A Note About Academic Authority

• What is this authoritative stuff?
• What is this critical/scholarly stuff?

What is meant by the terms "critical" and "scholarly"?

In choosing articles about literature, you want those written by people whose educational background is informed by academic principles of analysis. This type of article tends to be published in academic journals sponsored by universities.
The feature that makes these articles particularly reliable and authoritative is that before publication each article is read by a panel of the writers' peers. You can then be fairly certain that the article is logical, consistent with academic style, and informed by appropriate background knowledge.Some examples of these publications include Studies in Canadian Literature, The Malahat Review, PMLA (Proceedings of the Modern Languages Association), and English Quarterly.
You also may find appropriate articles in literary magazines such as The New Yorker, Geist, This Magazine, Canadian Forum, or The Atlantic Monthly. These sources will usually provide some biographical information on the article's writer that will allow you to judge the writer's level of scholarly authority.

What is meant by the term "authoritative"?

Anybody with access and and the right technology (i.e., a printing press, a broadcast antenna, an internet server) can publish information. Your concern is that the information be accurate and backed by a writer's knowledge of the issues associated with a topic. You probably would not ask a golf pro for information on the best university medical program because medicine and teaching are not her or his areas of expertise. If, however,the golf pro was a retired head of a teaching hospital, then you might consider her or him as a reliable source.

An authoritative source is a person who has acknowledged expertise based on formal education in the area you are researching. An authoritative article often includes its own sources and references listed in a Works Cited list.

How can you tell if you are reading an authoritative source?

• Is the author's name listed?
• Are the author's credentials given?
• Is the author's affiliation (university, professional association, writer's guild, etc.) listed?
• Is the writer writing about a topic area in which she or he has expertise?
• Are the diction and tone of the article reasonable, fair, and at an appropriate level of complexity and formality?
• Is this article published in a source that other reliable sources would find to be trustworthy?

Review The CARS Checklist for Research Source Evaluation at Robert Harris's Web page "Evaluating Internet Research Sources."