Prompted Post #4 Scholarly Articles vs. Newspaper Articles

Five weeks of reading articles, blogs, and journal entries, has taught me far more than the miscellaneous packaging information I put on this blog. My ability to decipher between types of authors has grown emensely, bettering my understanding of author purpose, delivery, and style. These understandings shaped the way for my learning how to compare/contrast a scholarly article written by a professional from a newspaper article written by a generic journalist. I read the scholarly article, "Recent Trends in Packaging of Dairy and Food Products" composed by three professionals from the field of packaging, and a newspaper article from The Economic Times, "Indian Packaging Industry to Touch $32 billion by 2025." The purpose, delivery, and style in the two pieces are vastly different:

Scholarly Article Authors

·        Style = very trustworthy, unbiased, and formal - readers can be confident that the author is trying to help them fully understand the subject, not luring them to formate an opinion similar to their own. 

·       Delivery Type = use of statistics, graphs, tables, examples, and sections – very easy for readers to interpret and relate to, and not fall asleep reading. 

·       Purpose = simply to teach readers about factual findings and experiences that are important.

In the scholarly article, “Recent Trends in Packaging of Dairy and Food Products” the authors are striving to show readers the innovativeness of several new packaging designs. These designs range from being oxygen and moisture absorbent, to cholesterol and antioxidant absorbent. “In moisture sensitive foods, excess moisture in packages can have detrimental effects like caking in powdered products, softening of crispy products (crackers) and moistening of hygroscopic products (sweets and candy).” (Patel. Para 8) This is a great representation of writing similar to most scholarly articles. It is factual and provides cause/effect scenarios, gives examples of not only the detrimental effects of moisture exposure, but also more detailed examples of the food products being listed. The authors of this article make and fully support their statement with a clear visual so that all readers can understand and interpret the material correctly. 

Newspaper Article Authors

Style = biased, progressive, and misleading - readers are being lured into the author's opinion.

Delivery Type = present information by using words that infer change and quotes from known members of society - misleads readers to believe the information being presented will directly affect them.

Purpose = To persuade readers into believing that certain things are happening in a given area, confirmed by people who are generally trusted in society. 
In The Economic Times newspaper article, "Indian Packaging Industry to touch $32 bn by 2025," the author is persuading readers to the belief that the Indian Packaging Industry is spiralling upward and will be even better if "x" things change. Natchiappan, Union Minister of India, was quoted in the article several times. He guaranteed that "India can become a technology transfer driven to rejuvenating the use of agricultural by-products for packaging. India has the potential to be a world leader in packaging and innovation going forward." ("Indian Packaging Industry..." Para 10) This accurately represents the style, tone, and purpose of many newspaper articles. The use of quotes from trustworthy members of society, like a Union Minister, grabs the reader's attention and confirms the information as "reliable." Several words in this one quote have very good connotations:"can become", "potential", and "world leader". People want to see good things happening in the world, and good things for the future; the words and phrases being used guarantee progression, temporarily satisfying readers. The article also claims that India can become a world leader if "this" happens. This method of input/output persuades society into taking action because they are being mislead to believe certain things will create a better, more powerful world for them. And what society doesn't want that, right? 

When it comes to an overall comparison, scholarly articles are generally much stronger than newspaper articles for a number of reasons. The style, purpose, and delivery of scholarly articles is focused, helpful, reliable, and easy to work with. Newspaper articles, on the other hand, has a style, purpose, and delivery that is not focused, reliable, or even really helpful. Newspaper articles reflect a society and what is wanted to be achieved concerning a subject. Scholarly articles reflect parts of the subject that are current, factual, and used to better educate readers. 

Sources Cited
"Indian Packaging Industry to Touch $32 Bn by 2025." Timesofindia-economictimes. Bennett, Coleman & Co., 6 Jan. 2014. Web. 24 Feb. 2016.

Patel, Rinkel, J.P. Prajapati, and Smitha Balakrishnan. "Recent Trends in Packaging of Dairy and Food Products." Comp. Department of Dairy Technology and Department of Dairy Chemistry. Google Scholar. Dairyknowledge.in, Jan. 2016. Web. 23 Feb. 2016.