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popular and scholarly sources

Information may be written for a general audience (popular), or for an audience interested in in-depth professional information (scholarly).

Popular and scholarly periodicals are quite easy to distinguish.

a point to check with your teacher: you may be expected to use only scholarly sources in your assignment.

popular periodicals

Popular periodicals are often called magazines. They are designed for general readers and usually have:

  • many colourful photographs and advertisements
  • short articles
  • articles written by journalists and professional writers.

scholarly periodicals

Scholarly periodicals have been written by professionals or people studying in the field. Usually, the articles are:

  • long, and in-depth
  • written by people with professional qualifications
  • accompanied by lists of other information sources which have been referred to by the author (bibliographies)