Assignment:
SCHOLARLY SOURCES VERSUS POPULAR SOURCES
Many have trouble distinguishing between scholarly sources and popular sources in research. Often, below the graduate level, a habit of using light popular treatments of a topic for essays and school projects is formed. Also, worldly ideas about relativism and inclusiveness have influenced Christians more than realized. Sometimes it seems bad to make any distinction between scholarly and non-scholarly work. Many believe that the only valid distinction is between works that are biblical and works that are not. This leads to problems with papers, with grades, and with the overall quality of education received.
Scholarly sources are written by specialists in the field. Popular sources are written by pastors and evangelists who are generalists, because of the nature of their ministries.
Scholarly sources consider the topic fairly and objectively, most often from an academic perspective. Popular sources can be either devotional (encouraging Christians to live for Christ) or polemical (advocating the author's point of view using rhetoric rather than reason). Either way, the popular source covers a topic very lightly.
Scholarly sources include documentation such as footnotes or endnotes. Popular sources normally do not bother with such matters.
Scholarly sources consider a matter in some detail. Popular sources offer a quick overview of the matter.
Scholarly sources use language that is at least somewhat formal and objective. The goal is precision in expressing the exact truth of a matter.
Popular sources use language that is friendly and familiar and makes an appeal to the reader. Precision and formality are not important.
Scholarly sources often look "plain" in terms of the page layout, book cover, etc., since they focus on the ideas themselves. Popular sources often use creative fonts, sidebars, colorful bindings, etc. to appeal to the eye and draw in the reader.
Popular sources are not necessarily bad in terms of intended purpose. In fact, the best popular sources are written by pastors or specialists who have done the hard work of scholarly reading and research. They have taken solid information and distilled it down so it will appeal to laymen.
If you try to use light and easy reading produced by popular writers, you will do two things:
1. Write a shallow paper that will not be backed up well and which will not get a good grade, and
2. Deny yourself the opportunity to deeply explore the truth in the area of your topic. Thus, you will have a solid argument to give the people to whom you minister. If you do the deeper reading required of a good paper, you will be able to recall what you learned even years later and to make it simple, clear, and relevant to the people who will hear you preach and teach.
Seek out and use the best scholarly sources for your paper, even though they are often less fun to read and less interesting than the popular sources. You owe it to yourself and the people to whom you minister, both now and in coming years, to do the hard scholarly work while you are in seminary.