PB2A

I will be comparing SCIgen to “Prevalence of chronic kidney disease and decreased kidney function in the adult US population: Third national health and nutrition examination survey”. This is an academic piece belonging to the American Journal of Kidney Diseases. They share multiple similarities, however their differences are significant.                                                          

The two papers are both scholarly and formal. They both share the common purpose of sharing knowledge and research among other professionals in their corresponding field. Since often this requires collaboration among multiple researchers, the authors must receive credit. In both genres credit is given to the authors at the top of the page, under the title. In the kidney publication the authors are credited and their professional education level is given such as MD or PhD. In SCIgen the author’s name is simply given, which is one notable difference. In a medical publication is makes sense to note if the professional has a PhD or an MD or both. This however may not be necessary in a computer science paper given that the author is most likely a professional with a PhD.  Both publications have a clear title placed at the top of the page.

 The two publications contain an abstract to introduce the topic. The abstract is used as a short summary of the whole publication, like an overview for the reader. An abstract is necessary in both of these genres because they are both lengthy and dense reads. The abstract for the kidney publication differs a bit in that it is separated into “background , methods, results, and conclusion,” while the abstract for SCIgen is shorter and more concise. This is due to the kidney publication consisting of more complex details following a scientific experiment. Therefore the reader would need a clear summary of the background of the survey, the methods used to conduct it, the overall results, and the conclusion/significance of the results.

Both papers are targeting an educated audience, most likely professionals in their field. However, because SCIgen and this kidney publication are of two different disciplines, much of the language they use is different. The kidney disease publication is full of medical jargon. For example the sentence “the sample was analyzed on frozen nonhematuric specimens” is not easily understood by someone who does not have an MD or PhD in this field. The language is very specific to the study and uses accurate medical descriptions. Another notable difference is the use of scientific data. An example of this is the line “CCr estimates were assigned a maximum value of 200 mL/min/1.73 m².” Again this data is not easily understood by anyone other than the professionals in this field. There are also multiple equations pertaining to the study.

The two articles contain graphs and supporting figures. For SCIgen the figures are labeled and contain a short phrase describing it.  For the kidney publication the figures are much more detailed, as are the descriptions. The descriptions are several sentences in length. The graphs include tables of the data surveyed, something that was not present in the SCIgen paper.

The SCIgen paper’s layout also differs from the kidney publication. The SCIgen paper contains numerically numbered topics in bold letters to split up the information. The kidney publication on the other hand has no numbered sections, but it is organized into the sections: keywords, methods, statistical analysis, results, estimates and comparisons of two equations, prevalence of CKD, discussion, and finally acknowledgements.  The SCIgen paper and the kidney publication both end with references.

In my opinion organization is crucial to the SCIgen and scientific journal publication. The authors could have amazing evidence and data to present, but without organization it will fall short of what it is trying to convey. The use of language is also important because it each genre has its own specific terminology to detail their publication. Furthermore, the references are especially important in both of these genres. Without references, the publications might be considered plagiarism. Adding references also heightens the author’s credibility, making their publications much more trustworthy of accurate information.