Technical Writing

In some cases you will encounter a scholarly article in the context of its larger journal (e.g., the article is from the Journal of Such and Such).  However, you may come across a document without any context and need to determine whether it is scholarly or not.

As you read through an article, there are some things to look for to identify an article as scholarly:

• Typically a scholarly research article will be preceded by a short abstract.  An abstract is a short summary of the article, typically written by the author. 
• Following the abstract will be an introduction section that provides the background for the research and often includes a literature review, an analysis and synthesis of previously published research articles on the topic. 
• Next the article will describe its study design and methodology (how the research was conducted). 
• The latter part of the article includes the results of the study and its conclusion. 
• Data, in the form of charts, graphs, tables, and statistics may appear in different parts of the article. 
• Following the text of the article will be a list of all of the articles and publications that were used to inform the author's own research.  This list may be called references, bibliography or works cited. 
• The credentials for the author(s) are listed, indicating their status and university or research institute affiliation.

These different sections will normally have headings to indicate them (e.g., Literature Review).

One thing that you will probably notice immediately is that a scholarly article is written in the language of that academic discipline.  The intended primary audience for any scholarly article is other scholars in that discipline--other experts who use and write in a shared language that might not be familiar to the average reader.  In other words, you are probably not going to read a scholarly article to pass the time while riding in the car. . .

Popular publications have some fairly obvious indicators that differentiate them from scholarly publications:

• Popular articles just look more "fun."  If you are looking at an article online or in print, and the document includes colorful pictures, photos or illustrations, it is definitely not scholarly! 
• If the fun factor isn't immediately apparent, article length is another quick way to assess if an article is popular or scholarly.  Popular articles tend to be much shorter (although that doesn't mean that a long article = a scholarly article).
• Pay attention the the language and words used.  Popular articles are written to be read by a wide variety of people (not just experts), so the writing is usually at a level that most people can easily understand.
• Because popular articles are written by journalists, freelancers, and columnists, the author's name is presented just as a byline or sometimes not at all.  If additional information about the author is included, it isn't of the "research credentials" nature.  Scroll down to the bottom of this article to see what it says about the author.
• A bibliography/reference list/works cited list is hardly ever included in a popular article.