Blog vs. Scholarly Article

For this post, we take a look at a Mechanical Engineering (ME) blog as well as a scholarly article. There are many differences and similarities between the two. The biggest difference that we notice is the audience that is being addressed in both of them. The blog that I took a look at, found at: http://www.mechanicalengineeringblog.com/, is very colorful, lots of pictures, and the words can be understood by a larger audience. This blog attempts to address a large internet audience of Mechanical Engineers (ME’s). It posts interesting inventions and findings in the field and also contains helpful forums, Q and A’s, and tips for ME’s. A college student and someone going into the field is likely to be able to read and understand the content as well as enjoy reading it. The style of the blog invokes a happy sense of emotion almost like “Yay, Mechanical Engineering!” It makes ME look good. There are also several explanations and logic to appeal to a reason-based audience of engineers. A lack of resources puts the credibility of page way below the article.

            Taking a look at the article, we see this is not the case. First off, the title: “Mechanical Characterization, Computational Modeling, and Biological Considerations for Carbon Nanomaterial-Agarose Composites for Tissue Engineering Applications” (Nilesh Billade). A very specific sixteen word title. We already notice a high level of education and a very specific audience. This article happens to be a doctoral dissertation. After barely making through the abstract myself, I determined that the audience is not for people in undergraduate studies. The author has several sources listed at the bottom and through thorough explanation, makes a credible approach to his topic. The student is writing for a small board of people who determine whether or not he receives his doctoral degree. A small board of people who probably all have doctorates and are research professionals at the given college. That is the author’s main audience. The article can also be used in the specific field of study, but his main goal is to receive the degree. In this article, we find pages upon pages of 12-point, double-spaced text along with a few graphs and data tables. Lots of logic, facts, definitions, explanations, etc are used in this article.

            The article is very different from the blog, but they are both applying to the same field. The article is addressing the very specific, highly educated people and the blog is addressing Mechanical Engineering as a whole. Two very different pages in a field with two very different approaches.