The point of writing a review of a business article is to give yourself a chance to analyze, discuss, and share your critiques about a particular business article. Reviews of business articles offer insightful viewpoints, add to the current conversation in business, and help others make well-informed decisions. In this guide, I’ll be using the article “How Apple Is Organized for Innovation” by Joel M. Podolny and Morten T. Hansen as an example to writing a review of a business article. I’ll use their article to create short and to-the-point examples for each point, just to give you a general idea of how reviews of business articles can be written.
I. Business Article Review: An Overview
In a general sense, writing a business article review involves choosing a business article that you feel strongly about and analyzing it critically. You can like or dislike the article; all that matters is that you have something to say about it! Most reviews of business articles lean on the negative, but there’s nothing wrong with mixing some positive opinions into your review too. In fact, that makes your own critics more likely to respect your opinion.
Your review should aim to create your own space to share your thoughts and opinions, helping readers better comprehend the main ideas of the article and participate in insightful and productive discourse. This means that even if you make criticisms, the overall impact of your article review is positive.
II. How to Write a Review on a Business Article
Writing a review on a business article requires a systematic approach. You have to juggle being objective and being opinionated, and that can be a difficult balance to keep. Here are the steps I encourage you to take if you want to write an effective, comprehensive review:
1. Read and Understand the Article
Start by reading the business article in its entirety. While reading, make notes to help you remember important ideas and supporting information. Even if you think you can remember everything without writing it down, please write it down. You’ll be surprised at the clarity your notes will give you. Recognize the point, scope, and main points of your chosen article.
Begin by reading “How Apple Is Organized for Innovation” by Joel M. Podolny and Morten T. Hansen, or any article of your choosing. Make notes while your read on key ideas, supporting details, and any issues or problems that come up. Don’t worry too much about your thoughts being organized or ordered correctly. Just write whatever comes to mind; we’ll worry about the organization later.
Example:
The article “How Apple Is Organized for Innovation” by Joel M. Podolny and Morten T. Hansen explores Apple’s organizational structure and its impact on fostering innovation within the company. The authors delve into the “DRI” (Directly Responsible Individual) system, cross-functional collaboration, and Apple’s focus on small, autonomous teams. I will evaluate and expand on the strengths and weaknesses of the article as best as I can. I will also provide my own insights into Apple’s approach to innovation.
2. Analyze the Article
Examine the article critically to determine its strengths, shortcomings, and overall effectiveness. Take into account the article’s structure, the arguments’ clarity, the use of evidence, and the writers’ credibility.
Analyze the article’s organization and structure. Do the introduction, body, and conclusion make sense? Are the key points stated coherently and with adequate evidence? Analyze the writers’ use of proof. Are there enough facts, studies, or expert opinions to support their claims? Examine the tone and writing style of the authors. Does it appeal to, persuade, and fit the target audience?
Take into account the authors’ reputation. Do they have the necessary credentials or expertise to be giving their opinion on this matter? The answers to these questions will depend entirely on the specific article, as well as you doing your own research on the writer. It’s a good idea to read some of their other articles, too, just to form your own opinion on this writer’s viewpoints, writing style, and what they tend to write about.
3. Identify Key Takeaways
Now, it’s time to list and summarize your chosen article’s main ideas. These key takeaways will be the basis for your review, so it’s important not to deliberately or unintentionally misinterpret the writer’s views. Be brief but accurate when you outline them.
The notes you took in Step 1 will be very helpful for this stage. Try to be as objective as you can when outlining your key points, and don’t be afraid to go over them several times. In my opinion, this is when you should be the most precise, even more so than when you give your own thoughts on the article.
Example:
The article highlights Apple’s unique organizational structure, focusing on the DRI (directly responsible individual) system and how this system affects decision-making and accountability. The authors discuss the benefits of cross-functional collaboration and the autonomy that Apple entrusts to small teams. The authors of this article also argue that these organizational practices have greatly contributed to Apple’s success and its ability to innovate in the technological sphere consistently.
4. Provide Your Opinion and Analysis
In this section, express your individual opinions and analyses of the subject. Share your thoughts on the overall impact, as well as the benefits and drawbacks, of the content. You should back up your claims with relevant examples, data, and references.
Elaborate on the benefits of the article. Did it offer original perspectives or insightful analysis? Discuss any flaws you identified, such as weak logic, a lack of supporting evidence, or slanted perspectives. To substantiate your claims, use details or instances from the article or other trustworthy sources.
This section will make up the bulk of your review, so you can make a rough draft before polishing it. In the previous Step, we summarized the key takeaways of the business article. In this Step, we’ll be doing the opposite with your review. We’ll be taking the main takeaways we want to convey and expanding on them one by one.
Example:
The article effectively showcases Apple’s innovative organizational structure. The authors provide compelling evidence and examples to support their arguments, drawing on real-world experiences at Apple. However, the article could have delved deeper into potential challenges or limitations of this organizational model, such as the risk of silos forming or the impact on employee morale. I think that not mentioning these drawbacks may read as deliberately ignoring them, and they’re important issues that need to be discussed.
5. Conclude and Summarize
The conclusion of your business article review isn’t so different from the conclusion of any other type of writing. It’s about summarizing your main points and restating your overall evaluation of the business article. If appropriate, make recommendations for improvement or new research the writer should look into.
The main focus here should be the ideas you want your readers to keep in mind after reading your review. Mention both the things you thought the article got right and wrong, and expand your opinion on “why” it’s good or bad for each point. Lastly, it’s very helpful and professional to make recommendations. This is valuable for both the writer and the readers. If either of these parties is interested in gaining a better understanding of the issue, they’ll welcome your recommendations.
You’ll even gain some respect from your critics if you include sources and reading recommendations in your review. This is the part of your review that turns your complaints and negative opinions into constructive criticism. Turning your criticism into constructive criticism should be one of your goals with your business article review because it allows your readers to walk away with helpful suggestions and a deeper comprehension of the original business article. Criticism for the sake of criticism is just hateful. Even if the original writer reads your review and it contains negative opinions about their work, if they’re civil, they’re going to consider your constructive criticism as something positive and potentially even helpful!
Example:
“How Apple Is Organized for Innovation” provides valuable insights into Apple’s unique approach to fostering innovation through its organizational structure. The article is very effective and convincing when it talks about the strengths of Apple’s DRI system and cross-functional collaboration. However, I think a more balanced exploration of potential challenges would have enhanced the overall impact of this article. I think adding a small section for just that would substantially increase the overall quality of this article and make it a lot more balanced.
IV. Conclusion
I hope that with this guide, I’ve listed and explained the key steps any writer can take to write a review on a business article. Whether you’re a new writer, a seasoned one, or just someone with a healthy dose of curiosity, I hope you’ve gained some insight into how a business article review is written.
Typically, reviews of business articles are much longer than the small examples I gave, but my examples were more to briefly illustrate each point than to actually write an article review. So when you’re writing your own review, I actually encourage you to make it longer and flesh out as many points as you feel it’s necessary – not just one or two!
I hope that by following these steps and using your critical thinking skills, you’ll be able to write an informative, productive, and thought-provoking review that contributes something to the ongoing discourse in the business world. Remember to read and understand the article, analyze its content, identify key takeaways, provide your opinion and analysis, and conclude with a summary. Happy writing.
