Understanding Source Types - ENGL110 - ELI - Research Guides at University of Delaware

Features of Common Sources

When you search in library databases, you will find a variety of source types. It is helpful to understand features of different sources so you can begin to determine if it will be useful for your project.

	Newspaper articles	Field-specific magazine or trade journal articles	Scholarly journal articles
Author	Journalists	Professionals or scholars	Scholars/Professors
Audience	General public	Professionals in a specific field	Professors and college students
Purpose	Report and provide context on current events	Provide detailed information about specialized professional issues	Share the results of academic studies Explore theoretical issues related to an academic discipline Provide detailed analysis of scholarly issues Engage with previous scholarship
Length	Short (1-2 pages)	Medium (2-6 pages)	Long (10-20 pages)
Currency	Extremely current, published daily	Somewhat current, published about four times a year	Do not cover current events because of the lengthy process of research, review, and publication. Published about four times a year.
Usefulness for ENGL110 project	Useful if you need information about current events related to your topic	Useful because they provide detailed, field-specific information	Probably will not be useful for your current project because they are very long and require extensive knowledge of an academic discipline. You will use scholarly journal articles later in your academic studies.