Sources: Pop Vs. Scholarly
Early on in your career as a student, you will hear lecturers request that you cite sources in your papers and that at least some of those sources be scholarly ones. Today's talk is designed to help you understand
· what your lecturers mean by the term “scholarly source"
· How do distinguish a scholarly source from a popular one
· when it is appropriate to use each in your research
Let's start with Popular Sources
Popular sources are non-academic materials written for a general audience. These can include books, speeches, web sites, blogs and electronic mailing list posts. They ALWAYS include dictionary entries, encyclopedia articles, textbook entries and magazine or newspaper articles. NOTE: You should NEVER hand in an academic essay consisting solely of popular sources.
That said, popular sources can be very useful to you in the early stages of essay writing. For example, although it is unwise to quote from dictionaries or encyclopedias in a scholarly paper, you certainly can read them to get ideas for your essays. Likwise, although you generally don’t want to use a popular source to talk about theory, you can certainly illustrate theoretical arguments using real-life examples drawn from magazines, newspapers and web sites.
Okay, then what is a Scholarly Source?
A scholarly (also called academic) source is one that has been generated by and/or directed at academics or experts in particular fields of study. Scholarly sources tend to be books, journal articles, reports, speeches, or sometimes, personal web sites or blogs created and maintained by academics. You are expected to turn to scholarly sources when you are dealing with theoretical, analytical or historical issues. One way to think about this is that you use scholarly sources to support the “meaty part” of your essays.
How can I tell if something is a Popular or a Scholarly Source?
The easiest way to determine if something is a scholarly source is to ask yourself the following questions (not all need to be answered “yes”, but most should):
· what your lecturers mean by the term “scholarly source"
· How do distinguish a scholarly source from a popular one
· when it is appropriate to use each in your research
Let's start with Popular Sources
Popular sources are non-academic materials written for a general audience. These can include books, speeches, web sites, blogs and electronic mailing list posts. They ALWAYS include dictionary entries, encyclopedia articles, textbook entries and magazine or newspaper articles. NOTE: You should NEVER hand in an academic essay consisting solely of popular sources.
That said, popular sources can be very useful to you in the early stages of essay writing. For example, although it is unwise to quote from dictionaries or encyclopedias in a scholarly paper, you certainly can read them to get ideas for your essays. Likwise, although you generally don’t want to use a popular source to talk about theory, you can certainly illustrate theoretical arguments using real-life examples drawn from magazines, newspapers and web sites.
Okay, then what is a Scholarly Source?
A scholarly (also called academic) source is one that has been generated by and/or directed at academics or experts in particular fields of study. Scholarly sources tend to be books, journal articles, reports, speeches, or sometimes, personal web sites or blogs created and maintained by academics. You are expected to turn to scholarly sources when you are dealing with theoretical, analytical or historical issues. One way to think about this is that you use scholarly sources to support the “meaty part” of your essays.
How can I tell if something is a Popular or a Scholarly Source?
The easiest way to determine if something is a scholarly source is to ask yourself the following questions (not all need to be answered “yes”, but most should):
- Does the piece include references and a bibliography? One of the easiest ways to instantly tell whether a source is scholarly is to check for references, notes and/or a bibliography. If your source includes none of these (and is not something like a speech), there is a strong chance it isn’t scholarly. NOTE: We are not saying that the mere presence of notes makes something a scholarly source. We are saying is that if a piece DOESN’T have references, it almost always is NOT scholarly.
- Does this piece seem to be written for fellow experts in the field? If so, then it is scholarly. If it seems to be written for a general readership (e.g. newspaper readers, high school students), then it is not a scholarly source.
- Does this piece seem to employ specialized language and terminology not found in “regular” writing? If so, there is a strong chance you are looking at a scholarly source.
- Does the author have qualifications that would indicate s/he is an expert in this topic? The place to look for these is generally at the end of the piece. Note: It’s no longer enough for someone to have Ph.D. after their name to be considered “expert.” What you are generally looking for is an affiliation with a particular academic department. NOTE: An academic’s web site is a perfectly legitimate source, but be sure you are looking at the site of the lecturer, not a student of the lecturer’s.
- If you are looking at book, is it published by a company that deals with academics? Obviously a book published by “X University Press” deals with academics, but otherwise, it is a good idea to ask your tutor for their input on the matter. For instance, books published by Routledge, Sage, or Peter Lang would generally be considered scholarly, even though they don’t have “university” anywhere in their names.
- If you are looking at an article, does it come from a peer-reviewed journal? Many academic journals will not publish an article until it has been first read and evaluated by fellow experts in the field. This process is called “peer review,” and most journals that have a peer review system will say as much on the title page of their publication. Electronic journals can also be peer reviewed.