Reviewing What We Learned about Scholarly vs. Popular Sources
As noted earlier in this module, using scholarly articles can be intimidating, but we can see that they are strong sources to support our research. Plus, our instructors really like them because of their accountability and credibility. As busy students, we're always looking for tips to get our work done more quickly and efficiently, like the ones in this module. We just need to remember some key points to help us know how to use scholarly and popular sources in our research.
Popular Articles
- Popular articles are more accessible because they're written for the general public.
- Since they're published more frequently, they're a great source for recent topics, especially for events that have happened in the last few days, weeks, or month.
- Using popular articles from well-known sources is often acceptable for our academic research projects.
Scholarly Articles
- However, sometimes we need sources that are more scholarly. These go in-depth on a specific topic and are usually quite lengthy.
- The language used can be harder to understand quickly, so it's good to keep a dictionary handy, and also use the tips from the video on how to read a scholarly journal article.
- There is more credibility because the authors are experts in their disciplines, and the articles are usually peer-reviewed before they get published.
Practicing the techniques described in this module will help us be better researchers.
Help
For more help with scholarly and popular sources, contact a librarian at the Highline College Library.