Week 4

Academic sources are sources that are written for an academic purpose only. They are for research more than entertainment. Professors demand the use of these sources for many reasons. The main reason is that they want the writer to be sure that the information is valid. Another major reason is that the professor wants to know that none of the articles are more opinion that sounds like fact than a formal article. A non-academic source is a popular one. If we look at the example of magazines we can see that there are popular magazines, like Sports Illustrated, and academic magazines. A writer could use a non-academic source if they wanted opinions on the matter at hand. They can also use them if they need records or general knowledge. If used however, they need to be extremely careful to make sure that all the information that they collect is correct.