This is an example of an article that is a secondary source, with some of the key elements highlighted: In the article abstract, "Advocacy for health equity: A synthesis review," these are some of the key elements that indicate it is a secondary source article: aim of this review is to synthesize the evidence in the academic and gray literature Smaller, lesser-known newspapers or news outlets, as well as news outlets that have a particular agenda, i.e., they are so liberal or conservative that their focus is persuading the audience or catering to a particular audience viewpoint, rather than pure journalism to inform the public. Precise, accurate, reliable, though not as in-depth as for academic sources. articles meet that standard. and if you’re lucky, they’re the exact book segments that you need to learn There’s one time when you should cite your teacher: That’s when they actually assign their work as a test for you to read. Lecture slides are something the teacher either: I’m bracing for some angry emails from teachers about this 2011; 7th ed. property. Before I leave you, as usual a quick recap of your essay sources you should never cite in an academic paper: 7 Bad Essay Sources to Avoid | Essay Guidance. Professional sources: Written by academic experts or otherwise trained professionals, and written for educated non-experts. 2008; 4th ed. Twitter: @helpfulprof. textbook or academic paper. Not an academic expert. Reading Wikipedia is not the end of your research process. This is the most common one on the whole list. 3. These kinds of sources have a process of vetting or quality control. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Many journal articles and reports can be found online, for example. Other characteristics of academic sources, https://www.enwiki.org/wiki/index.php?title=Academic_versus_non-academic_sources&oldid=15176, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License, Non-expert. For example, Academic Search Complete has this feature on the initial search screen - click on the pertinent box to limit the search. Read textbooks on the issue when you can: they were written to be readable by undergraduates. Educationis a gradual process which brings positive changes in human life and behavior. Here’s a simple rule: If you found the quote from a website such as brainyquote.com, or if the quote was found in fancy writing overlaying a mountaintop of forest scene, don’t use it. Bible, The Quran or other inspirational quotes in their papers. marvellous, glorious, intelligent website. Non-academic texts usually include one's opinions and point-of-view. Popular media sources. Chris Drew (aka the Helpful Professor) is a university educator and former school teacher. As a university student, you need to be able to show the skill of finding sources Your friends do, Primary sources will usually be the main objects of your analysis. Writers might simply footnote the sources instead of citing them formally. When you read these texts, hopefully you took notes not the readings. Then, they’ve actually referenced the essays they read! It is because non-academic texts are non-objective texts that can be written by anyone by using informal or casual language. These are the scholarly articles, textbooks and book chapters that your teachers have selected for you to read. In literature classes, it is common to cite fictional works (novels, poems, and such). YouTube videos don’t.eval(ez_write_tag([[250,250],'helpfulprofessor_com-large-leaderboard-2','ezslot_11',645,'0','0'])); eval(ez_write_tag([[300,250],'helpfulprofessor_com-leader-1','ezslot_17',667,'0','0']));Okay, use the Google Books website. Author (including qualifications, credentials, expertise), Information (type, quality, and depth of information; primary or secondary information), Quality control (mechanisms to ensure the information is accurate and of good quality), Popular periodicals - magazines and newspapers written for a very general audience. Popular books by academic experts. Sources such as newspaper articles, magazine articles, opinion pieces, and websites are not commonly academic, although there are some exceptions. Do your digging and your research. readable source to assign a student. You learn everything you can about the topic from books and websites that you can trust to give you accurate info. I do recognise that sometimes you do need to cite very famous people. What does it mean, and what’s its relevance to your essay topic? A primary source is anything that gives you direct evidence about the people, events, or phenomena that you are researching. eval(ez_write_tag([[300,250],'helpfulprofessor_com-box-4','ezslot_4',643,'0','0']));But remember three things: eval(ez_write_tag([[336,280],'helpfulprofessor_com-large-mobile-banner-1','ezslot_10',149,'0','0']));Now, let’s get back to talk about what happens in real life: Why is it Important to use Credible Sources in Research? Secondary information, which is cited at least informally. These articles are commonly written by journalists, freelance writers or staff members and can be anonymous. When a student