Critical analysis begins at the research process—when you start to gather the sources that you will use to contribute your own ideas in your essays:
In high school, you were probably used to gathering up all the sources you could find in one library—your high school library—and then summarizing what you have found:
Doing academic research is not such a simple, straightforward process:
Scholars (that is, your professors) contribute to advancing research in their respective disciplines by publishing books, articles, reviewing others scholars’ publications, and participating in conferences—this is defined as the scholarly communication process:
You might be asked to find “peer-reviewed” journal articles for your essay:
Not all scholarly journals are peer-reviewed, but that does not mean that they are not scholarly:
Articles published in non-scholarly, popular journals, which you can find near the checkout counter (such as Skeptic), are reviewed by the editorial staff and are not considered to be refereed.
Ulrich's Web Global Serials Directory
Use this index to determine whether a journal is scholarly and/or peer-reviewed:
Books are not as easily identified as peer-reviewed: