Scholarly | vs. | Popular |
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Usually written by an scholar or a researcher in the field. Credentials and/or affliation are given. |
Author | Often a professional writer with no expertise in the subject area. Author's name may or may not be given. |
Other scholars, researchers and students. | Audience | The general public; those interested without a speciality in the subject |
Specialized terminology or jargon of the field; requires prior knowledge or a dictionary. | Language | General vocabulary. Understandable to most readers. |
Articles have a defined structure with an abstract, objective, methodology, results, analysis, conclusion and references. | Appearence | Informal oragnization, usually eye catching. Typically contains oragnization and photographs. |
Always provides a list of references or a bibliography. Sources are cited and can be verified. | References/ Bibliography | Rarely has a list of references, but can include sources listed under a section titled "more to explore" or "further reading", etc. Usually does not give complete information about sources. |
Articles are peer-reviewed before publication by a panel of researchers or an editor for accuracy, methodology and importance. | Peer-Review | Articles are usually not evaluated by experts. Non-peer reviwed resources must be carefully examined for accuracy and relevance. |
Effect of Caffeine on Prospective and Retrospective Duration Judgements | Example | Better Learning Through Fidgeting |