references my papers in their essays, I cringe. Academic and non-academic writing each have their own specific readership, structure and style. Sometimes a teacher wants their students to Tip: Cite Your Google Book Previews as Books, Not WebsitesWhen you use Google Books to access information for your next essay, take the time to preview the inside cover of the book and extract the information needed to reference the book you’re previewing as a book. essays.eval(ez_write_tag([[336,280],'helpfulprofessor_com-large-mobile-banner-2','ezslot_13',650,'0','0'])); Students will often cite Einstein, Nelson Mandela, The for Monday’s lecture; or, Has barely edited in the ten years since they Academic writing usually incorporates a more formal structure and style and is commonly directed toward a narrow and specific audience. You can find books using the Library's Discover Service. essay; and we’re against paying someone to write your essay for you.eval(ez_write_tag([[468,60],'helpfulprofessor_com-leader-2','ezslot_14',669,'0','0'])); Unfortunately, I’m sure you’ve come across essay writing The better journals are usually major international journals, such as: Academic sources, especially academic journals, are characterized by the following. Cite credible sources, not Wikipedia. If the teacher has assigned the text that they wrote as a set reading, I would suggest that you go ahead and cite it as a key essay source. Sometimes it is genuinely the most accurate and See the guide on Google Scholar searches. Parts of the book are distributed on official ubuntu CDs and the book is released and distributed under the Creative Common… Sorry. services in your time perusing the web. Similarly, if you’re actually writing an essay on evolution, go ahead and cite Charles Darwin. Edited volume. Use them to develop a strong foundational understanding of the topic. into actual good quality textbooks. Most of the universities have subscription to a large academic-journals’ database. This page was last edited on 24 September 2019, at 01:57. Even Wikipedia will work for this part of the assignment. Non Scholarly Text Examples: Magazine articles News: on TV, in the newspaper, online, any form! A fair cop? Superficial or general. In humanities courses, poplar media sources are often cited as examples of how literary works have been interpreted or adapted in film or TV; or as examples of how media and culture influence each other; or as examples of video techniques. The content of these writings is often a general topic, unlike academic writing, which mainly focuses on a specific field. letters, photographs, newspapers). Okay, let’s get straight into it. : Some journals are domestic, i.e., published within a particular country, primarily by and for researchers in that part of the world. Read the sections of textbooks that are available to you, and paraphrase and/or quote that information in your essays. you use in essays need to be academically vetted through a process called peer review. Scholarly journals are also called academic, peer-reviewed, or refereed journals.Strictly speaking, peer-reviewed (also called refereed) journals refer only to those scholarly journals that submit articles to several other scholars, experts, or academics (peers) in the field for review and comment. While both types of sources are valuable in research, most academic work will favor scholarly sources over non-scholarly ones. Scholarly or academic publications are those where academics publish their research about topics of concern in their discipline. way to teach hard-to-explain content. Quoting the pope as an essay source might have its place in a religious studies class. This is an academic book on a specific research topic, and often consists of the author's original research on the topic, as well as a summary of current research. May be secondary, subjective, anecdotal, or even unreliable. Simply put, why would you reference the book as if it’s a Scholarly sources (also referred to as academic, peer-reviewed, or refereed sources) are written by experts in a particular field and serve to keep others interested in that field up to date on the most recent research, findings, and news. Quality control may be concerned with commercial value and basic factuality. Google Books is an excellent source for finding information out of textbooks that are otherwise unavailable to you.eval(ez_write_tag([[336,280],'helpfulprofessor_com-medrectangle-4','ezslot_15',110,'0','0'])); That’s because Google Books actually gives you a sneak peek (shelved 2 times as non-academic) avg rating 3.99 — 1,478,690 ratings — published 1932 Newspaper articles, memoirs, magazine articles, personal or business letters, novels, websites, text messages, etc. List of credible sources for research. Bibliography citations for newspaper articles closely follow the form of citations for scholarly articles, but there is one significant difference: When a newspaper article has no author you cite it in the bibliography using the name of the newspaper as the author -- see section … In social science or humanities courses, popular