Raisa Tahsin
Writing for Engineers
Missy Watson
March 21st, 2019
Introduction:
Writing is essential to all fields of study. Specifically, in engineering, writing is used to communicate ideas about experiments, findings and discoveries to circulate information in the STEM world to other professionals. Writing in engineering is vital to the progress made in each field, because this is how different engineers and researcher learn from others and get inspiration for ideas of their own. Mainly, engineers write lab reports, journals and memos with the specific purpose of informing. However, there is a multitude of rhetorical techniques done by engineers in writing that many are not aware of. This paper will discuss the rhetorical moves and techniques found commonly in engineering writing and the purpose they serve as a whole.
Methods:
In this paper, through the analysis of two journals of two different subfields of engineering, the rhetorical moves and methods will be analyzed using the CARS (Create a Research Space) analysis method of rhetorical moves in the introductions of research papers, outlined by John Swales, which details the similarities and patterns of rhetorical techniques found in the introductions of research papers and how they rhetorically function in the research paper as a whole. Another method of analysis applied to the journals prior to the CARS analysis was summary. Summarizing the two journals allowed for a better understanding of what the authors were researching, why they chose the research topic and the significance of their study.
Firstly, before analyzing engineering articles, we must choose two articles to analyze. Through the use of the CCNY online library, I was able to narrow the search to my interests. By using the “research by subject” option, I was able to find specifically what I was looking for and then when choosing “biomedical engineering” and picking a database I had to think about the kind of article I wanted, the length, content and the research topic. Once I picked the Embase database, which contains the most extensive collection of biomedical engineering literature, I used the key word search to get articles specific to my interests. Knowing that I wanted to concentrate on Hashimoto’s disease and specifically the diagnosis, my key words were “Hashimoto’s AND diagnosis” the article that intrigued me most was published in Biomedical Engineering Onlinein 2012, “Assessment of Significance of Features Acquired from Thyroid Ultrasonograms in Hashimoto’s Disease,” by Robert Koprowski, Witold Zieleznik, Zygmunt Wrobel, Justyna Malyszek, Beata Stepien and Waldemar Wojcik. When searching for an article to compare and contrast with the first one, I wanted to see how medical imaging could be used in different sub fields of engineering and I know that imaging has a lot to do with electrical engineering so to find my next article I used the keywords “Electrical Engineering and Ultrasonogram” on google scholar and the article that intrigued me and related to the first article was published in the Journal of Multimedia in 2010, “CLG Optical Flow Approach and Frequency Analysis of Cranial Ultrasonogram Image Sequences,” co-authors Mohiuddin Ahmad, Muhammad Muinul Islam, Lutfunessa Lata, Taohida Taslima and Masayoshi Yamada
In their research article, co-authors Robert Koprowski, Witold Zieleznik, Zygmunt Wrobel, Justyna Malyszek, Beata Stepien and Waldemar Wojcik detail their study on the “analysis of the features obtained from thyroid ultrasound images” (1). Using applied methods of analysis and image processing the researchers were able to profile 10 distinct features of each image obtained and then they were classified based on significance. To conduct this study, Koprowski et al. chose a total of 89 participants, 29 healthy subjects and 65 patients with Hashimoto’s disease. For each subject, the authors took four ultrasound images in transverse and longitudinal sections of the right and left lobe of the thyroid. During their preliminary image analysis stage, an expert marked the area of analysis in each image of the thyroid lobes and in each marked area, a statistical and morphological analysis was conducted using common analysis techniques and image processing. The statistical and morphological analysis of the 376 images helped Koprowski et al. come to the formulation that there are two main measured characteristic parameters for Hashimoto’s: “an average brightness value after the removal of clear follicles of any diameter and measurement of statistical parameters of follicles whose size and size and shape is not strictly defined” (3). The ten features obtained were average image power spectrum (w(1)), regional minimum value on the Lsimage (w(2)), smoothness (w(3)), the minimum value of brightness on the Lsimage (w(4)), position of the center of Gray-Level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM) matrix gravity (w(5)), measure of the spread of contrast image (w(6)), and the result of square tree decomposition (w(7-10)).
In the article published in the Journal of Multimedia by co-authors Mohiuddin Ahmad, Muhammad Muinul Islam, Lutfunessa Lata, Taohida Taslima and Masayoshi Yamada detail their study where they calculate tissue motion due to artery pulsation in cranial ultrasound image sequences by using CLG optical flow technique. The authors claim that their research is significant due to the advances towards “quantitative characterization of artery pulsation” which helps greatly with medical diagnosis.
Alongside the CARS analysis method, the use of calculations and graphics in the engineering articles will be analyzed. The analysis of the graphics and calculations will reveal the larger purpose they serve in the article, how it contributes to the research and why engineers include calculations and graphics such as charts, graphs and diagrams. Through analyzing the graphs and calculations of the engineering articles, I hope to reveal the effect they have on the article as a whole, how it changes the readers perspective of reading the article, the purpose they serve and why the authors use these graphics and calculations.
Results and Analysis
A multitude of rhetorical moves are used by the researchers in both articles which collectively contribute to explaining the research conducted and the significance. Koprowski et al. begin by explaining what “thyroid echogenicity” (1) is and detail the previous studies done on thyroid echogenicity. In the article published by Ahmad et al, the format of the introduction was similar to Koprowski et al., it consisted of a much longer and more detailed introduction that gave background information on key terms, important concepts, different techniques used throughout the experiment.
They also discuss how thyroid echogenicity was measured in the past and why those methods are not as reliable. This technique aligns with step 1c and 2a of the CARS analysis method. Steps 1c and 2a consist of reviewing items of previous literature and counter-claiming. Reviewing the literature allows for context on how the problem discussed in the experiment used to be solved and allows segue into the proposed solution based on the results of the experiment. In addition, the authors reference a study conducted by Mailloux et al, who performed a very similar experiment to Koprowski et al. The purpose of referencing this study was to validify their reasoning for doing a similar experiment and demonstrate an exigency for their work, the researchers wrote “the image itself was obtained after image pre-processing… for this reason, the results were not consistent in these papers” (2) the authors justify their reasoning for conducting their study by showing that reliable information on the topic is not available which is the methodology behind counter claiming. In the results section, the authors provide a plethora of findings, graphs, tables and visuals all to solidify their research. In the conclusion, they compare their research with other authors’ results and discuss the significance of their research. They utilize step 2b of the CARS analysis method which is establishing a gap in their field, “in these papers, texture analysis does not appear, or it is covered, but to a lesser extent.” (17)
Throughout the article, the authors of the electrical engineering article reinforce that their study will help make advances in pediatric diagnosis which is using step 3a of the CARS analysis which is outlining a purpose. In the conclusion section of the paper, the authors conclude the paper with their findings and once again reiterate the significance of their study. This aligns with step 3c and 3d of the CARS analysis. After reporting their findings, the researchers mention future research which indicates a structure and ultimately contributes to the significance of their research because they show that what they accomplished here can be applied in the future to make more medical advances.
Conclusion:
Ultimately, researchers in engineering use a variety of rhetorical moves in their papers which, many a times, the reader is not aware of. These rhetorical moves serve the greater purpose of creating exigency for the topic of the research paper and establish a sense of validity. The introduction of a research paper is critical because it pulls the reader to the text and sets up the rest of the experiment. Having the rhetorical moves in the introduction makes the overall paper much stronger and more appealing to read.
