| Examples |
American Journal of Psychology, Journal of Marketing, Nursing & Health Sciences |
Advertising Age, Education Week, Beverage Industry Magazine |
National Geographic, Psychology Today, Newsweek |
| Audience |
- Scholars, researchers, and students
|
- Other members of the profession or trade
|
- General audience: all readers
|
| Authors |
- Scholars, researchers, and experts in the field of study
- The author's credentials in the field are established (e.g., institutional affiliation, maybe degrees)
|
- Members of the profession or trade, specialized journalists, or technical writers
- Credentials are usually not provided
|
- Reporters/journalists, usually not experts on the subject
- Authors may not have special qualifications for writing articles; credentials are usually not provided
- For personal blogs and social media accounts, authors may include as much or as little information as they like
|
| References |
- Sources cited in footnotes and/or bibliography
- Usually extensive list of references
|
- Documentation of sources is not required, though sometimes brief bibliographies of further readings are included
|
- Sources are not cited or cited informally
- Often rely on quotes from experts or witnesses for evidence
- No reference list provided
|
| Language & Writing Style |
- Field-specific language/jargon; requires reader to be previously informed about field.
|
- Include jargon and terms that are commonly used in the profession or trade
|
- Written in everyday language accessible to any general reader
|
| Purpose |
- To report results of original research, experimentation or analysis
|
- Provide practical information for members of a profession or industry, including topics like news, trends, products, and research summaries
|
- Provide broad, general information and entertainment
- Secondary but not "original" research (the author didn’t conduct the actual lab work, math, or theoretical analysis.)
|
| Appearance |
- Dense text-based pages
- May contain complicated graphs or charts
- Usually will not include colored glossy pages or photographs
- Very little advertising, if any
|
- Moderate number of advertisements targeted to the interests of the members of a profession, industry, or organization
|
- Attractive appearance – colorful
- Advertisements
- Heavily illustrated
- Generally short in length
|