Analysis of a Professional Journal Article Submit Assignment

7

Analysis of a Professional Journal Article for readability Assignment

Updated 10/13/2020

Assignment due: October 20, 2020

Assignment length: a full 2-3 pages, single spaced, blank line between paragraphs. Maximum 4. No longer than that

Memorandum format (Markel text, Chapter 15).

Percentage of course grade: 10%

Where do we begin? The library presentation (discussed in class) is the beginning of the Analysis of a Professional Journal Article for Readability assignment. The engineering librarian discussed the basic services available at the library and showed you the engineering-oriented databases.

This demo is important for this assignment and can be very helpful in your other engineering classes. During the library demo, you had an opportunity to explore some scholarly journals and possibly pick the one that has the article for your analysis.

What’s next?

The assignment asks you to select and analyze a professional journal article from a high quality peer-reviewed journal** on a topic related to your team’s final project. You will determine if:

It is it a readable technical document, and

The authors use a valid scientific approach to substantiate their claims.

You will select a journal with a publication date between 2014-2019.

Note the differences between professional journals and trade magazines. This makes a difference in trusting the validity of the data. The librarian will also help us with this.

Our textbook (Markel) will be a helpful resource to your professional journal article analysis for "readability" and "writing qualities".

The Martin Luther King Library will also help with understanding scientific methods--real science. Topics include:

Secondary Research

Evaluating Print and Online Sources

Scientific Method

As you start this assignment:

Determine the article’s main topic and get a general idea of what it is about and how it is organized. Make a note of what the article’s purpose is and the article’s intended audience.

Next, look at your technical writing text (Chapters 17, 18, 19) and determine what the author summarizes as the criteria for a good report. Then read the article carefully, and while you are reading it, annotate where the author uses strategies to convey his/her message.

2

Consider these questions: Is the article well organized? Is there proper grammar and punctuation? Are there tables, charts, and graphs? Are they helpful? Are other visual aids needed?

Analyze the introduction, the main discussion, and the terminal section for the validity of the content. Analyze the document to determine if the reasoning is based on pseudoscience, or ‘junk’ science versus real science (examples in lecture and text). Provide examples in your memo. More than likely, articles from professional technical journals apply scientific methodologies. Note how the authors do this.

Write a formal memo to your instructor with your evaluation.

You need an introduction

For clarity, use subject headings

Do not restate or summarize the contents of the article; focus on the specific analysis and incorporate specific evidence (quotations) to illustrate your points.

Are the purpose and audience properly addressed? Your memo has two major sections (readability/writing qualities and scientific methodologies). For scientific methodologies:

a.     Briefly explain the scientific method or the design process used in the article. Markel’s text will help with understanding scientific methods and real science. See Markel’s Experiments showing the scientific method: p. 134. Cunningham’s Principles of Environmental Science will also be helpful.  See section 1.4 “Science helps us understand our world” and section 1.5 “Critical thinking.”

b.     Briefly explain pseudoscience. Use critical thinking, and check for pseudoscience versus real science (examples in lecture and text). Discuss why this article is not pseudoscience. Provide examples in your report..

Remember, you need a conclusion/recommendation When you have evaluated the report and searched for the strong and weak points, you should be better prepared to write and evaluate your own reports in the future. Would this be a good professional journal for you to submit an article that you have written?

Give the journal article reference at the bottom of your memo in APA format.* (See also, section in Markel text)

The memo must be submitted to Canvas.

*APA Documentation

WHY APA for documentation and references?

4

More engineering schools now use APA rather than the other formats. (However, many professors use IEEE or MLA.) Always go to your audience and use what they want. Most non-EE advisors now want APA for the following reasons.

With cut and paste and rearranging articles, you never lose the citation, which can happen when you forget what, for example, #8 or #10 was. You always know when it says (Jones, 2012).

When you use a numbering system, you have to provide a number in the back for each one. If you use a source 12 times, it will have 12 different numbers in the back. If you use APA, it is just stated once in the back, alphabetically.

Approximately 94% of the audience never looks in the back for the notes or references. In APA, the audience immediately sees the author and the date. The date is important in engineering and technical writing--to make sure the information is current.

Sample Journal Article References in APA:

Journal article (hard copy)

Linsdell, J., & Anagnos, T. (2011) Motivating technical writing through study of the environment, Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice, ASCE, 137, 20-27.

Journal article (viewed online, retrieved electronically, with no DOI assigned. DOI stands for digital object identifier.)

Srivastava, R. K., & More, A. T. (2010). Some aesthetic considerations for over-the- counter (OTC) pharmaceutical products. International Journal of Biotechnology, 11(3-4), 267-283. Retrieved from http://www.inderscience.com

Journal article preprint version of article with DOI assigned

Wang, T. J., Larson M. G., Vasan, R. S., & Gerszten, R.E. (2011). Metabolite profiles and the risk of developing diabetes. Nature Medicine. Advance online publication, doi:10.1038/nm.2307

**Short List of Examples of Professional Technical Journals (There are over 15,000 professional journals -- find one that meets your research needs.

(Librarian will have more information about this.)

American Society of Mechanical Engineers

Journal of Electronic Packaging

Journal of Fuel Cell Science and Technology

Journal of Mechanical Design

Journal of Solar Energy Engineering

Journal of Computing and Information Science in Engineering

Journal of Applied Mechanics

Association of Computer Engineers and Technicians Computer Science and Engineering Society American Society of Civil Engineers

Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice

American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE)

Journal of Medical Devices

International Journal of Biotechnology Institute of Industrial Engineers American Society of Safety Engineers

Association for Computing Machinery (Journal of the ACM) ACM Transactions on Software Engineering Methodology American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics

AIAA Journal

Journal of Aerospace Computing, Information, and Communication

Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics

Journal of Spacecraft and Rock

American Association for Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence Journal

IEEE

IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology

IEEE Transactions on Components and Packaging Technologies

IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics

IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices

IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering

IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications

IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics

Society of Manufacturing Engineers (e.g., Journal of Manufacturing Systems)

Chemical Engineering

Journal of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science

Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering (CSChE)

Journal of Composite Materials

Reminder:

Plagiarism will result in a grade of F. Papers with plagiarism cannot be rewritten for credit. You can check for plagiarism with Turnitin.com