School Football Player Dove and Caught a Child Dropped From the Balcony of a Burning Building’
• eg. ‘ How to Tie Dye ‘
• eg. ‘ My 2019 UCAT Experience ‘
• eg. ‘ Why Australia Day is really held on 26 January and the push to change the date ‘ or ‘ Thanksgiving 2020 – Date, history behind the holiday and what time is Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade ?’
• eg. ‘ Craziness behind the scenes at the White House ‘ and ‘ Two Former McDonald Employees Spill Insider Secrets About Working at the Fast Food Chain ‘

Note : There are many more different types of feature articles. You’ll want to research the genre specific for the task you’ve been set.

Before we go into the nitty-gritty details for writing feature articles, you need to know what skills and techniques you need to acquire in order to write a feature article!

• Share your opinions
• Show your personality (eg. humourous, serious…)
• Use semi-formal language (i.e. some colloquialism)
• Use emotive language
• Refer to the audience in second person language (eg. “you”)
• Use literary and rhetorical techniques to engage the reader (eg. rhetorical questions, anecdotes, imagery…)
• Don’t overuse adjectives or adverbs . Use strong verbs and nouns to describe, instead of adjectives and adverbs.
• Use facts, quotes and jargon  to add authenticity
• Make sure you write in the  active voice

How to write an amazing feature article in 5 steps

Now that we know what a feature article is, let’s see what you need to do in when writing an amazing feature article:

Step 1: Research and Planning

Remember, feature articles are still based on factual information. So, it is vital that you research your topic very well and that you carefully plan out what you want to write.

We will need to research, plan and research again!

Once you’ve thought about the topic you’ve begin, or decided which issue you would like to discuss, you’re ready to get stuck into researching.

a. Research the general topic

This step is all about reading different perspectives and information about your chosen topic.

Doing this will help you take an informative stance on your topic.

See which perspective interests you most, or which one you agree with most. Also, take into account of the amount of strong evidence you can find for your feature article.

b. Narrow your focus and plan

Now, it is time to take a stance and start planning your feature article!

Here are some points you need to consider when you are planning:

• What type of feature article do you want to write?
• What is your stance on the topic?
• Who is your target audience?
• What is your article about?
• Why are you writing about this topic? (i.e. purpose)
• Chronologically?
• Level of importance?
• Like a narrative?

Note : The purpose of your feature article can be to convince, evoke sympathy or anger, praise or even to educate. It is up to you to figure out what you want to say about the topic.

c. Research evidence

Now, it is time to research some more and gather some evidence to support your feature article.

Feature articles are supposed to help readers really understand and feel your story.

So, to do this, you must ensure that you spend this time to really flesh out your story and get a good grasp of what you are writing about.

Here are some examples you should look for:

• eg. “ According to Cancer.org , 1960 Australians died from skin cancer in 2016 “
• eg. “ Brendan Thomas will not be deported to New Zealand because he is an Indigenous Australian and is protected by the new law “
• eg. “ Professor Gabriel Leung, Expert on COVID-19 Epidemic from Hong Kong University , says that COVID-19 could ‘infect 60% of global population if unchecked'”  
• “ From the live interview with Holocaust survivor.. “

Step 2: Header / Title

Feature articles are known for their eye-catching headers!

Let’s take a look at 2 headers. Which title would you click on first?

“ Rising film director, Sherrice, just released a provocative stop-motion piece that will change your view about fast food! ”

“ Film director, Sherrice, just released a stop-motion piece about fast food ”

The first line is more catchy because it uses emotive language and it directly addresses the readers.

So, how do you write catchy headlines?

• Keep it short and snappy
• Directly address the reader
• Use adjectives / adverbs
• Tell readers what your content is about
• Ask a question
• Give an imperative

Step 3: Introduction

Like your title, your introduction also needs to ‘hook’ in the readers.

They set the scene and draw interest from the audience.

Think about a narrative’s 3 Act Structure:

• The opening act sets the scene and captivate the audience’s attention
• Act 2 is where the action and the major complication occurs
• The 3rd act is the conclusion. It ‘solves’ the problem.

Feature articles function in the same way.

However, unlike a narrative, feature articles’ introductions are very brief and short. They should never be longer than 15% of your whole article.

So, how do you write effective introductions to feature articles:

• Make an interesting and provocative opening statement to draw reader’s attention
• Briefly introduce the topic and purpose
• Establish a relationship with your reader through your language (eg. second person language, rhetorical questions…)
• Create intrigue and interest by foreshadowing your points or challenging your audience
• Provide background information about your topic

Take a read of ABC journalist, Stan Grant’s introduction from  ‘Anger has the hour’: How long must Indigenous Australia Wait for Change? 

“How long must Aboriginal people wait? How many “turning points” must there be, before we stop believing?

Time is something Indigenous people do not have, not when we die 10 years younger than the rest of the population. Every year lost is counted in graveyard crosses.

Yet the Federal Government says there will likely be no referendum on Indigenous constitutional recognition this term of Parliament. Three years since the Uluru Statement from the Heart laid out a vision for Australia — Voice, Treaty, Truth — and we are told still to wait.

That is three years lost; a wasted opportunity to finish our unfinished business. First Nations people asked Australians to walk with us for a better future, yet we cannot get beyond those first steps.”

You see, Grant draws the audience’s interest by asking provocative rhetorical questions that hints at his stance about the topic.

He then provides background information about his topic to inform his audience about the issue. However, notice how he does this in an interesting and engaging way.

Grant uses literary techniques like tricolon (eg. “Voice, Treaty, Truth”), metaphors (eg. “year lost is counted in graveyard crosses” and “First Nations people asked Australians to walk wth us for a better future, yet we cannot get beyond those first steps”) and the motif of steps (eg. “walk with us” and “first steps”).

Step 4: Body

Now, let’s move onto the main part of your feature article.

The body of your feature article is where you write all of your juicy information.

This is where the story unfolds and you share your opinions.

So, let’s get started and see what you need to do in your feature article body paragraphs.

a. Show don’t tell

‘Show, don’t tell’ is a commonly taught writing technique. It requires students to describe and ‘show’ what is happening, instead of simply recounting (‘telling’).

Let’s take a look at an example:

• Tell : Johnny was tired after he ran up the hill.
• Show : Johnny’s legs were aching as he forced himself up the hill. He was struggling to catch his breath and his cheeks were red and puffed up.

Notice the difference? The second line is much more engaging and descriptive, and we feel more connected to the character.

As such, you need to ‘show’ your information to make your article more engaging and interesting to read.

Remember, a feature article is much more colourful than a newspaper report.

So, let’s learn how to ‘show, not tell’:

• Write vivid descriptions and imagery
• Rely on the different senses to describe (i.e. sight, touch, smell, hearing, taste)
• Use literary techniques
• Don’t state emotions (eg. ‘He is happy’,  ‘She was excited’ or ‘That was scary’)
• Use strong verbs and nouns, instead of adverbs and adjectives (eg. ‘sprinted’ instead of ‘ran fast’)

b. Be creative

In other terms, use rhetorical and literary techniques! Using these techniques will help you achieve your purpose and simultaneously engage the audience.

For example, if you want to evoke sympathy from the audience, you can use emotive language and hyperbole:

“Big, brute boys brutally beat small neighbourhood boy until he was unrecognisable” 

Or, if you want to convince the audience, you can use high modality words and an imperative voice:

“The time to take action is now! Get your phones and fill out the survey now”

So, what are some techniques that are commonly used in feature articles:

If you want to find more techniques, or learn more about the listed techniques, take a read of our English Literary Techniques Toolkit .

c. Support your opinions

Remember, a feature article isn’t just a story… it is also an article! This means that you will need a set of strong evidence to support what you are saying.

We already went through the various types of evidence you need for a feature article:

• Case studies
• Quotes from critics or experts

So, ensure you use a variety of different evidence and use it across your whole feature article.

Step 5: Conclusion

We are at the final stage of your feature article!

Too often, students neglect the conclusion because they think it’s unimportant in a feature article.

However, it is quite the opposite.

Conclusions are especially important in feature article because they summarise your ideas and stance, and ultimately inspire your readers to take action.

So, take your time to quickly summarise your article and add a call to action (i.e. tell your audience to do something, either explicitly or implicitly).

Let’s take a look at News.com journalist, Emma Reynold’s conclusion: “ Craziness Behind the Scenes at the White House ”

“ Three levels of the imposing White House are visible above ground, with the rest beneath. The basements include workrooms, bombs shelters and a bowling alley.

I’m told to look out for the famous red-tailed hawks that live in the rafters of the building. While squirrels are a common sight outside the gates, not many survive within.

Back on Pennsylvania Avenue, I note the absence of sewer grates or rubbish bins, a precaution against bombs.

Clearly, there is a strong consciousness of danger here. But it’s covered with a Disney smile. “

Here, Reynold summarises her experience at the White House and comes to a final conclusion.

She also uses rhetorical and literary techniques to engage her audience and make her conclusion more memorable.

For example, we see a metaphor with “while squirrels are a common sight outside the gates, not many survive within [the White House]”, drawing links between squirrels and common people.

She also uses framing (her introduction refers a ‘Disney star’), allusion and metaphor in her final line: “But it’s covered with a Disney smile”.

Furthermore, Reynolds also implicitly warns us to be aware and critical of what is truly happening in the White House. This is her call to action.

This is what you need to do with your conclusions too!

Written by Matrix English Team

© Matrix Education and www.matrix.edu.au, 2023. Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Matrix Education and www.matrix.edu.au with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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How To Write a Feature Article: A Step-by-Step Guide

Have you dreamt of becoming a famous feature article writer do you acquire your muse from writers like maya angelou, ketaki desai , rishab raj, shivani vig, and other popular feature writers have you ever felt writing as a tool for reflection then, this article will teach you the fundamentals of what makes a good feature article and how to write one.  it is better to learn more about feature articles before learning the strategies on how to write a feature article. so, here we go.

What is a Feature Article?

A feature article, according to Dictionary.com, is a daily or fortnightly article or report about a person, event, frontage of a major event, or the like. This writing adds a personal touch, and quite often, it is written in a discrete style. It can be a news story, the main or most prominent story in a magazine.   A feature article is no doubt an article inscribed to give a piece of in-depth knowledge to events, people issues, or news. A proficient person or a journalist can write a feature article. Their writings will provide background information on a significant or a noteworthy topic, and the article will include the writer’s angle or his/her experience. 

Difference between News Article and Feature Article

It is not a news item or advertisement. It is a common fact that people get confused with news articles and feature articles. We get confused with news and features and always think of the dos and don’ts of writing a feature article. All are aware of feature articles in Sunday newspapers, but where does the difference lie?

News  is always instant information, and this needs to reach the mass as breaking news without wasting time. A news article should be concise and clear and finally, the writer should stick to the point directly. A news story offers information about an event, idea, or situation. 

The article should cover all the “W” (who, what, when, why, where) and “H” questions, which any reader would like to know. News items generally do not add much spice or any additional information to entice the reader. Readers are spared with extra material or statistics, and as far as possible a writer will use adjectives sparingly. In a nutshell, the introduction will summarise the story for the benefit of the reader.

The source and slant of the writer can include slight variations but should not cover more than one approach. The news writer or a journalist can use an inverted pyramid structure. The writer prefers to present the most important information as an introduction or they can be considered as a conclusion as well. This will help a writer exemplify how the news can be prioritized and structured.

A feature writer adds depth, wisdom, and color to the story and may entertain or instruct. In short, writing a feature article can be like adding jaggery to gulp bitter gourd. It can be like a stimulant or a catalyst. A feature article is a longer article compared to the news. It is all about lettering a human-interest story to match the target audience. A feature article is written after an event. So, naturally, they try to provide more and more information about the event, or else they give a different perception or a changed viewpoint. 

The main aim of a feature writer will be to analyze, broaden the understanding, and give different approaches to a reader. Remember to note that a feature article is a non-fiction piece of writing. 

Where do we find feature articles? 

A feature article is published in newspapers, magazines, and online blogs , and they add an emotional touch. They are more personal. As a writer, when you write a feature article, it is good to make it more narrative and more appealing for the readers.

If you want to become a professional blogger, then learn from the experts with the Best Online Content Writing Course

Different Types of Feature Articles:

Before starting to write a feature article, different articles and their characteristics will give you the insight to decide, which type to choose before you pen your thoughts to words. Every article should be the voice of a writer and the other characters or places or incidents. Now start thinking of writing a feature article and understand the different types before you shake your thoughts into words.

Types of feature stories : Each article has a divergent focus, and the motive also changes.

⮚      Human interest stories:  In this kind of feature article, the emphasis is given to a person or a set of people. Such an article emphasizes a dramatic incident. Normally, the focal point will be emotion first and later on the information.

⮚      Colour Stories : Describe a location using life and blood, so that the reader can visualize the same in this kind of feature article. A news story can be written in this form to transport the feel.

⮚      News Feature: This is the m ost popular kind of feature article in the newspapers. It conveys news, motives and implications, and consequences.

⮚      Informative Feature:  For this article, the writer conducts an interview, research, data compilation for data, and of course, relies on personal observation. The writer tries to add human stories and give information and education. It offers interesting information and guides the reader.

⮚      Historical Feature:  This type of feature article is for those, who are good at dates, chronology, turning points in history. The main motive of this feature article is to rekindle memory to invoke interest. 

⮚      Lifestyle Feature:   The most widespread feature articles people look for. How to live healthily? How to grow vegetables?

⮚      Scientific Feature : As the name suggests, this feature article voices on science policy and topics related to current topics.

⮚      Interpretative Features:  Political, social, and economic problems could be touched upon, while writing this feature article. Interpretative feature articles provide details, direct, and shed light on the context of specific issues.

⮚      Review:  Review of books, film, and music, etc. This article should highlight why a particular genre is good or extremely good and the specific reason for this extraordinary or ordinary nature.

⮚      Behind the scenes:  This article gives a reader a revelation about the backdrop scenes, or the reader can pry into the behind scenes.

Now you are familiar with different types of feature articles and the next step is to progress a set of skills required to write, organize and edit a feature article before writing a feature article and get set to write a feature article.

Why do you write a feature article ? It is either to instruct, persuade or entertain the readers. Do not miss the fact that feature articles are longer pieces of writing that range from opinions, issues, experiences, and ideas. 

How to Choose and Tempt the Audience When You Write a Feature Article?

It is a common fact that there are thousands of newspapers, magazines, and print media in the market flooding articles with online material. It can be considered as an uphill task to pitch the right audience and to get noticed in this market.  

How to break this discord and attract the audience is to offer the target audience a noteworthy article that is of interest which speaks a lot. Once the target audience is decided, think of their age, status, attitude, culture, and lifestyle. As a writer, you have to know their thought process, language, and vocabulary. 

As a next step, you have to analyze the topics of interest for that selected audience. Technology, travel, health, home travel are striking topics for features since they can be used in specific sections of newspapers or weekend magazines. Feature stories are frequently published in trade publications, usually as special supplements.

Steps to writing a feature article to keep the reader on tenterhooks

● The first point is to  choose the right topic  and the word limit of the feature article. Is the topic relevant and of interest or can this topic hold the breath of the audience until the last word? Do not exceed the word limit (minimum 1500 and maximum 4000 words). 

Briefly, discover a topic of existing importance. Further to that, think of a topic that sells and start forming great ideas that are exclusive.  The brainstorming  technique will help you bring out the best, and this technique will ensure you have a free flow of ideas. Understand the purpose of writing that can take you to the next step of writing.

●        Research the topic  and it all depends on your research. Find out what strikes and how well you can produce it. Read, read, research all aspects and perspectives of the topic, and give an edifying stance. 

Mind mapping techniques will allow you to channelize your ideas and thoughts. How do you do that? After your research and free flow of your ideas or overflow of ideas, create a central theme that will allow you to write. Of course, you can branch your central idea with different color codes and keywords, and colorful images to start with a bang and get inspired. 

More and more branches will make you more confident and with an organized flow of thoughts. Establish your principle and remember that is the meat of your article.

●        Narrow down your plan : Think of the target audience and what type of attitude do they like and what is your attitude towards that topic? Start thinking of all the  Ws and H  (who, why, what, when) and find out the answers for these common elements. Your battle is half won if the major reason for writing this article or the drive to write this feature article can answer all these questions.

●        Structure your astute ideas : Sequence them logically and according to the level of significance.

Now you are ready to start painless writing. Your writing process is also complete, and now time to start writing a feature article of your choice, your passion, and your ideas at your fingertips. Before you put words into life, it is better to know the language used to write a feature article.

Linguistic or language usage in feature articles:

● Use semi-formal language (not formal and not informal) with a human touch 

● Sprinkle sentiments, emotions, and feelings

● Use second person singular when you address the audience

● Adjectives and adverbs can be used sparingly but use action verbs

● Do not forget to use statistics, facts

● Quotes give a better edge or slight superiority to your writing

● Write in active voice

● Use literary techniques to create a special effect for a deeper meaning. This divulges the authors’ motivation.

● Rhetorical questions can invoke interest and allow the reader to think and increase certain insight.

● Anecdotes, imagery, and certain jargon are other language techniques that you can try.

Now you are ready to start writing with  more tips  to chisel and delve deep into writing.

How will you structure and organize a feature article?

• Headline:  A good introduction is the root of your writing. The publicity of your article lies in those first lines. Grab the attention of your reader with a catchy introduction or try to hook the reader’s interest. In the introductory lines, the main point is emphasized or highlighted.
• Subheading : Expresses a perspective or point of view of the author and it is also called a  deck . This is the second attempt of the author to tempt the reader. The gist of the article inscribed will allow a reader to be hooked on your article. 
• By-line : You can express your identity using a by-line and introduce the persons who helped you for an interview or a survey.
• Hook -: An intriguing initial sentence that will hook readers’ attention and keep them reading. It could be done by using an example, a metaphor, a rhetorical question exactly like how Barak Obama grabs the attention with his rhetorical questions. This paragraph develops on the hook and sets the tone of your article.
• Introductory paragraph 

This paragraph develops the hook and sets the tone for the rest of the article and defines the tone and focus of the article. The opening paragraph opens with a scheming, plot, or intrigue. You can win the heart of the reader and make them hold their attention with this paragraph. Do not forget to set the section and bring life into those words.

●        Paragraph two of the body: the first main topic . A description of how this person or problem has benefited society. In the author’s own words, this should be an interpretation of events or how to stick to the genre you have selected. Show and try not to speak.

●        From paragraph three onwards , more major points are offered to clarify to inform about vital events or accomplishments about the person/issue. The reader is more clear with more details using facts, evidence, and quotations. 

These pose difficult questions to the reader and include their responses. Paragraphs, photographs, tables, diagrams, and graphs are frequently used to present information in feature articles to present facts or proof to back up the content or support the author’s interpretation and explanation of the text person/issue/events.

●        Summary:   Now you are ready to summarise the article. The final paragraph should create a lasting impression by reminding the reader, the article’s core point and suggesting a suitable course of action, and promoting a shift in standpoint or attitude. 

This should prompt the reader to take a feat or encourage taking a deed. The reader should be able to confirm that the article is ready for a conclusion. Now, you have gulped the capsule to set and write a feature article.

●        Reread and Edit:  This is the most important step of the writing process before you write a feature article.                                                  

Revision and editing are important processes of writing. Editing suggests the chance to see a clear picture, evidence, specifics, fix the language glitches, and polish the article. 

Editing will help you to find out grammatical errors, typos, repetitions, and even dull writing the bugs in writing. This is sure to guide and bucket the thoughts to give a long-lasting impression of the feature article. Final editing and polishing will help you to find out whether you have put in your ideas succinctly and impactfully and whether you were able to connect the dots.

Learn about editing and proofreading here.

4 Personalities of Writing to Reduce Writer’s Block .

Madman, architect, carpenter, and madman. .

A madman creates ideas exactly like a madman. The architect gives the writing structure by moving paragraphs around and looking at the plot. The sentences, phrases, and word choices are being crafted by the carpenter. The judge removes elements of the document that aren’t required. This article will remove the block and help you to write a feature article.

