LANG 1409 - Academic English for Science Studies

In your high school experience, you may have relied on the Internet, newspapers, and magazines for information.

 As a university student, you will be expected to go beyond simple information sources from general web searches and choose university level quality and relevant sources suitable for your research and assignment needs

This image below  shows different types of information sources along a timeline, categorizing different sources based on their typical transmission speed. It begins with the fastest information (seconds/minutes) and progresses to information that travels more slowly (years).

Think about these questions to prepare for university research:

• What types of sources did you use in the past as a secondary student?
• How do information source types differ?
• How will you need to change the types of sources you use for scholarly purposes as a university student?

Information can generally be categorized into General Sources and Scholarly Sources. The table below shows the differences: