Differences Between Popular and Academic Resources
| Popular (Non-Scholarly) | Academic (Scholarly) | |
|---|---|---|
| Author | Journalist, layperson, or sometimes unknown | Expert (scholar, professor, etc.) in field being discussed |
| Citations | Few or no references/citations available | Includes citations and/or bibliography in certain styles such as MLA, APA, and Chicago (to view citation style guidelines, click on their respective names) |
|
Editing |
Reviewed by people at the publisher |
Reviewed by editorial board of outside scholars (peer review) |
|
Style |
Written for the average reader
|
Written for experts, uses subject-specific jargon, shows research |
| Audience | General public, people in stores/online | Scholars and researchers in the field |
| Advertising | Many ads, often in color | Few or none; if there are any, they are for other scholarly materials |
| Look | Eye-catching/interesting design, many pictures, color | Plain, utilitarian, black and white, tables and charts |
| Contents | Current events, general interest | Specialized research topics only |
| Sample Titles | The New Yorker, The Washington Post, National Geographic | Harvard Educational Review, Journal of Environmental Law |
| Sample Article |
"The Needless Complexity of Academic Writing" - The Atlantic, "Iowa City to launch a year of temporary sculpture installations" - The Daily Iowan |
"Highly Efficient Reprogramming to Pluripotency and Directed Differentiation of Human Cells with Synthetic Modified mRNA" - Cell Stem Cell |
Activity - Choosing Between Popular and Academic Articles
Below are a few articles that you can click to read. Based on what you've learned about the differences between non-scholarly and scholarly articles, which are them are non-scholarly and which are scholarly? Why do you think so?