Here are additional tips to become an ace before you write a feature article: 

▪ Be relaxed and conversational

▪ Keep it simple

▪ Short sentences and vary sentence length

▪ Paint a picture

▪ Spice up your writing

▪ Voice your opinion

▪ Smooth your writing by using transitions

▪ Don’t judge the first draft

▪ Always rely on peer editing

▪ Don’t write in the same tone

▪ Don’t put all the interesting facts at one go

▪ Harness the power of comma and punctuation

▪ Don’t dump information

Now you have the style, grace, and power of expressing your thoughts clearly and enlivening your writing with vivid images. It is an inborn talent that requires a knack and relevant guidelines to convert your thoughts into words that become a reader’s delight. This article is to reinstate the writing process and try to refresh your memory and change your writing blocks and procrastination habits to write a feature article.

Now you are ready to start your dream job or have a go. Good luck and best wishes!

Scope of Feature Article Writing:

Newspapers, magazines, and social media are employing freelancers and regular columnists. Print and online media depend on freelancers for making their publications interesting and noteworthy. 

The work from home concept is gaining momentum. Hence, it is beneficial for a featured columnist to be in their comfort zone and earn at leisure. Any individual with a flair for writing and a good grasp of language and creativity can make a decent living. 

A feature article writer can choose any genre of your choice and if you are consistent and stick to the timeline with utter sincerity, then nothing can pull you behind. Freelancers are in demand and make use of your painless writing techniques.                                                                                             

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Is a feature article different from a blog?

Yes, it is different. While feature articles are published digitally and in print, blogs are published only online. 

2. Is feature writing well as a career?

Yes. With the present changes in the world, it has got ample scope. If your writing style is exclusive, then you have more possibility to be popular. 

3. What are the basic steps for new writers?

✔ Include all the fundamentals of writing (who, what, where why, when, and how)

✔ Plan and organize your writing

✔ Include your viewpoint

It is a fact that writing entails basic principles. It is good to master the rules. This will help you make your foundation before you venture into different kinds of writing. As stated before, writing a feature article is more than facts and includes interesting facts, and recall the points stated in this article before you write a feature article. 

It is of paramount importance to add a dimension of human touch and make it more pleasing. This article has guided you through the steps to write a feature article and touch the chords of the readers. 

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What is a review article?

Learn how to write a review article.

What is a review article? A review article can also be called a literature review, or a review of literature. It is a survey of previously published research on a topic. It should give an overview of current thinking on the topic. And, unlike an original research article, it will not present new experimental results.

Writing a review of literature is to provide a critical evaluation of the data available from existing studies. Review articles can identify potential research areas to explore next, and sometimes they will draw new conclusions from the existing data.

Why write a review article?

To provide a comprehensive foundation on a topic.

To explain the current state of knowledge.

To identify gaps in existing studies for potential future research.

To highlight the main methodologies and research techniques.

Did you know? 

There are some journals that only publish review articles, and others that do not accept them.

Make sure you check the  aims and scope  of the journal you’d like to publish in to find out if it’s the right place for your review article.

How to write a review article

Below are 8 key items to consider when you begin writing your review article.

Check the journal’s aims and scope

Make sure you have read the aims and scope for the journal you are submitting to and follow them closely. Different journals accept different types of articles and not all will accept review articles, so it’s important to check this before you start writing.

Define your scope

Define the scope of your review article and the research question you’ll be answering, making sure your article contributes something new to the field. 

As award-winning author Angus Crake told us, you’ll also need to “define the scope of your review so that it is manageable, not too large or small; it may be necessary to focus on recent advances if the field is well established.” 

Finding sources to evaluate

When finding sources to evaluate, Angus Crake says it’s critical that you “use multiple search engines/databases so you don’t miss any important ones.” 

For finding studies for a systematic review in medical sciences,  read advice from NCBI . 

Writing your title, abstract and keywords

Spend time writing an effective title, abstract and keywords. This will help maximize the visibility of your article online, making sure the right readers find your research. Your title and abstract should be clear, concise, accurate, and informative. 

For more information and guidance on getting these right, read our guide to writing a good abstract and title  and our  researcher’s guide to search engine optimization . 

Introduce the topic

Does a literature review need an introduction? Yes, always start with an overview of the topic and give some context, explaining why a review of the topic is necessary. Gather research to inform your introduction and make it broad enough to reach out to a large audience of non-specialists. This will help maximize its wider relevance and impact. 

Don’t make your introduction too long. Divide the review into sections of a suitable length to allow key points to be identified more easily.

Include critical discussion

Make sure you present a critical discussion, not just a descriptive summary of the topic. If there is contradictory research in your area of focus, make sure to include an element of debate and present both sides of the argument. You can also use your review paper to resolve conflict between contradictory studies.

What researchers say

Angus Crake, researcher

As part of your conclusion, include making suggestions for future research on the topic. Focus on the goal to communicate what you understood and what unknowns still remains.

Use a critical friend

Always perform a final spell and grammar check of your article before submission. 

You may want to ask a critical friend or colleague to give their feedback before you submit. If English is not your first language, think about using a language-polishing service.

Find out more about how  Taylor & Francis Editing Services can help improve your manuscript before you submit.

What is the difference between a research article and a review article?

Before you submit your review article…

Complete this checklist before you submit your review article:

Have you checked the journal’s aims and scope?

Have you defined the scope of your article?

Did you use multiple search engines to find sources to evaluate?

Have you written a descriptive title and abstract using keywords?

Did you start with an overview of the topic?

Have you presented a critical discussion?

Have you included future suggestions for research in your conclusion?

Have you asked a friend to do a final spell and grammar check?

Expert help for your manuscript

Taylor & Francis Editing Services  offers a full range of pre-submission manuscript preparation services to help you improve the quality of your manuscript and submit with confidence.

Related resources

How to edit your paper

Writing a scientific literature review

Review articles: purpose, process, and structure

• Published: 02 October 2017
• Volume 46 , pages 1–5, ( 2018 )

Cite this article

• Robert W. Palmatier 1 ,
• Mark B. Houston 2 &
• John Hulland 3  

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Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.

Many research disciplines feature high-impact journals that are dedicated outlets for review papers (or review–conceptual combinations) (e.g., Academy of Management Review , Psychology Bulletin , Medicinal Research Reviews ). The rationale for such outlets is the premise that research integration and synthesis provides an important, and possibly even a required, step in the scientific process. Review papers tend to include both quantitative (i.e., meta-analytic, systematic reviews) and narrative or more qualitative components; together, they provide platforms for new conceptual frameworks, reveal inconsistencies in the extant body of research, synthesize diverse results, and generally give other scholars a “state-of-the-art” snapshot of a domain, often written by topic experts (Bem 1995 ). Many premier marketing journals publish meta-analytic review papers too, though authors often must overcome reviewers’ concerns that their contributions are limited due to the absence of “new data.” Furthermore, relatively few non-meta-analysis review papers appear in marketing journals, probably due to researchers’ perceptions that such papers have limited publication opportunities or their beliefs that the field lacks a research tradition or “respect” for such papers. In many cases, an editor must provide strong support to help such review papers navigate the review process. Yet, once published, such papers tend to be widely cited, suggesting that members of the field find them useful (see Bettencourt and Houston 2001 ).

In this editorial, we seek to address three topics relevant to review papers. First, we outline a case for their importance to the scientific process, by describing the purpose of review papers . Second, we detail the review paper editorial initiative conducted over the past two years by the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science ( JAMS ), focused on increasing the prevalence of review papers. Third, we describe a process and structure for systematic ( i.e. , non-meta-analytic) review papers , referring to Grewal et al. ( 2018 ) insights into parallel meta-analytic (effects estimation) review papers. (For some strong recent examples of marketing-related meta-analyses, see Knoll and Matthes 2017 ; Verma et al. 2016 ).

Purpose of review papers

In their most general form, review papers “are critical evaluations of material that has already been published,” some that include quantitative effects estimation (i.e., meta-analyses) and some that do not (i.e., systematic reviews) (Bem 1995 , p. 172). They carefully identify and synthesize relevant literature to evaluate a specific research question, substantive domain, theoretical approach, or methodology and thereby provide readers with a state-of-the-art understanding of the research topic. Many of these benefits are highlighted in Hanssens’ ( 2018 ) paper titled “The Value of Empirical Generalizations in Marketing,” published in this same issue of JAMS.

The purpose of and contributions associated with review papers can vary depending on their specific type and research question, but in general, they aim to

Resolve definitional ambiguities and outline the scope of the topic.

Provide an integrated, synthesized overview of the current state of knowledge.

Identify inconsistencies in prior results and potential explanations (e.g., moderators, mediators, measures, approaches).

Evaluate existing methodological approaches and unique insights.

Develop conceptual frameworks to reconcile and extend past research.

Describe research insights, existing gaps, and future research directions.

Not every review paper can offer all of these benefits, but this list represents their key contributions. To provide a sufficient contribution, a review paper needs to achieve three key standards. First, the research domain needs to be well suited for a review paper, such that a sufficient body of past research exists to make the integration and synthesis valuable—especially if extant research reveals theoretical inconsistences or heterogeneity in its effects. Second, the review paper must be well executed, with an appropriate literature collection and analysis techniques, sufficient breadth and depth of literature coverage, and a compelling writing style. Third, the manuscript must offer significant new insights based on its systematic comparison of multiple studies, rather than simply a “book report” that describes past research. This third, most critical standard is often the most difficult, especially for authors who have not “lived” with the research domain for many years, because achieving it requires drawing some non-obvious connections and insights from multiple studies and their many different aspects (e.g., context, method, measures). Typically, after the “review” portion of the paper has been completed, the authors must spend many more months identifying the connections to uncover incremental insights, each of which takes time to detail and explicate.

The increasing methodological rigor and technical sophistication of many marketing studies also means that they often focus on smaller problems with fewer constructs. By synthesizing these piecemeal findings, reconciling conflicting evidence, and drawing a “big picture,” meta-analyses and systematic review papers become indispensable to our comprehensive understanding of a phenomenon, among both academic and practitioner communities. Thus, good review papers provide a solid platform for future research, in the reviewed domain but also in other areas, in that researchers can use a good review paper to learn about and extend key insights to new areas.

This domain extension, outside of the core area being reviewed, is one of the key benefits of review papers that often gets overlooked. Yet it also is becoming ever more important with the expanding breadth of marketing (e.g., econometric modeling, finance, strategic management, applied psychology, sociology) and the increasing velocity in the accumulation of marketing knowledge (e.g., digital marketing, social media, big data). Against this backdrop, systematic review papers and meta-analyses help academics and interested managers keep track of research findings that fall outside their main area of specialization.

