What is a scholarly source?

Have you ever been told to use a "scholarly" resource? Have you ever wondered what that means?

Our scholarly friends at Cornell University have made this information available to you on their website.

For a quick summary, here is Cornell's definition:

"A scholarly journal articles often have an abstract, a descriptive summary of the article contents, before the main text of the article.

Scholarly journals generally have a sober, serious look. They often contain many graphs and charts but few glossy pages or exciting pictures.

Scholarly journals always cite their sources in the form of footnotes or bibliographies. These bibliographies are generally lengthy and cite other scholarly writings."

Samples of Academic Writing

Goto Reference Tools > Style Manuals and Writing Guides on the library's website to find examples of various types of writing assignments.

For example, using the Purdue Online Writing Lab, I found this example of an Annotated Bibliography.

Citing your work

You will be required to cite your work in MLA format. You can find examples of MLA format by going to the "Reference Tools" section of the Library Website and select "Style Manuals and Writing Guides".

My recommendation is the Penn Online Research Tutorial.

Citations from article databases like Literary Reference Center can be automatically formatted into MLA or APA style. Please ask a librarian if you have any trouble citing your work.