About This Guide
Reading in College
Throughout your time at Holy Cross, you will be asked to read a wide variety of materials- everything from scholarly books and academic journal articles to data sets and scientific experiment lab reports. While the material you read may vary, being able to unpack a piece of text and utilize the information you gain is a fundamental skill that always needs sharpening. This guide will provide you with guidance and resources for reading at the college level, and is meant for those just starting their academic reading journey and advanced readers who are looking to brush up on their skills.
Glossary of Terms
Glossary of Terms:
Abstract: An article abstract is a summary of the full article and explains what the article is about. It is valuable because it offers a quick overview of the article's content and can help you decide if the article will be useful for your research.
Academic Journal: A scholarly resource that is published periodically and is devoted to a specific subject. They usually include a variety of articles from different authors and tend to be academic in focus.
Academic Journal Article: An article published within an Academic Journal written by an expert in that field discussing a topic within their academic field.
Peer Review: The process by which scholarly materials are evaluated before publication for accuracy and quality by a group of experts in the same field. Only after it passes this evaluation is a scholarly writing accepted for publication.
Periodical: A collection of articles that comes out periodically. Magazines, newspapers, and journals are all periodicals. They may come out daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or annually, but new issues, full of new articles, are released on a fixed schedule. Often used interchangeably with serial.
Popular Resource: Information sources written for a general audience that are meant to inform, entertain or persuade them. Examples include magazine articles, news sources, online blogs, podcasts, and social media.
Primary Source (Humanities, History, Social Sciences): In the humanities fields, a primary source is a first-hand witness to a historical event or period, created at that point in history. This can be an object, a piece of artwork, a work of literature, or anything that is considered evidence of a time period.
Primary Source / Primary Research Article: In the sciences, primary research articles (also called empirical or original research) are articles where the authors of the article are the ones who conducted the study or research they are writing about. These are scholarly articles published in an academic journal that focus on one specific study conducted by the authors.
Scholarly Monograph: A scholarly resource made up of one part or a finite number of parts, such as a book or a set of books.
Scholarly Source: An article or publication written by a subject-matter expert who ensures that the information it contains is updated, accurate, and of utmost quality. Usually, this information is derived from their findings, theories, analyses, and insights from years of research.
Secondary Source/Article: A scholarly research article that gives criticism or draws comparisons between primary resources or other scholarly articles/ research projects. These articles include literary criticism, secondary research articles in the sciences, or theoretical works in the humanities to name some examples.
Serial: A scholarly or popular resource issued in a succession of parts that continues indefinitely, such as newspapers, magazines, or journals. Often used interchangeably with periodical.