JAMS’ review paper editorial initiative

With a strong belief in the importance of review papers, the editorial team of JAMS has purposely sought out leading scholars to provide substantive review papers, both meta-analysis and systematic, for publication in JAMS . Many of the scholars approached have voiced concerns about the risk of such endeavors, due to the lack of alternative outlets for these types of papers. Therefore, we have instituted a unique process, in which the authors develop a detailed outline of their paper, key tables and figures, and a description of their literature review process. On the basis of this outline, we grant assurances that the contribution hurdle will not be an issue for publication in JAMS , as long as the authors execute the proposed outline as written. Each paper still goes through the normal review process and must meet all publication quality standards, of course. In many cases, an Area Editor takes an active role to help ensure that each paper provides sufficient insights, as required for a high-quality review paper. This process gives the author team confidence to invest effort in the process. An analysis of the marketing journals in the Financial Times (FT 50) journal list for the past five years (2012–2016) shows that JAMS has become the most common outlet for these papers, publishing 31% of all review papers that appeared in the top six marketing journals.

As a next step in positioning JAMS as a receptive marketing outlet for review papers, we are conducting a Thought Leaders Conference on Generalizations in Marketing: Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses , with a corresponding special issue (see www.springer.com/jams ). We will continue our process of seeking out review papers as an editorial strategy in areas that could be advanced by the integration and synthesis of extant research. We expect that, ultimately, such efforts will become unnecessary, as authors initiate review papers on topics of their own choosing to submit them to JAMS . In the past two years, JAMS already has increased the number of papers it publishes annually, from just over 40 to around 60 papers per year; this growth has provided “space” for 8–10 review papers per year, reflecting our editorial target.

Consistent with JAMS ’ overall focus on managerially relevant and strategy-focused topics, all review papers should reflect this emphasis. For example, the domains, theories, and methods reviewed need to have some application to past or emerging managerial research. A good rule of thumb is that the substantive domain, theory, or method should attract the attention of readers of JAMS .

The efforts of multiple editors and Area Editors in turn have generated a body of review papers that can serve as useful examples of the different types and approaches that JAMS has published.

Domain-based review papers

Domain-based review papers review, synthetize, and extend a body of literature in the same substantive domain. For example, in “The Role of Privacy in Marketing” (Martin and Murphy 2017 ), the authors identify and define various privacy-related constructs that have appeared in recent literature. Then they examine the different theoretical perspectives brought to bear on privacy topics related to consumers and organizations, including ethical and legal perspectives. These foundations lead in to their systematic review of privacy-related articles over a clearly defined date range, from which they extract key insights from each study. This exercise of synthesizing diverse perspectives allows these authors to describe state-of-the-art knowledge regarding privacy in marketing and identify useful paths for research. Similarly, a new paper by Cleeren et al. ( 2017 ), “Marketing Research on Product-Harm Crises: A Review, Managerial Implications, and an Agenda for Future Research,” provides a rich systematic review, synthesizes extant research, and points the way forward for scholars who are interested in issues related to defective or dangerous market offerings.

Theory-based review papers

Theory-based review papers review, synthetize, and extend a body of literature that uses the same underlying theory. For example, Rindfleisch and Heide’s ( 1997 ) classic review of research in marketing using transaction cost economics has been cited more than 2200 times, with a significant impact on applications of the theory to the discipline in the past 20 years. A recent paper in JAMS with similar intent, which could serve as a helpful model, focuses on “Resource-Based Theory in Marketing” (Kozlenkova et al. 2014 ). The article dives deeply into a description of the theory and its underlying assumptions, then organizes a systematic review of relevant literature according to various perspectives through which the theory has been applied in marketing. The authors conclude by identifying topical domains in marketing that might benefit from additional applications of the theory (e.g., marketing exchange), as well as related theories that could be integrated meaningfully with insights from the resource-based theory.

Method-based review papers

Method-based review papers review, synthetize, and extend a body of literature that uses the same underlying method. For example, in “Event Study Methodology in the Marketing Literature: An Overview” (Sorescu et al. 2017 ), the authors identify published studies in marketing that use an event study methodology. After a brief review of the theoretical foundations of event studies, they describe in detail the key design considerations associated with this method. The article then provides a roadmap for conducting event studies and compares this approach with a stock market returns analysis. The authors finish with a summary of the strengths and weaknesses of the event study method, which in turn suggests three main areas for further research. Similarly, “Discriminant Validity Testing in Marketing: An Analysis, Causes for Concern, and Proposed Remedies” (Voorhies et al. 2016 ) systematically reviews existing approaches for assessing discriminant validity in marketing contexts, then uses Monte Carlo simulation to determine which tests are most effective.

Our long-term editorial strategy is to make sure JAMS becomes and remains a well-recognized outlet for both meta-analysis and systematic managerial review papers in marketing. Ideally, review papers would come to represent 10%–20% of the papers published by the journal.

Process and structure for review papers

In this section, we review the process and typical structure of a systematic review paper, which lacks any long or established tradition in marketing research. The article by Grewal et al. ( 2018 ) provides a summary of effects-focused review papers (i.e., meta-analyses), so we do not discuss them in detail here.

Systematic literature review process

Some review papers submitted to journals take a “narrative” approach. They discuss current knowledge about a research domain, yet they often are flawed, in that they lack criteria for article inclusion (or, more accurately, article exclusion), fail to discuss the methodology used to evaluate included articles, and avoid critical assessment of the field (Barczak 2017 ). Such reviews tend to be purely descriptive, with little lasting impact.

In contrast, a systematic literature review aims to “comprehensively locate and synthesize research that bears on a particular question, using organized, transparent, and replicable procedures at each step in the process” (Littell et al. 2008 , p. 1). Littell et al. describe six key steps in the systematic review process. The extent to which each step is emphasized varies by paper, but all are important components of the review.

Topic formulation . The author sets out clear objectives for the review and articulates the specific research questions or hypotheses that will be investigated.

Study design . The author specifies relevant problems, populations, constructs, and settings of interest. The aim is to define explicit criteria that can be used to assess whether any particular study should be included in or excluded from the review. Furthermore, it is important to develop a protocol in advance that describes the procedures and methods to be used to evaluate published work.

Sampling . The aim in this third step is to identify all potentially relevant studies, including both published and unpublished research. To this end, the author must first define the sampling unit to be used in the review (e.g., individual, strategic business unit) and then develop an appropriate sampling plan.

Data collection . By retrieving the potentially relevant studies identified in the third step, the author can determine whether each study meets the eligibility requirements set out in the second step. For studies deemed acceptable, the data are extracted from each study and entered into standardized templates. These templates should be based on the protocols established in step 2.

Data analysis . The degree and nature of the analyses used to describe and examine the collected data vary widely by review. Purely descriptive analysis is useful as a starting point but rarely is sufficient on its own. The examination of trends, clusters of ideas, and multivariate relationships among constructs helps flesh out a deeper understanding of the domain. For example, both Hult ( 2015 ) and Huber et al. ( 2014 ) use bibliometric approaches (e.g., examine citation data using multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis techniques) to identify emerging versus declining themes in the broad field of marketing.

Reporting . Three key aspects of this final step are common across systematic reviews. First, the results from the fifth step need to be presented, clearly and compellingly, using narratives, tables, and figures. Second, core results that emerge from the review must be interpreted and discussed by the author. These revelatory insights should reflect a deeper understanding of the topic being investigated, not simply a regurgitation of well-established knowledge. Third, the author needs to describe the implications of these unique insights for both future research and managerial practice.

A new paper by Watson et al. ( 2017 ), “Harnessing Difference: A Capability-Based Framework for Stakeholder Engagement in Environmental Innovation,” provides a good example of a systematic review, starting with a cohesive conceptual framework that helps establish the boundaries of the review while also identifying core constructs and their relationships. The article then explicitly describes the procedures used to search for potentially relevant papers and clearly sets out criteria for study inclusion or exclusion. Next, a detailed discussion of core elements in the framework weaves published research findings into the exposition. The paper ends with a presentation of key implications and suggestions for the next steps. Similarly, “Marketing Survey Research Best Practices: Evidence and Recommendations from a Review of JAMS Articles” (Hulland et al. 2017 ) systematically reviews published marketing studies that use survey techniques, describes recent trends, and suggests best practices. In their review, Hulland et al. examine the entire population of survey papers published in JAMS over a ten-year span, relying on an extensive standardized data template to facilitate their subsequent data analysis.

Structure of systematic review papers

There is no cookie-cutter recipe for the exact structure of a useful systematic review paper; the final structure depends on the authors’ insights and intended points of emphasis. However, several key components are likely integral to a paper’s ability to contribute.

Depth and rigor

Systematic review papers must avoid falling in to two potential “ditches.” The first ditch threatens when the paper fails to demonstrate that a systematic approach was used for selecting articles for inclusion and capturing their insights. If a reader gets the impression that the author has cherry-picked only articles that fit some preset notion or failed to be thorough enough, without including articles that make significant contributions to the field, the paper will be consigned to the proverbial side of the road when it comes to the discipline’s attention.

Authors that fall into the other ditch present a thorough, complete overview that offers only a mind-numbing recitation, without evident organization, synthesis, or critical evaluation. Although comprehensive, such a paper is more of an index than a useful review. The reviewed articles must be grouped in a meaningful way to guide the reader toward a better understanding of the focal phenomenon and provide a foundation for insights about future research directions. Some scholars organize research by scholarly perspectives (e.g., the psychology of privacy, the economics of privacy; Martin and Murphy 2017 ); others classify the chosen articles by objective research aspects (e.g., empirical setting, research design, conceptual frameworks; Cleeren et al. 2017 ). The method of organization chosen must allow the author to capture the complexity of the underlying phenomenon (e.g., including temporal or evolutionary aspects, if relevant).

Replicability

Processes for the identification and inclusion of research articles should be described in sufficient detail, such that an interested reader could replicate the procedure. The procedures used to analyze chosen articles and extract their empirical findings and/or key takeaways should be described with similar specificity and detail.

We already have noted the potential usefulness of well-done review papers. Some scholars always are new to the field or domain in question, so review papers also need to help them gain foundational knowledge. Key constructs, definitions, assumptions, and theories should be laid out clearly (for which purpose summary tables are extremely helpful). An integrated conceptual model can be useful to organize cited works. Most scholars integrate the knowledge they gain from reading the review paper into their plans for future research, so it is also critical that review papers clearly lay out implications (and specific directions) for research. Ideally, readers will come away from a review article filled with enthusiasm about ways they might contribute to the ongoing development of the field.

Helpful format

Because such a large body of research is being synthesized in most review papers, simply reading through the list of included studies can be exhausting for readers. We cannot overstate the importance of tables and figures in review papers, used in conjunction with meaningful headings and subheadings. Vast literature review tables often are essential, but they must be organized in a way that makes their insights digestible to the reader; in some cases, a sequence of more focused tables may be better than a single, comprehensive table.

In summary, articles that review extant research in a domain (topic, theory, or method) can be incredibly useful to the scientific progress of our field. Whether integrating the insights from extant research through a meta-analysis or synthesizing them through a systematic assessment, the promised benefits are similar. Both formats provide readers with a useful overview of knowledge about the focal phenomenon, as well as insights on key dilemmas and conflicting findings that suggest future research directions. Thus, the editorial team at JAMS encourages scholars to continue to invest the time and effort to construct thoughtful review papers.

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Palmatier, R.W., Houston, M.B. & Hulland, J. Review articles: purpose, process, and structure. J. of the Acad. Mark. Sci. 46 , 1–5 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-017-0563-4

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Research widely - facts, statistics, different sides of the story and quotes.

Spend time planning your feature article and organise your ideas.

Don’t reveal everything at the beginning. Features have a narrative structure and draw in the reader gradually.

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Reveal a key piece of information, quote or statistic in each paragraph and use quotes from a range of people to give a rounded view.

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Table of Contents

Collaboration, information literacy, writing process, news or opinion.

• CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 by Christine Photinos - National University, San Diego

Research we do on the web and through library databases often leads us to content from newspapers, magazines, and news agencies (such as Reuters and the Associated Press). What all news content has in common is that it connects in some way to something that is new or in the news.

News content can be roughly divided into the categories of news  and opinion . News articles attempt to provide information on a current event, while opinion pieces attempt to persuade readers to adopt a particular position on that event.

The distinction between news and opinion is not black and white. An example of one grey area is “advocacy reporting”—when news is reported from an explicit perspective. For example, news articles published in the Humane Society magazine–– All Animals ––generally serve the organization’s larger agenda of promoting humane treatment of animals (Example: “Big Changes at SeaWorld” All Animals May/June 2016).

Another subcategory of news that can at times seem to enter into this grey area is “news analysis”—news writing that pushes beyond surface answers to the 5 W’s and H (Who? What? Where? When? Why? and How?) to explore causes and consequences of news events (Example: “ Grammy Awards 2018: How the Recording Academy has Evolved Toward Relevance ” LA Times Nov. 28, 2017).

More generally, we should recognize that the way in which news is presented—including what information is selected for inclusion, and what words and images are used to communicate that information—can encourage particular understandings or perspectives. We should always be alert to such factors in news reporting, and to significant departures from accepted standards of journalistic fairness and accuracy.

But to reject the journalistic distinction between news and opinion is to turn all sources into an undifferentiated mass of “information.” An analogy: These days many movies contain commercial messages (for example, product placement ) and many commercials have taken on movie-like qualities (consider this AT&T ad—titled “Whole New World,” for example). Yet we still value the ability to distinguish between these two types of content and to refer to them by different names. (Without different names for these two types of content, how would we express frustration with a feature-length Burger King ad? What words would we use?)

Skillful researchers are able to identify sources by type, even in circumstances when they do not believe a source has achieved the highest ideals of its type. Below (Table 1) are some defining features of “news” and “opinion.”

Below (Table 2) are some sub -categories of news and opinion:

Distinguishing between News and Opinion: An Example

Compare the two texts that follow. In the first, “Get Children Off Web and in Libraries,” the reporter quotes the opinions of others but does not offer her own opinions. In the second, “Why Libraries are Key,” the author explicitly takes a stand and seeks to persuade readers to adopt a particular position on an issue.

Get children off web and in libraries, says Laureate

Children are failing to learn properly because they are churning out facts copied from the internet instead of going to the library, according to the new Children’s Laureate 1 .

Julia Donaldson, the best-selling author of The Gruffalo, set out her stall on the day of her appointment by speaking out against the Government’s planned library closures, arguing that they are vital for children’s education 1 .

Opinions are attributed to another person (Donaldson). They are not presented as the reporter’s own view. 1

Source: Singh, Anita. “Get Children Off Web and in Libraries, says Laureate.” The Daily Telegraph , 8 June 2011, 8.

Why libraries are key to our kids’ futures

Children’s use of libraries has increased every year for the past six years.

As the Children’s Laureate I want to make sure that 2 continues, and to do all I can to keep libraries open so that children can use them.

Without this resource I’m convinced that we will 2 have far fewer avid child readers and consequently lose a large percentage of our future adult readers.

Notice that the author presents her own views, credentials, and objectives 2 .

Source: Donaldson, Julia. “Why Libraries are Key to Our Kids Futures.” The Sun , 14 October 2011, 40.

News or Opinion? Test your understanding.

Identify each excerpt that follows as an example of news or opinion . (Discussion of each example appears at the end of this section.)

He suggested that the public should give the Prince “a break”, days after the daily tabloid published photographs obtained by gossip website TMZ.

Source: “Jeremy Hunt: No Public Interest in Nude Prince Harry Photographs.” The Telegraph , 26 August 2012, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/prince-harry/9500433/Jeremy-Hunt-No-public-interest-in-nude-Prince-Harry-photographs.html

“It’s not really an issue of what they look for,” Willingham said “but what they try not to find.”

Career Services interim director Stephanie Kit said some of the things employers hope not to find are pictures and posts involving alcohol or drug usage, negative comments about a current or previous employer and any discriminatory content.

Source: Lipps, Michael. “Social Media Content Could Make, Break Professional Life.” University of Tennessee Daily Beacon , 15 April 2015, www.utdailybeacon.com/news/2015/apr/15/social-media – content-could-make-break-professional/.

If “Kid Nation” had been set in California, New York or several other states, it would have been subject to laws that limit the amount of time a child could spend on the set of the program each day. It chose instead to shoot the program in New Mexico, where until this summer there was no law addressing children’s work on television or film productions.

That is not to say that New Mexico had not contemplated such limits. Before CBS took the 40 children to the state, its Legislature had already passed a bill that would have outlawed much of what CBS had planned.

On April 3, two days after CBS started shooting the 13-episode reality series, Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico signed the bill into law. It limits children ages 8 to 15 to eight to nine hours’ work a day on television and film productions.

On the set of “Kid Nation,” the children regularly worked more than 12 hours a day, and their contract required that they be available to the show’s producers to be videotaped 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

But because the new law was not scheduled to go into effect until June 15, roughly one month after “Kid Nation” finished production, lawyers for CBS have contended that everything they did was in compliance with the law “in effect at the time of production.”

But it is not clear whether CBS was in compliance. New Mexico child-labor statutes limit children under the age of 14 to 44 hours of work in one week and eight hours in any day, unless a special permit has been granted. […]

Source: Wyatt, Edward. “‘Kid Nation’ Lesson: Be Careful What You Pitch.” New York Times , 25 August 2007, B7.

For example, the bill’s definition of bullying acknowledges that bullying is intentional and repetitive, and that it can cause harm, fear and distress to victims in the school community. Moreover, the bill wisely addresses not just the situation where a student bullies fellow students, but where a student bullies other individuals in the school community. Such recognition that students can bully adults is important because research suggests that students often bully their teachers.

Yet, the bill fails to acknowledge that the imbalance of power between teachers and students creates an opportunity for bullying of students by adults. […] The bill ought to recognize and address the possibility of bullying behavior by adults who work in schools.

Source: Buchfink, Jaclyn, and Juliet Guichon. “Sometimes, the Teachers Bully the Students.” Calgary Herald , 21 February 2012, A13.

1. News -This piece deals almost exclusively with an opinion, but the opinion is not that of the author. -Rather, the author is reporting on the opinion of a public figure (British Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt).

2. News -This is an example of a “feature”-style news piece. The presentation is more creative than that of a news article, and the headline expresses a claim. But the author is still primarily reporting on the views of others .

But it is not clear whether CBS was in compliance. New Mexico child-labor statutes limit children under the age of 14 to 44 hours of work in one week and eight hours in any day, unless a special permit has been granted.

3. News -This is an example of a “News Analysis” article. It does not merely report Who, What, Where, When, Why and How (though we do see these elements in the top paragraph) but rather attempts to provide readers with a better understanding of the broader context and complexities of the news event.

Yet, the bill fails to acknowledge that the imbalance of power between teachers and students creates an opportunity for bullying of students by adults […] The bill ought to recognize and address the possibility of bullying behavior by adults who work in schools.

4. Opinion -While the authors do report on the positions and research findings of others, they are essentially putting forward their own position. -Notice that the opinions expressed in this piece are not attributed to others, as in the previous examples. The opinions belong to the authors.

Further Study

Journalistic norms and practices are always evolving. The rise of 24-hour cable news networks and the internet has led many traditional news outlets to differentiate themselves by offering more analysis, contextualization, and interpretation in their reporting. Another factor in this evolution has been a growing disenchantment with older ideals of detached reporting—especially the most rigid interpretation of these ideals, in which objectivity is understood to dictate a narrow focus on the surface details of news phenomena, and in which even identification of verifiable falsehoods in the statements of public officials might be considered a breach of journalistic objectivity.

For further study, see:

Esser, Frank, and Andrea Umbricht. “The Evolution of Objective and Interpretative Journalism in the Western Press.” Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly , vol. 91, no. 2, 2014, pp. 229-249.

Maras, Steven. Objectivity in Journalism . Polity Press, 2013.

Seyb, Ronald P. “What Walter Saw: Walter Lippmann, the New York World, and Scientific Advocacy as an Alternative to the News-Opinion Dichotomy.” Journalism History , vol. 41, no. 2, 2015, pp. 58-72.

