Analysing Academic Texts: Electrical Engineering - Literature review Example

Analysis of Academic Texts by Student’s name Code+ course name Professor’s name University name City, State Date Analysis is an organized assessment of content of a text to identify the information it contains (Business Dictionary 2014). Analysis will involve breaking down that text into straightforward fundamentals and then, evaluate how these fundamentals relate with each other. This approach is an intense method of study. It scrutinizes the data presented to discover the facts in it and comprehend their relationships. This method helps people to understand a complex text easily. It is the basic method for solving problems and making choices. Therefore, in any field, analysis is an integral aspect of it. This paper analyses two texts, Text A and Text B to simplify them and make them easy to understand. Both Text A and Text B are of the field of electrical engineering. The texts as set in their introductory paragraphs are talking about engineering. For instance, Text A in the first sentence talks of how vital hypotheses of current and internet pathways are to manufacturing of electrical gadgets. Text B in the first two sentences, it shows how originality in the area of manufacturing helps to put into operation new applications for industries. It furthers shows how it is evident in computers and machines. These are aspects of electrical engineering. Therefore, it is evident that these two texts are discussing electrical engineering field of study. Therefore, these papers can be compared with each other as they are of the same specialization. In Text A, students were requested to discuss how network and circuit theories relate to electrical engineering. This is evident from the title of the text. In Text B, the students were expected to discuss the benefits and challenges of electrical engineering. This too is got from the title of the text. Both texts have deeply explained and discussed their expected tasks. Text A has tackled both theories from beginning of the txt at the first paragraph. In Text B, the first four paragraphs handle the benefits of electrical engineering while the last four expound on its challenges. Therefore, these texts are relevant to the tasks. They have handles each part of the expected questions clearly. Therefore, they have fully answered their respective tasks as expected. A text that does not tackle all parts expected of the task is not complete in its answer. Text A is well organized. It has the introduction part, which has one paragraph. It also has a body that has six paragraphs and a conclusion of one paragraph. This shows that there is a clear outline of the text. On the contrary, Text B has no clear outline. It is not well organized. The sections of the introduction, body and conclusion are not well defined. This shows a weakness in the structure of the text. Academic texts like these should have a clear structure, as they are scientific essays. They should have an introduction explaining the subject of discussion, a body explaining the task and a conclusion that summarizes the discussion. Text A follows this expectation while Text B does not. Hence, Text A is more formal as compared to Text B. Both texts lack a strong introduction. For instance, introduction part of both texts does not explain the key terms of the tasks. In addition, these parts do not explain how the tasks will be answered. Text A goes to describe how circuit and network theories are important without explaining what these theories are. A new reader may not be familiar with these theories and hence may have a problem in understanding what is being passed across. Text B only hints how innovation policies are used in electrical engineering. It does not explain what these terms mean or how it is used. It then talks of the benefits of this. A new person might be interested to know what the writer wanted to pass. This person might not be familiar with specialized vocabulary. A definition of key terms would have helped this reader to understand the message better. The body of each text is well developed. Ideas have been presented logically from one to the next. In Text A, Circuit Theory is explained clearly in paragraphs one and two. In the third paragraph, network theory is described. In the latter part of the body, a relation and thorough description of these two theories is show. In Text B, the first four paragraphs show the benefits of electrical engineering while the last four show the challenges. This is a logical development of the body. It is therefore evident that both texts have clearly developed the body to handle the task comprehensively. Text A has a weak conclusion. Although it summarizes the discussion, it introduces a new idea in the second last sentence. It also introduces a citation there. A new idea should not be introduced in the conclusion part. This therefore indicates that the conclusion of Text A is not effective. On the contrary, Text B has no conclusion. The writer leaves the reader hanging. The reader is only notified the ending of the essay by absence of more sentences. This is a weakness in writing a formal paper. The writer should communicate to the reader that the paper is ending. The two texts, Text A and Text B, have made a good use of scholarly and specialized grammar. There is use of academic terms in the texts. In Text A, there is use of terms like “communication system”, “communication devices” and, “elements” in sentences two, three and four respectively, of paragraph one. In Text B, there is use of terms like “innovation” and “policy” in sentence one of the first paragraph. There is also use of words like “technology” and processes in second sentence of the same paragraph. There are also other terms like “wave length” in the first sentence, paragraph 2 of Text A and; “radiation” in the last line of the last paragraph of Text B. This shows that these texts or their writers have made use of both scholarly and specialized vocabulary to pass their message to the reader. Both texts lack illustration in conveying the information to the reader. Illustrations draw interest and help in retaining the information Use of illustrations in texts helps the reader to understand more and create environment of the text (Comet 2013). This is because the reader can understand what is being passed across by looking at a picture. Therefore, the lack of this essential part of a text might not fully convey the intended information. Hence, the message of these texts might not be clear to the reader. In addition, the message might not last long on the readers mind, as it is hard to create a lasting effect that is easier with an illustration. The readability of the texts is good. The texts have used a double spacing for the lines, 12 points New Times Roman type of font and bold heading of the titles. This makes the text easy to read on a standard personal computer or on a printed-paper. These are the common formatting requirements of scholarly work that is presented. Each text has a header on it. In Text A, the header is “Circuit/Network Theory” while, in Text B it is “Electronic Engineering”. Each text has a page margin of 1 inch from the edges. The text is of black color on a white background. This makes it easy to read. Both texts have used references to support their argument. Every scholarly work should refer to another previous document for it to be acceptable. This is because new knowledge has to have a basis on an existing one. The texts have used Harvard referencing style. This is evident on their in-citation and reference list formats (Central Queensland University 2014). Both texts have used long sentences. For instance in their first paragraph, the first sentence spans two lines in each text. This is the common occurrence in all paragraphs of the texts. This shows that the writers of the texts used long and complex type of sentences to convey their message. Both texts do not have spelling errors. This shows that the writers are familiar with the words they were using. In addition, Text A has no grammar errors. However, Text B has a grammar error on the second sentence of the second-last paragraph. This is due to a problem in wordiness of the sentence. There are punctuation errors in both texts due to omission of the comma at important places like with conjunctions and conjunctive clauses. In Text A, this appears before “which” and after “circuit” in sentences three and five respectively. There are various others in the text. In Text B, it appears after “innovation” and before “which” in the first sentence of second paragraph and second sentence of the fourth paragraph. There are also other instances in the text. This shows grammatical weakness of the writers. To conclude, analysis is essential in understanding any text. To understand academic essays, you will have to analyze them. Through analyses of these essays, we have understood them better and therefore able to judge them. Hence, analysis is essential for any academic reader. References Business Dictionary (2014) What is Analysis? Definition and Meaning [online] available from http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/analysis.html Comet (2013) Part One: The Instructional Role of Illustrations [online] available from http://www.comet.ucar.edu/presentations/illustra/illustrations/illustrations_new.htm Central Queensland University (2014) An Abridged Guide to the Harvard Referencing Style retrieved on November 4, 2014 from http://www.cqu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/14032/Harvard_Referencing_2014.pdf Read More