PLUG-INs A Student’s Guide toInformation Literacy

MAGAZINES & JOURNALS

How are magazines &

journals different from

books?

What is a magazine ? What is

a journal ?

Why should you read

magazines & journals ?

First, what is a magazine or

journal ?

Magazines & journals are

publications which come out from time to time, periodically

or serially. In fact, other names for them are periodicals

or serials.

Sometimes a periodical comes

out every month. We call

this a MONTHLY.

Sometimes a periodical

comes out only 4 times a year. We call this a QUARTERLY.

Sometimes a periodical comes out every week.

We call this a WEEKLY.

All issues in a year are called a volume.

A single copy of a periodical

is called an issue.

So, a monthly periodical has

12 issues a year, or 12 issues in one

volume.

It takes a long time to write and publish a book. Periodicals can report stories

sooner than books; so the information is more timely

or current.

How are magazines &

journals different from books?

What is the difference between a

magazine & a journal ?

MAGAZINES are often written for “light” reading or entertainment.

People who write for MAGAZINES are

usually not experts in the subject.

Usually MAGAZINES are not expensive because they have

many advertisements. Sometimes the ads are interesting and useful.

MAGAZINES are usually colorful and very attractive. MAGAZINES

usually have many photographs.

JOURNALS are usually about a

specialized subject and are written by

experts in that subject.

JOURNALS present research findings and the

results of serious

academic studies

JOURNALS are sometimes published by

academic or scientific societies, not regular

businesses.

Usually academic and

scientific JOURNALS have fewer

advertisements than magazines.

Sometimes JOURNALS

have no advertisements

at all.

JOURNALS can be very expensive, especially

journals about medicine and science.

Some academic JOURNALS have a feature called PEER REVIEW. This means that experts decide what articles get published in a journal.

They read and comment on all articles before they appear in the

journal. Ask your teacher if you need to use this feature for your research.

A story in a periodical is called

an ARTICLE. Articles can be

short or long, many words or few

words.

Sometimes readers of the periodical write letters about a story they read. These letters are printed in a special section

called LETTERS FROM READERS.

Because information in a journal is newer than in a book, the

latest scientific research is found in journals not books

It’s fun ! And, reading

magazines can improve your vocabulary.

Why should you read magazines and journals?

Sometimes the titles of the

articles are on the cover.

In this magazine, there are articles about Portugal.

Let’s look at a magazine cover. This magazine is

called FACES.

On the cover, there are photographs about

what is inside. Here, we see faces of boys from

Portugal.

Inside this magazine the

feature article is called Alfa’s

Back.

There is a photograph of an Alfa sports

car on the cover.

Here is another magazine cover. The title

of the magazine is Sports Car International.

Usually the first page of a

magazine is the CONTENTS

page.

All the articles and the authors are listed on this

page. Also, it tells you what page the article starts.

Here is an example of the CONTENTS page from Faces

magazine.

On page 12, we find a story called

Portugal Around the World. The author is

R. Anthony Kugler.

We call these words a

CAPTION. Look at the examples.

Sometimes photographs in

magazine articles have some words

under them.

There are about 250 different titles at the

Fujairah Colleges.

Some are “serious” and some are for

fun.

There are about 650 different magazines and journals in HCT

libraries.

For example, there is a

Business Section, Education Section,

Sports Section & so on.

The library groups periodicals in

sections by topic.

You can relax and read an article during a break

between classes.

In addition to magazines & journals in print, HCT has over 35,000 full text

magazines and journals online.

How do you find these

online journals?

Pull down Resources and click on

Journals Search.

Go to :library.hct.ac.ae

You can enter the name of the journal in the search box or

browse by title.

For detailsabout how to find articles on a specific topic, ask your friendly

librarian or see the PlugIn lesson called ONLINE DATABASES.

Finally, for your reports, you may need a record of the articles you

read.

Keep this information : 1. Author’s name 2. Title of article 3. Name of periodical 4. Date, volume & issue 5. Page numbers

You use a special

format for a Bibliography.

We will learn more about this in future

Plug In lessons.

A list of the articles you have read is called a

Bibliography or References

List.

Remember, some magazines are for

serious study and some are for fun !

I hope you will enjoy reading magazines &

journals.

HAPPY READING !

Thank you for listening.