Brevity – Say More with Less

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Coherence – How to Achieve Coherence in Writing

Flow – How to Create Flow in Writing

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This image released by Focus Features shows Emory Cohen, from left, Jodie Comer and Austin Butler in a scene from “The Bikeriders.” (Focus Features via AP)

This image released by Focus Features shows Tom Hardy in a scene from “The Bikeriders.” (Focus Features via AP)

This image released by Focus Features shows Michael Shannon in a scene from “The Bikeriders.” (Focus Features via AP)

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Still images have been a source of wonder and mythology in the films of Jeff Nichols.

“Mud,” Nichols’ Twain-soaked Mississippi fable, seemed derived from the magical sight of a boat held aloft by a tree. “Loving,” about a ‘60s interracial marriage, took inspiration from tender Life magazine photographs taken of the real-life couple. Nichols’ latest, “The Bikeriders,” is based on photographer Danny Lyon’s 1968 book of the same name, for which he spent four years with a Chicago motorcycle club.

It’s not hard to see what Nichols saw in Lyon’s black-and-white stills. There’s the stylish raw materials — the chrome bikes, the slicked back hair, the black leather jackets. But there’s also a just emerging antiauthoritarian, easy-riding spirit and camaraderie. Like the central figures of “Loving,” they are classically drawn outsiders who encapsulate something glorious and uneasy about freedom in America.

In the exhilarating first half of “The Bikeriders,” which opens in theaters Friday, Nichols is less compelled to build a narrative around his bike gang, the Vandals (based on the Outlaws) than summoning an intoxicating atmosphere reminiscent of those old photographs. “The Bikeriders” eventually becomes saddled with heavier plot mechanics — you can almost sense his riders growing weary from having to strap narrative devices onto their bikes. The movie wants to ride, but it’s not sure how much story to pack for the trip. But this is a vivid dramatization of the birth of an American subculture.

The framing device Nichols settles on is Lyon, himself, played by Mike Faist, who’s conducting interviews for his book. His conversations with a woman named Kathy ( Jodie Comer ) bookend and sporadically narrate the movie.

Kathy, also based on a real person, seems at first an unlikely spokesperson for the gang. She speaks with a thick Illinois accent (an actorly distraction throughout) and has no affection for motorcycle riders. But one night at a bar, she sees Benny ( Austin Butler ) across the smokey room and, even if she doesn’t admit it at that moment, falls for him. Again, it’s not hard to see why. Butler is by now well removed from Elvis Presley but the suppleness with which he can sink into mid-century America is no less apparent. Benny drives Kathy home, parks his bike outside the place and patiently waits for her boyfriend to skip town.

Nichols, a devotee of films like “Hud” and “Cool Hand Luke,” is a filmmaker who works very consciously within classic American idioms. In Butler he has his James Dean, making Tom Hardy his Marlon Brando. Hardy plays Johnny, Benny’s best pal and the one who starts up and presides over the Vandals. (The “whaddya got” clip of Brando from “The Wild One” is even briefly seen on a small TV in “The Bikeriders.”)

The Vandals, as a club, start about as simply as kids might call a tree house to order. They’re a bunch of guys who like riding motorcycles and like talking about them. Simple as that. But men come like moths to a flame, attracted by the tough lifestyle, the cool jackets with patches and a way out of mainstream America. Among them are Cal (Boyd Holbrook), Cockroach (Emory Cohen), Funny Sonny (Norman Reedus) and Zipco (Michael Shannon).

“Obscenity and motorcycles travel hand in hand,” someone says, with pride.

The early days of the group are, it would seem, a lot of fun. Barroom brawls and riding carefree through corn fields. Most of these guys don’t have much, but they have each other. And their loyalty is total.

Kathy isn’t so sure sure. She watches the growing gang — a completely male bunch — with skepticism and fear for Benny. (In a scene teased in the film’s opening, he’s beaten badly enough to be hospitalized.) Sometimes, they throw down purely for fun. They are the original Fight Cub.

But soon, Kathy isn’t the only one with doubts at what they’ve created. As their gang grows, what the Vandals embody is less clear, even to Johnny and Benny. Some of the new entrants are coming straight back from Vietnam. Their old hijinks give way to more serious crimes. In one chastening scene, Kathy finds herself very nearly assaulted by its members. The gang — and all its posturing of toughness — begins to feel more like a trap for even its leader. Benny is drawn into a choice between the Vandals and Kathy. The homoerotic subtext is understated but not ignored; when Benny and Johnny discuss their future together, they do it gently and intimately, in the dark, like a secret confession.

As the Vandals’ original ideals disintegrate, it can feel like “The Bikeriders” gets locked into a familiar “Goodfellas”-like structure, but with a telling shift in narrator for a drama that’s ultimately about masculinity. This is a movie that’s juggling a lot of contradictory ambitions. It wants to be authentic but it wants to tell a grand America saga. It wants mythology but also naturalism. It’s those instincts that have made Nichols one of the most essential filmmakers of his generation, even if the results have sometimes been underwhelming by a hair. Even his best, most firmly rooted films (“Take Shelter,” “Mud”) strive for a balancing act that can be elusive.

But I think it’s those dual impulses — and, again, all the cool jackets — that makes “The Bikeriders” work. The movie is unabashedly romantic about the Vandals but it’s equally dubious about the rugged masculinity they embody, too. “The Bikeriders” has its hands firmly on the throttle just it does the brakes.

“The Bikeriders,” a Focus Features release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for language throughout, violence, some drug use and brief sexuality. Running time: 116 minutes. Three stars out of four.

Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle at: http://x.com/jakecoyleAP

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Article Contents

Powerful qtl mapping and favorable allele mining in an all-in-one population: a case study of heading date.

These authors equally contributed to this work

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Pengfei Wang, Ying Yang, Daoyang Li, Zhichao Yu, Bo zhang, Xiangchun Zhou, Lizhong Xiong, Jianwei Zhang, Yongzhong Xing, Powerful QTL mapping and favorable allele mining in an all-in-one population: a case study of heading date, National Science Review , 2024;, nwae222, https://doi.org/10.1093/nsr/nwae222

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The multiparent advanced generation intercross (MAGIC) population is characterized with great potentials in power and resolution of QTL mapping, but SNP-based GWAS does not fully play its potential. In this study, a MAGIC population of 1021 lines was developed from four Xian and four Geng varieties from 5 subgroups of rice. A total of 44,000 genes showed functional polymorphisms among eight parents, including frameshift variations or premature stop codon variations, which provides the potential to map almost all genes of the MAGIC population. Principal component analysis results showed that the MAGIC population had a weak population structure. A high-density bin map of 24,414 bins was constructed. Segregation distortion occurred in the regions possessing the genes underlying genetic incompatibility and gamete development. SNP-based association analysis and bin-based linkage analysis identified 25 significant loci and 47 QTLs for heading date, including 14 known heading date genes. The mapping resolution of genes is dependent on genetic effects with offset distances of less than 55 kb for major effect genes and less than 123 kb for moderate effect genes. Four causal variants and noncoding structure variants were identified to be associated with heading date. Three to four types of alleles with strong, intermediate, weak, and no genetic effects were identified from eight parents, providing flexibility for the improvement of rice heading date. In most cases, japonica rice carries weak alleles, and indica rice carries strong alleles and nonfunctional alleles. These results confirmed that the MAGIC population provides the exceptional opportunity to detect QTLs, and its use is encouraged for mapping genes and mining favorable alleles for breeding.

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Chase Freedom Rise Review 2024

Affiliate links for the products on this page are from partners that compensate us and terms apply to offers listed (see our advertiser disclosure with our list of partners for more details). However, our opinions are our own. See how we rate credit cards to write unbiased product reviews .

The information for the following product(s) has been collected independently by Business Insider: Chase Freedom Rise℠. The details for these products have not been reviewed or provided by the issuer.

Introduction to the Chase Freedom Rise℠

The Chase Freedom Rise℠ is one of the best credit cards for consumers who are just beginning their credit journey. This card doesn't require prior credit history, and allows cardholders to earn rewards while building credit. 

No-Annual-Fee Cash Back Card 

The Chase Freedom Rise℠ is a simple cash-back credit card with no annual fee. Since the length of your credit history comprises 15% of your credit score, keeping your oldest credit card for the long haul is important. The Chase Freedom Rise℠ doesn't cost anything to maintain, which makes it easy to keep the card open for the sake of your credit.  

Emphasis on Building Credit

The Chase Freedom Rise℠ is for consumers still building their credit history. As such, the card requires no prior credit history. That said, to increase your approval odds, Chase recommends opening a Chase checking account and depositing at least $250 within three days of applying for the card.

Part of the Chase Ultimate Rewards® Program

Despite being marketed as a cash-back card, the Chase Freedom Rise℠ earns Chase Ultimate Rewards points . These versatile points can be redeemed for cash back, travel, and gift cards at 1 cent per point.

You can also transfer the points earned on your Chase Freedom Rise℠ to another Chase credit card for additional value, which we'll discuss below in more detail.

Chase Freedom Rise℠ Rewards

The Chase Freedom Rise℠ offers solid rewards for a cash-back card aimed at consumers who don't have any credit history. Earn unlimited 1.5% cash back on purchases.

Here's a closer look at how to earn and redeem rewards with this card:

Welcome Bonus

The Chase Freedom Rise℠ doesn't currently offer a welcome bonus, but cardholders can receive a $25 statement credit for enrolling in automatic payments within the first three months. Most starter cards don't offer a welcome bonus , so the $25 autopay bonus is better than nothing.

How to Earn Rewards with the Chase Freedom Rise℠

The Chase Freedom Rise℠ has a simple reward structure: Earn unlimited 1.5% cash back on purchases. This rate is competitive for a starter credit card, and rewards are earned in the form of Chase Ultimate Rewards points. 

How to Redeem Rewards with the Chase Freedom Rise℠

Points earned on the Chase Freedom Rise℠ can be redeemed for travel, gift cards, Amazon purchases, or cash back. Ultimate Rewards points are worth 1 cent each, and there's no minimum or maximum redemption amount.

Note: Points earned from the Chase Freedom Rise℠ can only be transferred to a Chase Freedom Unlimited® card. However, one of the best ways to get the most value out of your Chase Ultimate Rewards points is to upgrade to a premium credit card, such as the Chase Sapphire Reserve®, once your credit score is high enough for approval.

