This course guide is for students in English 102 with Robyn Ferret at Cascadia College.
3. Publishing Body
Periodical articles
Is the article from a mass media/popular magazine, a
substantive news source, or a scholarly journal?
Can you tell who the intended audience of the
periodical is (general readers, experts, practitioners, etc.)?
Is the purpose of the periodical to inform, educate,
persuade, entertain, sell, etc.?
Does it have a particular editorial slant?
Books
Is the book published by an academic press or a
commercial publisher?
If a commercial publisher, do they publish primarily scholarly
or popular books?
Websites
To what domain does the site belong (edu, gov, org,
com, net, etc.), and is this information important for your assessment of
a site?
Is the name of the individual or organization
responsible for the overall site provided? Is there a link to
information about their mission or purpose?
In general, popular sources do not
require extensive prior knowledge of a topic. Scholarly sources assume a
greater level of sophistication and knowledge on the part of the reader.
