Many internet platforms help people by answering their daily life queries and questions. These resources have a broad field of topics.
Some people require a quick idea about a topic, whereas someone else might need in-depth knowledge. To meet these requirements, there are two very popular kinds of resources which are scholarly and popular.
Key Takeaways
- Scholarly and popular resources are two types of sources used in academic research that differ in their intended audience, content, and level of credibility.
- Scholarly resources, such as academic journals and books, are written by experts in a particular field and undergo a rigorous peer-review process to ensure accuracy and quality.
- Popular resources, such as magazines and newspapers, are written for a general audience and prioritize entertainment and readability over accuracy and depth of information.
Scholarly vs Popular Resources
The difference between Scholarly and Popular Resources is that Scholarly contains answers and topics that are from educators, teachers, and other educational personalities. On the other hand, popular resources provide information about general topics by people who have knowledge in that field. There are other factors too that differentiate these two more clearly.
Scholarly is a very popular resource among students and other academic professionals. It contains very accurate and precise information about the topics.
The information on Scholarly resources is backed by theories, summaries, facts, and insights. These resources are much more reliable while working on an academic project.
Popular resources, on the other hand, are much more popular among the general public. These do not contain a very professional or in-depth description of topics but are mostly very straightforward.
It is useful for people who need to find quick and on-spot answers to their questions.
Comparison Table
| Parameters of Comparison | Scholarly Resources | Popular Resources |
|---|---|---|
| About | It is the resource for academic content. | It is a resource for general knowledge. |
| Audience | It is the students and other educators. | It is the general public. |
| Creators | It is teachers, academic professionals, instructors, etc. | It is a person having knowledge of a particular domain. |
| Content | It contains facts, theories, summaries, results, etc. | It contains opinions, examples, descriptions, etc. |
| Credentials | It does mention the author’s credentials. | It does not mention the credentials of the author. |
What are Scholarly Resources?
Academic knowledge goes far beyond the knowledge of just one person. It is the contribution of many knowledgeable people that adds up to shape the educational society.
This is the field in which scholarly resources are of great help. These resources are open to everyone who needs help in academic matters, whether it is a student or educator.
It is an academic platform that is open-source to information regarding the scholastic syllabus. This helps a lot in building a platform with a very accurate information base.
All the answers, theories, facts, insights, and examples on a scholarly platform come from people who are an integral part of the educator society. They can be a teacher, instructor, college professor, or anyone who holds a good grasp on the topic which needs attention for answers.
The majority audience of these scholarly resources is students. However, it is also of much interest to fellow educators and helps in updating themselves. The information on these platforms is extremely reliable and accurate.
To keep the accuracy and correctness of the pieces of information in line, these resources also mention the credentials of the author. This includes the name of the author, their designation, and even previous works on similar platforms.
What are Popular Resources?
Popular resources are known to every person who took the internet path at least once in their lives to look up for something that they do not have the knowledge of. These are very useful platforms that provide information about everything under the sun in a very straightforward manner.
These resources are known as popular resources because of their reach to the general public because of the help they provide. The information available on such platforms does not come from very qualified people.
This does not mean that the information is wrong. The people who have a good knowledge of the topic or have great research skills are the ones behind such resources.
The bigger the creator base of the popular resources is, the bigger is its audience. There is no restriction on anyone, and when people require a quick solution to their questions, they can always turn to these resources.
All the information available on such platforms are facts and descriptions that are a result of extensive research on the topic. However, there is one more thing that is completely opposite in the case of popular resources in comparison to scholarly resources.
The credentials of the author are kept anonymous. This means that the information is made a part of a big platform under which a number of people work whose identity is kept anonymous.
Main Differences Between Scholarly and Popular Resources
- Scholarly is more like an academic platform that provides very knowledgeable information for students. On the other hand, popular resources take up the work of providing the general public with quick facts.
- The audience or readers of scholarly are mostly students of schools or universities and other educational personalities. The audience of popular resources is all the people in the world.
- The content present on scholarly platforms is mostly from teachers, researchers, and professors. On the other hand, the content on popular resources is mostly from anyone who has a good knowledge of the topic.
- The content present on scholarly includes research, summaries, theories, and proven facts, whereas the content on popular resources is taken up from books or other informative materials.
- It is necessary to mention the name and other credentials of the author on scholarly resources. The credentials of the author are kept anonymous on popular resource sites.
- https://search.proquest.com/openview/a52c8ade0c7ae9b519ba14a44b6adcef/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750
- https://alair.ala.org/bitstream/handle/11213/17634/ContainerCollapseandInformationRemix.pdf?sequence=1
Last Updated : 25 November, 2023
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Emma Smith holds an MA degree in English from Irvine Valley College. She has been a Journalist since 2002, writing articles on the English language, Sports, and Law. Read more about me on her bio page.
