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Popular Magazines
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Scholarly Journals
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Trade Publications
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| Audience | Written for a general audience using non-technical language | Written for a specific audience using jargon of the field | Written for people who work in a specific field |
| Authorship | Authors may be staff writers or freelancers | Authors are experts or scholars in the field and often have a university affiliation | Authors may be professionals who work in the field |
| Purpose | To provide general information, opinion, or entertainment, typically broad-based | To report original research or thought, typically on a specific academic topic | To keep members of a profession up-to-date with new research, products, and issues related to a specific field |
| Appearance | Colorful with many pictures | Few images or ads, but may contain graphs or charts | Colorful with images and advertising relating to the field |
| Length | Articles are often short | Articles are often lengthy | Articles of varying lengths, but usually short |
| Authority | Articles may be evaluated by editors, but not experts in the field | Articles are usually reviewed and evaluated by a panel of experts in the field (peer-reviewed) | Articles are evaluated by editors on staff |
| References | Articles rarely have a Works Cited page | Articles include Works Cited | Articles rarely have a Works Cited page |
