The main difference between scholarly and popular sources is that scholarly sources are publications written by academics, researchers, or other experts to contribute to knowledge in a particular field, whereas popular sources are publications intended for a general audience.
There are many factors that differentiate between scholarly and popular sources: author, content, audience, language, purpose, etc. Popular sources may help you to find background information about a topic, but it’s scholarly sources that will help you to actually support your thesis.
Key Areas Covered
1. What are Scholarly Sources
– Definition, Features, Identification
2. What are Popular Sources
– Definition, Features, Identification
3. Difference Between Scholarly and Popular Sources
– Comparison of Key Differences
Key Terms
Scholarly Sources, Popular Sources
What are Scholarly Sources
Scholarly sources are publications written by academics, researchers, or other experts to contribute to knowledge in a particular field. Such sources can share theories, insights, news, analyses, new research findings, as well as summaries of current knowledge in the field. Furthermore, they can come in different formats, including books, articles, and websites. Journals are a common example of scholarly sources most students use.
Furthermore, the language in scholarly sources is usually academic and technical and can include jargon specific to that particular field. This is because such sources are usually written for a specific audience, not a general audience. Moreover, scholarly articles tend to be long. They also include a list of citations. In addition, scholarly sources typically include a specific structure and include presenting methods, results, and analysis.
How to Identify a Scholarly Source
- The author is an expert in the field (scholar, researcher, etc.)
- The source indicates the credentials of the author
- Citations used are included in the sources
- The language is technical and scholarly
- The source records and discusses original research
- It undergoes peer review
What are Popular Sources
Popular sources are publications intended for a general audience with the aim of entertaining, informing, or persuading. These are not scholarly sources, but they can help students to find information about current events, background information, opinions, etc. Furthermore, newspaper articles and magazine articles are popular sources. To be more specific, National Geography, Times Magazine, New York Times, Scientific American, Fortune Magazine, and Bloomberg Businessweek are some examples of popular sources. In addition, the general public is the audience of popular sources.
How to Identify Popular Sources
- It’s a publication like a newspaper or a magazine
- The language is simple and easy to understand
- The source has colourful images and publications
- The source has stories, opinions, as well as personal points of view on a topic
- There are no references or citations
- It does not undergo any peer review
- The source is shorter, generally one page or few pages
Difference Between Scholarly and Popular Sources
Definition
Scholarly sources are publications written by academics, researchers, or other experts to contribute to knowledge in a particular field, whereas popular sources are publications intended for a general audience.
Audience
The audience for scholarly sources is scholarly readers, including professors, students, and researchers, whereas the audience for popular sources is the general public.
Content
Scholarly sources may contain theories, insights, new research findings, and summaries of current knowledge in the field, whereas popular sources may contain current events, background information, opinions of people, etc.
Author
Scholarly sources are written by researchers, scholars, or experts in particular fields, whereas popular sources are written by journalists or amateurs.
Credentials
In addition, scholarly sources usually indicate the credentials of the authors, while popular sources rarely do.
Type
Journal articles, university webpages, books written by experts, etc., are some examples of scholarly sources, whereas newspapers and magazines are examples of popular sources.
Citation
Scholarly sources have a list of citations while popular sources rarely indicate citations.
Language
The language in scholarly sources is technical and academic, but the language in popular sources is simple and easy to understand.
Length
Scholarly sources are longer than popular sources. While scholarly sources can have hundreds of pages, popular sources only have few pages at maximum.
Conclusion
The main difference between scholarly and popular sources is that scholarly sources are publications written by academics, researchers, or other experts to contribute to knowledge in a particular field, whereas popular sources are publications intended for a general audience. Furthermore, journal articles, university webpages, books written by experts, etc., are some examples of scholarly sources, while newspapers and magazines are examples of popular sources.
Reference:
1. “Using Articles from Popular Sources.” University of Wisconsin-Madison.
2. “What Counts as a Scholarly Source?” University of Toronto Libraries, 18 May 2018.
3. “What Is a Scholarly Source?” Southern New Hampshire University.
Image Courtesy:
1. “Cover of Journal of Clinical Nursing” By Vickie Thaw – Sent personally (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Commons Wikimedia
2. “Magazine-science-national-geographic-5643117” (CC0) via Pixabay
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