Assignment task:
Dawn Macfarlane
The differences between a scholarly article and a non-scholarly article have to do with the expertise and credentials of the author on the subject and whether the article is published in a peer-reviewed forum (Mailander, 2022).
For example, the journal article, "I feel like grad school is a pretty big decision": exploring vocational anticipatory socialization through messages about pursuing graduate education" (Apker et al., 2025), is a scholarly article because it is written by academic experts on the subject and published in a peer-reviewed, academic journal within the GCU library. My research found that one of the authors of this writing, Julie Apker, is a professor of communications at the University of Michigan (WMU 2025), which qualifies her as an academic expert. The article was published in Communication Quarterly, which is a peer-reviewed, scholarly, academic journal.
Conversely, the article, "Mom changes the locks after adult son trashes her home and abandons her cats" (Vega A, 2025), is not a scholarly article because it is published in an online magazine, which is an entertainment publication and not peer-reviewed or written by an expert on the subject. Furthermore, there are no methods, discussions, academic citations, or references given to support her writing. Need Assignment Help?
References:
Apker, J., Abendschein, B., & Kaplan, H. A. (2025). "I feel like grad school is a pretty big decision": exploring vocational anticipatory socialization through messages about pursuing graduate education. Communication Quarterly, 73(2), 216-238.
Mailander, N. (2022). Academic research. In A. DiVincenzo (Ed.). Mastering graduate studies (2nd ed., p 74). Grand Canyon University.
Vega, A., (2025, December 29). Mom changes locks after adult son trashes her home and abandons her cats. People Magazine
Western Michigan University 2025.