COMM 105 - Speaking of Ideas: Evaluate Articles

Know how to identify scholarly (or peer reviewed) vs. trade periodicals for your assignment.

In addition to ensuring sources are scholarly, consider...

Currency: When was the information created or published? Do you need more current information?

Content: Is the information accurate? Does it provide in-depth information or just a summary?

Viewpoint: How does publication date, publisher or other factors affect viewpoint? How opinionated is the piece?

Relevance:  Is the information important for your needs? Do you need a source to get ideas, or to cite in your paper?

Courtesy of Wayne State University Library

Popular

• Audience: General
• Purpose: To entertain, sell products, or share news
• Format: Short and usually illustrated
• Sources: Quotes are usually attributed to the speaker, but few sources will be directly credited beyond this

Trade

• Audience: Professional
• Purpose: To keep professionals informed about news, trends, and practices in their field
• Format: Various article lengths with some industry jargon
• Sources: Quotes and sources are usually given attribution in-text, but are rarely cited separately

Scholarly

• Audience: Academic
• Purpose: To inform and advance scholarship
• Format: Longer format, often with field-specific language and limited illustrations
• Sources: Scholarly articles always cite their sources in footnotes and/or bibliographies