Scholarly vs. Popular Activity

Examine the following articles in order to clarify the differences between scholarly journal articles and popular articles, such as those you would find in the news, magazines, or on general interest websites.

After completing this exercise, you should be able to tell at a glance whether or not a source is scholarly or popular. This will help you to understand the criteria that sets apart scholarly publications and to make an informed decision on whether or not an article is appropriate to include in your reference list when you write a paper.

Important! You do not need to take the time to read the entire articles to complete this activity. Instead, open each article in a new window or tab and take just a few minutes to “flip through” and scan over the articles. Let the questions in this quiz prompt a closer examination of the key characteristics of each article type.

Click the citations below to view the articles in a new window or tab.

• Scholarly Journal Article
• Schumacher, E. H., Seymour, T. L., Glass, J. M., Fencsik, D. E., Lauber, E. J., Kieras, D. E., & Meyer, D. E. (2001). Virtually perfect time sharing in dual-task performance: Uncorking the central cognitive bottleneck. Psychological Science, 12(2), 101–108. http://pss.sagepub.com.proxy.lib.umich.edu/content/12/2/101.full.pdf+html

• Popular Magazine Article
• Motluk, A. (2007, April 7). Look out hear this watch me careful! New Scientist, 194(2598), 28,30–31. https://search.proquest.com/docview/200370063/fulltext/22CFD82F7CC641FEPQ/1?accountid=14667 
• Select the link above to view the article or download the pdf

After evaluating each article select the correct descriptor for each article type in the following categories: content, author, audience, language, references, example title, and then article type.