Depending on the assignment and/or audience, a great deal. After all, if you're talking to a group of 5th graders, you probably wouldn't use the following quotation:
"Supernumerary rainbows result from interference of light that undergoes single internal reflection, but travels along different paths inside a raindrop. Such rainbows provide a strong indication of the wave nature of light." (Sawicki, M. (2000). Supernumerary rainbows. Physics Teacher, 38(1), 19. http://dx.doi.org/10.1119/1.880412)
You would probably use something like this instead:
Tiny raindrops stay in the air after a rainstorm. When storm clouds pass, the sun appears. Sunlight looks white, but it is actually made up of seven colors. When sunlight shines through the raindrops in the air, the light separates into all of its colors. Those colors form a rainbow. (The calm after the storm. (2004). Weekly Reader - Edition 2, 73(25), 3. http://www.weeklyreader.com/)
Knowing how to tell the difference lets your instructor see that you understand the assignment and the audience and helps establish your credibility and authority in his or her eyes.
Auburn University Libraries has access to everything from "popular" magazines through "trade/technical" publications to "scholarly/professional/refereed" journals. Here is a chart which lists some typical characteristics of these three kinds of publications. However, some publications defy easy categories, so contact Ask A Librarian or stop by the Reference Desk for more help.
|
TYPES:
|
POPULAR
|
TRADE/PROFESSIONAL
|
SCHOLARLY
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Characteristics |
 |
 |
|
|
Publisher
|
commercial firm
|
commercial firm or association
|
university or association
(large scientific/academic publishers) |
|
Frequency
|
weekly,biweekly, or monthly
|
weekly, biweekly, or monthly
|
quarterly
|
|
Audience
|
general readers
|
special readers (persons employed in that field)
|
special readers (academics & researchers)
|
|
Appearance
|
colorful, illustrated
|
colorful, illustrated
|
plain, mostly text
|
|
Article Type
|
short, nontechnical w.photos & graphics
|
short, technical w. photos & graphics
|
long, research style w. tables & charts
|
|
Writing Style
|
informal, journalistic
|
informal, journalistic
|
formal and/or scientific
|
|
Authors
|
staff writers
|
staff writers & persons employed in that field
|
academics and researchers
|
|
News Content
|
covers broad issues and popular and/or business affairs
|
covers narrow trade or professional issues
|
NO news coverage
|
|
Advertising
|
ads for business or consumer products
|
ads for specialized trade/professional products & services
|
ads for books, if any
|
|
Research Apparatus
|
none
|
none
|
extensive bibliographies & advanced statistics
|
|
Examples**
|
**The images of Time and BillBoard link to the library catalog. The links in the table under examples are available through Auburn University Libraries' Databases and may require login if you are off campus.
