More on Source Types
What types of sources will you need?
It’s important to understand the types of information sources available because it will help you choose appropriate sources for your assignment. Typically, sources fall into two categories, popular and scholarly.
Scholarly sources are created by researchers and experts who have specialized knowledge on a topic and are written with other experts and specialists in mind. They tend to be lengthy and because the authors are experts, use expert, academic language, which can be challenging to understand. Scholarly sources are heavy on text, though they sometimes contain graphs and other types of images. Most importantly, scholarly sources give citations, or references, to the sources the author used.
Popular sources differ from scholarly sources in that they are written by journalists, or professional writers and are intended for the general public. They tend to be shorter and because they are for the general public, the vocabulary is easier to understand. Popular sources can include lots of pictures and images, but few, if any citations or references.
The graph below shows how popular and scholarly sources differ from each other, and which sources fall into each category.
| Scholarly | vs. | Popular |
| Academic journals | Source | Newspapers & magazines |
| Researchers & experts | Author | Journalists & non-experts |
| Specialized vocabulary | Vocabulary | Everyday Language |
| Other researchers & scholars | Audience | General public |
| To share research findings | Purpose | General information |
| Provided for all sources | Citations | Few or no citations provided |
The video below explains the differences between a scholarly source and a popular source.
This chart compares the characteristics of different source types, both scholarly and popular.