Doing so will unlock far better travel redemption opportunities because Chase travel credit cards such as the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card , Chase Sapphire Reserve® , or Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card offer a value multiplier on travel booked through  Chase Travel ℠ on points. You can also transfer rewards on these cards to Chase Ultimate Rewards points travel partners , and enjoy better rates of redemption through Chase's Pay Yourself Back program.

Chase Freedom Rise℠ Benefits and Features

The Chase Freedom Rise℠ offers numerous practical benefits that provide peace of mind. Whether you're a frequent traveler or merely looking for everyday purchase protections, the card has you covered.

Automatic Evaluation for Higher Credit Limit

One of the most notable benefits of the Chase Freedom Rise℠ is that cardholders will be automatically evaluated for a higher credit limit in six months. After 12 months, your account will be evaluated for an upgrade to the Chase Freedom Unlimited® . This upgraded card has great benefits, including complimentary discounts on DoorDash, Instacart and Lyft, but remains annual fee-free. 

Trip Cancellation/Interruption Insurance

Trip cancellation and interruption insurance is a valuable perk that can come handy if things go wrong while you're traveling. Since this benefit isn't even available on some travel rewards credit cards , it's a big selling point for the Chase Freedom Rise℠. Cardholders receive up to $1,500 per person (up to $6,000 per trip) towards pre-paid and nonrefundable travel expenses in case of an emergency.

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New purchases on the Chase Freedom Rise℠ are covered for up to 120 days against damage and theft. This benefit is limited to $500 per claim and $50,000 per account.

Fraud Protection

Chase Freedom Rise℠ cardholders enjoy peace of mind thanks to a host of fraud protection benefits. The card includes 24/7 fraud monitoring and alerts and zero liability protection for unauthorized charges. The lock/unlock feature allows cardholders to block new account activity if the card goes missing. 

No Security Deposit

The Chase Freedom Rise℠ doesn't require a security deposit, though you can increase your chances of approval by putting at least $250 into a Chase checking account. 

Chase Freedom Rise℠ Fees

The Chase Freedom Rise℠ doesn't have an annual fee, but there are a few others to be aware of.

Foreign Transaction Fees

Cardholders will pay a foreign transaction fee of 3% of the amount of each transaction in U.S. dollars on purchases originating abroad. So if you plan on traveling abroad or shopping online with international purchases, you might be subject to this charge. 

Additionally, the card carries a 26.74% variable APR on purchases and charges fees for late payments and return payments.

Who Should Get the Chase Freedom Rise℠?

• People new to credit
• Students looking to build credit history
• Budget-minded individuals who want a simple cash-back card
• Those who value no annual fee

Not Ideal For:

• Those seeking premium travel rewards or benefits
• People who want a card with rotating bonus categories or generous reward rates

Chase Freedom Rise℠ Card Comparison

There are limited card options available for consumers who are starting out on their credit journey. Most people with low or minimal credit can choose a secured credit card that requires a security deposit, apply for a store card, or become an authorized user on someone else's card. 

If you're in the market for a starter credit card, the following cards are also worth consideration. These are our top picks. 

Chase Freedom Rise℠ vs. Chase Freedom Unlimited®

If your credit is strong enough to be approved for the Chase Freedom Unlimited® , you should get this card. The Chase Freedom Unlimited® is the upgraded credit card that responsible Chase Freedom Rise℠ cardholders can get after 13 months of timely payment, and offers many of the same benefits — just better. 

If you have good credit, this card is better suited to your credit profile and includes a nice welcome bonus of additional 1.5% cash back on everything you buy (on up to $20,000 spent in the first year).

The Chase Freedom Unlimited® is nearly identical to the Chase Freedom Rise℠ in that it earns 1.5% cash back on purchases outside of special categories. The no-annual-fee Chase Freedom Unlimited card also earns 3% cash back at drugstores, restaurants, takeout, and eligible delivery services. Cardholders also earn 5% cash back on travel booked through the Chase Travel℠ portal.

The Chase Freedom Unlimited® also has more travel protections than the Chase Freedom Rise℠, including secondary rental car coverage and travel and emergency assistance services. 

Read more in our Chase Freedom Unlimited review .

Chase Freedom Rise℠ vs. Discover it® Secured Credit Card

The Discover it® Secured Credit Card card shares some similarities with the Chase Freedom Rise℠. This is a cash-back card issued by a major bank, designed for those with no credit history. If approved, the card requires a minimum security deposit of $200 (or more, in increments of $100 up to $2,500), which may be returned within as little as seven months with responsible usage. 

The card earns 2% cash back at gas stations and restaurants (on up to $1,000 per quarter) and 1% cash back on all other purchases. This rewards structure might work out better if the majority of your spending calls into the 2% bonus category. Furthermore, Discover matches all of your rewards at the end of the first year.

The Discover it® Secured Credit Card has the added advantage of waiving foreign transaction fees, making it ideal for international travel.

Read more in our Discover it Secured credit card review .

Chase Freedom Rise℠ vs. Capital One® QuicksilverOne®

The Capital One QuicksilverOne Cash Rewards Credit Card earns unlimited 1.5% cash back on all purchases, just like the Chase Freedom Rise℠. However, the card has a $39 annual fee, which may be offputting for some people ( rates and fees ). 

The Capital One QuicksilverOne Cash Rewards Credit Card can be a good fit if you're rebuilding credit, rather than just starting out. The card is targeted toward those with fair credit, which includes credit scores in the 580-669 range.

Another benefit of the Capital One QuicksilverOne Cash Rewards Credit Card is that it waives foreign transaction fees. Cardholders can also use it to get 50% off drinks at Capital One Cafes.

Read more in our Capital One QuicksilverOne card review .

Consumer Insights on the Chase Freedom Rise℠

In addition to our team's expert assessment of this card, we pulled cardholder feedback from popular online forums such as FlyerTalk and Reddit to see what everyday users think of the Chase Freedom Rise℠. 

Attainability

Cardholders like the attainability of the Chase Freedom Rise℠, since it requires no credit history. It's rare to find cards for people with no credit history, let alone a rewarding card from a major bank like Chase.

Simple Rewards

Chase Freedom Rise℠ cardholders appreciate that the card earns 1.5% cash back on all spending. The simplicity of rewards is a significant advantage for people who want a single card for daily use. 

Common Complaints

Some consumers complain about the card's low initial credit limit and foreign transaction fee. Others are concerned that the card primarily targets new consumers, sometimes to the exclusion of people who currently have low credit and are working to rebuild it.  

Chase Freedom Rise℠ Frequently Asked Questions 

Yes, the Chase Freedom Rise℠ charges a foreign transaction fee of 3% of the amount of each transaction in U.S. dollars on purchases originating abroad.

You're more likely to be approved for the Chase Freedom Rise℠ if you have a good credit score , but you may be able to qualify with fair credit. A good credit score is in the 670-739 range, while fair credit falls into 580-669.

No, the Chase Freedom Rise℠ does not earn points that can be transferred to airline and hotel partners. 

Why You Should Trust Us: How We Reviewed the Chase Freedom Rise℠

We evaluated the Chase Freedom Rise℠ with consumers in mind, evaluating this card against other options for building credit history. We considered several factors, including:

• Access for consumers with low or no credit
• Rewards for spending
• Automatic upgrades for better credit cards 

While most credit-building cards lack rewards, the Chase Freedom Rise℠ offers generous cash-back rewards with no annual fee. We also considered the benefit of automatically upgrading to the Chase Freedom Unlimited® after a year of responsible use. 

While the Chase Freedom Rise℠ offers limited benefits compared to other cards, it provides a solid foundation for establishing a credit history. It's a good option if you're looking to build credit, assuming it aligns with your credit-building goals and spending habits.

Learn more about how we rate credit cards at Business Insider.

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2024 Mercedes-Benz E-Class Review: The luxury and tech powerhouse you expect

The e-class is all-new for 2024, and it's bringing a lot to the table.

Pros: Plush ride; smooth, quiet and powerful engines; beautiful interior with vast array of tech

Cons: styling is verging on controversial; gets expensive quick with options.

The 2024 Mercedes-Benz E-Class picks up right where the previous generation left off by being a classy, tech powerhouse that also happens to be oh-so-sweet to drive. For now, we get a four-cylinder and inline-six as powertrain options, but future years might see AMG return. Unlike BMW ’s strategy in which its EVs and gas-powered sedans share a body, Mercedes continues on with its E-Class being a traditional three-box sedan and its EQE (electric equivalent) adopting the potato-like EQ styling for its EVs. We’re glad the E-Class hangs onto tradition here, as even though its flashy grille and three-pointed star taillights are a little much, it’s still a sleek and beautifully proportioned luxury sedan .

If you were hoping for the latest and greatest of Mercedes’ tech, you’re certainly getting it in the E-Class, perhaps to a fault. The “Superscreen” turns your whole dashboard into an array of bright and colorful touchscreens, although touch controls replace the previous generation’s clicky, satisfying buttons. In some ways, it’s a downgrade, but Mercedes tries to make up for the loss of analog goodness with fancy lights, a trick audio system and innovative features like video calling and artificial intelligence routines, the last effort in hopes you won’t even need to touch any buttons while the car automatically does your bidding. Mercedes isn’t alone in this focus on tech as BMW has similarly out-there features in the 5 Series , but for those who may not care about any of these “innovations,” rest easy that you can ignore them, turn them off or not specify them at all, leaving you to enjoy a new E-Class that still drives and comports itself as an E-Class is meant to do.

Interior & Technology    |   Passenger & Cargo Space    |   Performance & Fuel Economy

What it's like to drive    |   pricing & trim levels    |   crash ratings & safety features, what's new for 2024.

The E-Class is completely new for 2024 as it enters its sixth generation. Its look is a familiar one, but Mercedes piled the tech high this time around.

Note that the E 450 All-Terrain wagon is being sold for 2024, but it’s still based on the previous generation and therefore extremely different from the sedan. This review is long enough without also packing it with descriptions of what is effectively a totally different car. You can read our review of it here .

What are the E-Class’ interior and in-car technology like?

Like most Mercedes these days, the in-car technology dictates the interior design. The E-Class offers an optional “ Superscreen ” (the lesser sibling to the EQ’s “Hyperscreen”), but it’s really just a questionably useful passenger-side screen added to the standard pair of screens. Frankly, we’d skip it, especially since you’ll be missing out on the beautiful wood trim that’s fitted without the screen.

There’s no avoiding screens, though. The 14.4-inch central touchscreen display is big, vibrant and utilizes the same interface found in other top-shelf Mercedes. You can default to a simple home screen of various icons or the “Zero Layer” that features a vivid navigation map and a preferred selection of tiles running along the bottom (such as audio or phone). There’s a lot to digest, and the learning curve is not surprisingly steep, but once acclimated, we’ve found it quite easy to use. The navigation system is also exceptional (programming it couldn’t be easier thanks to Mercedes’ above-average voice recognition system), limiting the need for Google Maps and possibly even Apple CarPlay and Android Auto that are still included. You can also fit a new dash-top camera that opens the door to video calling or shooting videos on TikTok, but that seems more like gimmickry.

It almost goes without saying, but the E-Class’ seats, materials and general appointments are all befitting of a car its price, and the color/trim choices are abundant. You’ll need some acclimation time to get fully up to speed with the tech, but there’s no debating the E-Class’ interior is state of the art in terms of both new features and luxury.

How big is the E-Class?

This E-Class is just a hair bigger than the previous one , meaning it still has plenty of rear seat space for adults, though we’ll note Mercedes mounts its front seats fairly low to the ground, so you could be slightly confined if there’s a taller driver in front of you. Compared to other midsize luxury sedans like the BMW 5 Series or Audi A6 , the E-Class is right on par where it needs to be, as all three Germans are plenty large in back.

As for the trunk space, best to direct you to our comprehensive luggage test where we determine the E-Class’ 19 cubic-feet of space is definitely big, but slightly deceiving from a pure numbers perspective. That said, it’ll fit four people’s worth of luggage without protest and still have a little room left over.

What are the E-Class’ fuel economy and performance specs?

You can choose between the E 350 4Matic and the E 450 4Matic for 2024, and as the “4Matic” bit indicates, all-wheel drive is standard. The base E 350 4Matic uses a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine that develops 255 horsepower 295 pound-feet of torque. Both engines shift via a nine-speed automatic transmission and feature a mild-hybrid system. The base 2.0-liter is good enough for a 6.1-second 0-60 mph run. It returns an EPA-estimated 24 mpg city, 33 mpg highway and 27 mpg combined.

The E 450 has a 3.0-liter turbocharged inline-six good for 375 hp, 369 lb-ft and a 4.4-second 0-60 sprint. Its  fuel economy  falls to 22 mpg city, 31 mpg highway and 25 mpg combined.

Mercedes has revealed an AMG E 53 Hybrid (PHEV) for 2025, but we’ve not driven that model yet. You can read all about it in our reveal post here .

What's the E-Class like to drive?

We have not tested a 2024 E-Class with the stock suspension and steering system, so we can only comment about the E 350 and E 450 when equipped with the $3,200 Airmatic package. It sure seems worth the money, though, as it cements the E-Class’ status a a dual threat. It can coddle you with a pillowy-soft ride from its supple Airmatic air suspension, but it can also sharpen its responses enough to be both fun and fast on a mountain road. The addition of rear-wheel steering brings a lot to the table, offering 4.5 degrees of rear steering that allows the E-Class to drive smaller on tight city streets but still benefit from greater stability at high speeds.

Both the four-cylinder and inline-six benefit from a super-smooth 48-volt mild-hybrid system that makes starting and stopping the engine seamless in traffic. Neither engine makes much sound in the cabin, though the inline-six’s tuneful song can be heard when you’re hammering it, which is just the way we’d want it. Mercedes has yet again put together one of the best all-around daily driving luxury machines on the planet with the E-Class, from the noise isolation to the effortless way it moves down the road with near S-Class-level comfort. We’re excited for AMG versions to join the lineup to spice things up even further, though.

What other Mercedes-Benz E-Class reviews can I read?

2024 mercedes-benz e-class first drive review: driven to distraction.

We go over everything that's new about the next-gen E-Class and provide initial driving impressions.

Mercedes-Benz E-Class Luggage Test: How big is the trunk?

Here's how much luggage you can fit in the E-Class' trunk.

What is the 2024 E-Class’ price?

The E-Class starts at $63,450 for the E 350 4Matic in its base Premium trim. There’s only one other trim available, named Pinnacle, and it starts at $66,000. For the extra coin you get an illuminated grille, the active ambient lighting, heat- and noise-insulating glass, and a head-up display.

If you want the inline-six-equipped E 450, it starts at $69,250, which is a fair price to pay for the extra power and excellent engine you’ll get. The Pinnacle version of the E 450 brings the highest base price up to $71,800.

Of course, you’re going to want options. The snazzy Manufaktur Alpine Grey you see in photos at the top of this post is $1,750, and the accompanying 21-inch AMG wheels are $3,050. Upgrading from MB-Tex to leather is $1,620, and going all the way to the top-shelf Nappa leather is $2,990. The Superscreen is a $1,500 standalone option we could go without, but the $1,950 Driver Assistance Package (brings in all of Mercedes’ stellar active assist systems) and $3,200 Airmatic Package (air suspension, adaptive dampers and rear-wheel steering) are highly recommended. The $990 Digital Lights and $1,030 Burmester 4D sound system make for some excellent nice-to-haves, as well.

What are the E-Class’ safety ratings and driver assistance features?

The E-Class comes with a massive array of standard (and even more optional) driver assistance features. Standard items include automatic emergency braking , blind-spot warning with exit-warning assist, auto high-beams, driver attention monitoring, and front and rear parking sensors. Notable optional extras include adaptive cruise control, lane-keeping, lane-centering, auto-lane change, auto emergency braking when turning or with cross-traffic, and projections for Digital Lights that can alert you to things like construction zones, following distance and more.

The E-Class had not been third-party crash tested at the time of this writing, but the previous generation 2023 E-Class received a Top Safety Pick+ award from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety .

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Jennifer Connelly and ‘Dark Matter’ Writers Answer Finale Questions, Talk Easter Eggs and a Potential Second Season 

By Jenelle Riley

Jenelle Riley

Deputy Awards and Features Editor

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• Jennifer Connelly and ‘Dark Matter’ Writers Answer Finale Questions, Talk Easter Eggs and a Potential Second Season  2 days ago
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SPOILER ALERT:  This story contains spoilers from Episode 9, “Entanglement,” the Season 1 finale of “ Dark Matter ,” now streaming on Apple TV+.

The finale of “Dark Matter,” based on the bestselling novel by Blake Crouch , has hit Apple TV+, and while it answers many questions, it also poses a new ones. We spoke to Jennifer Connelly , who pays Daniela Dessen, who has to make an unthinkable choice. In addition, we talked to Crouch, who adapted his own book for television, as well as his co-writer of the final episode, Jacquelyn Ben-Zekry. And we couldn’t help but ask about a potential second season.

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She adds that the two can’t just rush into each other’s arms. “After all that time we’ve spent with Jason trying to get home, we realize it can’t be an easy homecoming because of the ramifications of what’s happened,” Connelly continues. “The journey they take together where they run away and hide out is her finding that feeling that he is the one.”

The length of that journey was so important that it made the series go from eight to nine episodes.  As they were going into production, Crouch realized he wanted to go deeper with several of the relationships.  “I went and said, ‘Hey, I think we need one more episode.’ And we were told to do it — and it truly makes all the difference,” Crouch says. Connelly agrees. “It didn’t seem like it could be plausible that with so much to sift through it could be an immediate, ‘OK, I get it — I know absolutely that you are the one,’” she says. “There’s so much to digest and process. So I was really happy we had those last two episodes to explore that, and watch them find each other again.”

Which leads to the question of whether the series will continue, since the season ends where Crouch’s book does. Connelly, for one, says she’d be open to a return. “I don’t know if they’ve made any decisions about that, but I had a great time working on it, and would be happy to be involved,” she says. According to Crouch, nothing is currently planned, and the first season is still making its way to people. Still, he says, “It’s hard to do a whole first season with these characters and not think about what could come next. But I think we’re trying to just enjoy this moment right now.” There are certainly crumbs left for the audience — such as the intertwined fates of RyanPrime (Jimmi Simpson) and Amanda2 (Alice Braga.) When last spotted, they seemed to meet in what the writers call World 26. Explains Ben-Zekry: “Every world has its nickname: There’s Ash World and Water World, and people refer to this as Utopia World. But I didn’t want to call it that, because there is no such thing as a utopia — every place has its downside.” While Amanda2 chose to stay in World26, RyanPrime was abandoned there without knowing how The Box works or the necessary ampules to inject himself with in order to travel. RyanPrime approaches Amanda2; she asks if she knows him. RyanPrime responds, “No, but I’ve been looking for you.”

Crouch says that there is more to explore there. “He knows who she is — I won’t say how, because it could be a spoiler for future things. But he located her in a really cool way,” he reveals. “He was stranded in this world with no ampules to get him home. But he knows she might be his lifeline back.”

Ben-Zekry adds that World26 was the one she was most involved in creating and shaping. “That world is super important to us, because Ryan and Amanda are there. So if there’s a Season 2, you’ll see more of it.” The pair are also impressed by the theories viewers have been coming up with and the Easter Eggs they’ve caught, such as the movie theater showing films based on Crouch’s other novels “Summer Frost” and “Upgrade.” (Asked why his bestseller “Recursion” isn’t showing, Crouch explains, “It’s a series.”) Asked if they ever come across theories that they wish they’d thought of, they both say yes. Crouch adds, “There’s a lot of really smart viewers out there.”

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Wordle Review No. 1,107, June 30, 2024

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By New York Times Games

Welcome to The Wordle Review. Be warned: This page contains spoilers for today’s puzzle. Solve Wordle first , or scroll at your own risk.

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Today’s average difficulty is 5.5 guesses out of 6, or very challenging.

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Today’s Word

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Today’s word is BUDDY, a noun. According to Webster’s New World College Dictionary, it means “a close friend; companion; comrade; esp., a comrade in arms.”

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Jordan Moss is an illustrator and a graphic designer based in Brooklyn. With a background that includes fine art and advertising, she is excited to explore all forms and mediums. She looks to create with love and create what people love.

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