|
Popular
and Scholarly Sources
Many of the assignments for your courses may ask you to use specific
sources or types of sources such as popular magazine articles or
scholarly journal articles. There are some basic
ways that you can identify these types of periodicals.
|
Type of Source |
Popular
Magazines |
Scholarly
Journals |
|
Examples
|
The
Economist, Psychology Today, Time, National Geographic |
Journal of American History, Child Development, Foreign
Affairs |
|
Audience
|
For
the general public; uses language understood by the average
reader |
For
students, scholars, researchers; uses specialized vocabulary
of the discipline |
|
Content
|
May
report research as news items, feature stories, editorials
and opinion pieces |
Reports
original research, theory; may include an abstract |
|
Appearance
|
Illustrated, with a lot of advertising, color, photos,
short articles with no bibliographies or references
|
Little
or no advertising, has tables & charts, lengthy articles, bibliographies & references
|
|
Authors
|
Author
may not be named, frequently a staff writer, not a subject
expert |
Authors
are specialists, articles are signed, & credentials such
as degrees, university affiliation are often given. |
|
 |
|