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HMGT 3502 Hospitality Research Seminar

Workshop-related materials including student homework

Read to research

When you find a great article that addresses your research question, it can help you find other excellent sources. The article doesn't need to be scholarly.

Think in terms of finding experts. Look for

  • people = researchers and other experts
    • professors often have a homepage and list their publications
    • find other articles by the same researcher in a library database or Google Scholar
  • organizations = trade organizations or non-governmental agencies or other non-profits that do research
    • explore website, look for reports
    • look for press releases about research studies and then try to locate the study

Use scholarly articles to identify keywords. Think about scholarly versus everyday language for different concepts.

  • review the abstract
  • review article keywords

Many social sciences articles follow a writing convention where the beginning of the article proper has a literature review related to the research question. This can be a big time saver.

As described below, focus on the abstract, introduction, and conclusion before you read an entire article. Think critically if the article is on target.

Skimming an article

Skimming for What You Need (from UCLA WI+RE) 

Adapted from UCLA Professor Snowden Becker's "How to Read an Article".

  • Start at the ends. Important information is usually concentrated in the abstract, introduction, and conclusion of the piece. From this quick scan, you can likely tell if this resource is important to your research and merits inclusion in your literature review.
  • Look for landmarks. Journal articles generally follow a set structure with titled subsections like Problem Statement or Research Methods & Design that allow you to skip to the content you need.
  • Take notes as you go. While you may remember the central argument or findings of a resource now, after you look through a whole body of research you may lose the nuances of individual pieces. Important things to keep track of may include central ideas, research methods, referenced works, and refuted or counter-argued ideas.