PB2A - SCIgen vs. Academic Publications

Scholarly publications make up a new type of genre that we haven’t done much work with yet.  They are highly nuanced, with conventions that are not often seen outside of this type of work; these works are somewhat comparable to the paper generator, SCIgen, although there are a couple of major differences between the two.  One similarity between a paper from SCIgen and a scholarly publication is that they both use lots of complicated jargon.  With Pui K. Lam’s “Special Relativity at the Quantum Scale,” an academic paper attempting to link special relativity and quantum mechanics, the particular jargon used here wouldn’t be understood by many outside of the field of physics.  Meanwhile, SCIgen papers use jargon that pertains mainly to the field of computer science, another technical field that is difficult to understand from the outside.  Another similarity shared by Lam’s paper and a SCIgen paper is that the sections of both papers are clearly labeled.  Both have an abstract to describe the topics presented in the paper and a brief introduction followed by sections to describe methods of research, experimental results and discussion, and a brief conclusion.  This shows that both papers have a higher degree of organization, something to be expected from such publications.  These papers are also similar in the sense that they both have references cited at the end of their conclusions.  The writers are aware of where their ideas came from, and take care to give credit where it’s due.  They all appear in a separate section, with labels to show where each idea was used throughout the paper.  The last similarity between SCIgen and Lam’s paper is that both use graphs and tables to further explain their results.  This allows the reader to look at the writers’ findings through their experiments – or any resulting theories – and understand it at another angle, or perhaps clarify their findings if the writing alone isn't enough for the reader to understand.  However, the one big difference between both papers is that SCIgen’s paper is a random generation – as such, it is not coherent, and it really means nothing in the field of computer science despite its jargon.  The different pieces of information that SCIgen presents don’t line up with each other, and as such the paper draws no real conclusions.  This may also be part of the reason why SCIgen’s paper is shorter, since the generator relies more on the use of jargon, rather than complete arguments which would take up more space.  On the other hand, Lam’s special relativity paper flows well from section to section, and the majority of text is backed up by more relevant graphs as well as thorough – albeit complicated – mathematical proofs.  In the opposite manner of SCIgen, this adds to the longevity of the paper, and makes it all the tougher to read, but it is at least coherent to those who are supposed to understand it. 

            With respect to Lam’s special relativity paper, I feel that one of the most important aspects of such a work is its coherence.  Research papers and other sorts of academic publications are held to very high standards; these works are typically presented at conferences, peer-reviewed, and published in academic journals.  As such, they will be read by many other experts in the writer’s respective field of work, and it naturally follows that such a paper would have to be coherent to the reader.  Lam’s paper demonstrates this convention well, with each piece of information connecting well to one another, and ultimately outlines the theories and arguments presented through the writer’s findings.  Another important convention of the academic publication is the organization used in structuring it.  By labeling each section, the reader has a clear understanding of what will be covered throughout the paper.  Also, by incorporating graphs, tables, and math into each explanation, the reader can break down the entire explanation into pieces and be able to understand it in multiple different ways.  Since these readers are themselves experts, it will prove to them the writer is also an expert in their respective field.