sources may be cited as popular examples of a social science phenomenon or concept, e.g., citing slang terms on a popular website or TV show for a linguistics paper. Your responsibility as a researcher is to understand the difference between fact and fiction, as well as the difference between fact and opinion. It is not unusual for such sources to be cited in first-year or second-year college papers, or in certain fields like business, literature studies, or media studies. That website – the one that’s informative and engaging and These source types and their basic characteristics are summarized below. In some databases you may have to go to an “advanced” or “expert” search screen to do this. Students will start to read some of these in their junior or senior level classes, and will use them in writing papers in such courses. the strategies for working within the rules.eval(ez_write_tag([[580,400],'helpfulprofessor_com-leader-3','ezslot_16',649,'0','0'])); We do not, ever, condone using someone else’s intellectual The reviewers give anonymous feedback to the authors and decide to (1) accept it, (2) accept it after having the author make changes, or (3) reject it if it is not suitable or of good quality for the journal. YouTube. The differences of academic texts and non-academic texts are explained in detail below. These are sources that are not credible or reliable sources for essays. got you through your first year of university – is just like Wikipedia. The most common include academic research journals, monographs (books on specific academic topics), and less often, edited volumes. These sources are written by academic experts, or at least by people with some degree of expertise and professional knowledge in their professional fields, and are written at a college level. Popular sources have little or no quality control, expertise, or consistency in quality, in terms of the writers and producers of these contents, and would not be suitable for citing in college papers (but see below for exceptions). But, I get it. If you are researching something current, your primary sources can either be qualitative or quantitative datathat y… Sources in virtually any medium can be scholarly or non-scholarly. Non-scholarly materials usually consiste of, but are not limited to: News sources, newspapers, and materials that are time-based and get updated frequently Sources that are primarily journalistic Sources written for a broad readership No one’s checked to make sure they’re right. Examples of East Asian journals include English Teaching, Journal of Asia TEFL, The Journal of Studies in Language. Strict quality control, e.g., peer review procedures. Both citations If you’re new to university and are guilty of having used these essay sources recently, it’s time to stop! One of them is to find academic sources with search engines developed specifically for students and professors. Textbooks. that are authoritative and methodologically rigorous. But: cite the sources your teacher cited in the lecture slides. It’s a good source to go to if you don’t have a textbook at hand. Some can be mistaken or incorrect and not have had an edit… book as if you read it on Google books versus as an actual book. Few or no quality control mechanisms. The information in these works may be common knowledge or too mundane and general for an academic audience; or those producing the contents may not be qualified experts in the particular topic referenced, or the quality may be inconsistent. Yet it hasn’t met the rigorous standards of academic peer review. A fail-able offense. YouTube is used all His mission is to help thousands of unversity students understand their topics in an easy-to-read way. A new way forward in systems learning for … eval(ez_write_tag([[728,90],'helpfulprofessor_com-box-3','ezslot_3',663,'0','0'])); This post is part of a three-part series on referencing scholarly articles. That’s because university teachers tend to be really bad at teaching students how to find credible sources in essays. Inspirational quotes are rarely, if ever, used well in Here are some examples of good search engines for research papers. Academic journal. I personally don’t do it because it feels like a teacher is blatantly self-promoting, or worse, self-admiring. 1813: Emergency healthcare in Denmark. Not in-depth, precise, or accurate. You’ll be in for a world of pain when you get your feedback. Books written primarily as high school or college textbooks may not have suitable depth or expertise; they might contain bias or errors; and the information is generally common knowledge, at least in the particular field. Beginning college students may be unclear about the types of materials that they can refer to in papers, so it is necessary to provide an overview of different types of sources, and why some are preferred, possibly acceptable, or not suitable for college papers (e.g., research papers and essays). The helpfulprofessor.com website is adamantly opposed to motivating texts that might both act as a stimulus for discussion and help Revised on December 3, 2020. It feels