When you are conducting academic research to answer a question, one thing to keep in mind is the difference in the writing style and content of the articles you'll find. Scholarly articles will provide a detailed explanation of original research, while a trade journal article is written for an audience of people who do a job. Popular articles from newspapers and magazines are meant for the general public.
Your assignment is to look for articles from scholarly or trade sources on the subject of your semester topic.
Find THREE ARTICLES, one from each of the three sources listed here, and keep track of the article details to enter in the follow-up quiz in Canvas.
As you will need two articles for your future assignment, take that into consideration when completing this exercise.
What it is: A research database of scholarly and trade articles about chemistry published by the American Chemical Society.
What you'll find: Research and review articles in scholarly journals; news articles and information about the field in Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN).
You may find articles from C&EN easier to read because trade journals are written for a broader audience than scholarly journals, which are meant more for researchers.
What it is: A multidisciplinary scholarly journal published by commercial publisher SpringerNature.
What you'll find: Research articles and review articles written by scholars; news articles written by Nature staff writers.
What it is: A multidisciplinary scholarly journal published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a nonprofit professional society.
What you'll find: Research articles and review articles written by scholars; news articles written by Science staff writers.
Scholarly research articles are written for and by researchers, who usually work for a college or other institution, and the articles provide information about their experiments and studies for others who do the same research. These articles can be densely written with a lot of technical language, as they are intended to be read by others who will know these terms.
Trade journals are written for people who do a particular job, and are usually written by journalists who also have subject expertise in the job. These journalists write for a broader audience, and while they may use terminology common to the field, some trade journals may also be read by the general public and so the articles are often more broadly understandable.
Popular news sources like newspapers and magazines are written for the general public by journalists who have been trained in journalistic writing methods and ethical practices. These articles include investigations into people or events, features about popular trends, or opinion pieces on current topics.