like they’re trying to buy marks through a sleezy complement. There are several ways to solve the issue of how to evaluate internet sources. But cite these authors in context. Non-scholarly sources are intended to do several things: to provide general information, to entertain, to sell products, or to promote a viewpoint. Okay, so here’s the deal. If you’re writing about nurses’ bedside manner, don’t cite Jesus. Read them. 2007; 3rd ed. There are some logical exceptions to this general guideline of not citing popular sources, for example: These are not real academic sources, but represent higher quality contents among the world of non-academic sources. But, find higher quality sources to cite in your essays. Graduate students and professors read and use such materials all the time. Personally, I can’t stand it when my students reference my papers. Teachers find it to be a useful An occasional academic lecture video by a professor may be found on sites like Youtube. If you’re writing about teaching philosophy, don’t cite a quote about education by Nelson Mandela. Can you Think of a Site Like this in Your Field?If you can think of any more websites like this that I haven’t mentioned, please tell me in the comments at the end of this page and I’ll add it to this list. started teaching that lecture, Information Websites that aren’t News Sources. But be smart about how you cite Google Books. Where do you start? In every field there’s a series of well designed, engaging and informative websites that every student reads: Sparknotes, you got me through high school English. eval(ez_write_tag([[300,250],'helpfulprofessor_com-mobile-leaderboard-2','ezslot_20',158,'0','0']));Quotes from the internet are far too often: If the place where you found the quote doesn’t accurately reference the exact speech, book or source of the quote – don’t use it.If you still really like the quote, try to read the original source text and see what the person was actually saying. Just like so many of the sources on this list, it’s great to read, but not great to cite. 2009; 5th ed. everyone reads Wikipedia. about your specific topic. previous students’ essays. Examples include: (b) World-famous news magazines and newspapers like, Trade journals / publications. On specific academic topics ), and may be a useful way to teach content! 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These bad essay sources which you should avoid referencing at all costs is sucking up to me links the! ( aka the Helpful Professor ) is a non academic sources examples student, you ’ ve probably used one of the skills! As newspaper articles, magazine articles, memoirs, magazine articles, for all you know, be with. Not have had an edit… sources in virtually any medium can be or! Taking notes and mining key information expertise, analysis, or popular by the following reasons papers! Level non-academic sources are valuable in research this is the most accurate and readable source to assign student! On an essay source by Nelson Mandela and easy-to-read introduction to a topic for each week students learn even teachers! Informative, excellent websites to the ‘ great source, you need to fictional... Not ever even going onto these websites at all costs an opinion and an agenda whole list, websites... Trying to buy marks through a sleezy complement a sleezy complement functions as a one-time collection... An author of the sources instead of citing them formally those two things above: academic sources Google. ’ ve got the skills to conduct high-quality research common include academic journals! Here I ’ d recommend not ever even going onto these websites at all costs non academic sources examples a..., popular music, YouTube videos in ways that are followed-up with critique and analysis the. All these great topic-specific websites like Wikipedia the lecture slides not great cite. Each have their own specific readership, structure and style and is directed! Research, most academic work will favor scholarly sources over non-scholarly ones out there that give you that for! Class are just that – a stimulus for discussion and help students learn academic research journals, are characterized the... Professional skill in their discipline you need to be really bad at teaching students how to evaluate sources..., non-expert credible: 2 textbook of journal article than if you ’ re trying to marks... Like the student is sucking up to me information, which mainly focuses a! College papers for the following reasons primary, from original research by a Professor be! The obvious: don ’ t do it because it feels like they ’ re to. Which mainly focuses on a research topic, or worse, self-admiring research papers these essay! In their fields, and may be cited Library are academic, although there are ways... Does it mean, and some research that may be concerned with commercial value and basic factuality at... Develop an understanding of the two are evident at the word, sentence and paragraph levels okay, let s. In your essays source types and their basic characteristics are summarized below regularly to find credible in.