Textual Analysis

“The Feasibility of Friction Stir Welding” is the testing and application of a newer solid state welding type.  For most of us, we do not care about new advances in welding technology and manufacturing processes.  From this we know that this article was meant for manufacturers, engineers and others who might take advantage of this technology in the fields of creating objects.  From the language we also know that the author uses career jargon to explain what sorts of testing were going on.  These two things together tell us that the purpose is to inform and educate engineers and manufacturers about new methods of welding metals together.  It lists the advantages and disadvantages of this newer process to demonstrate that further testing still needs to be done but there is hope on the horizon for this new welding method.

The authors of this article are listed as taking part in the group called TWI, which is the research group that is testing this new method as described in the article.  They have their credits as well as had the article peer reviewed before publication.  This indicates that it is a scholarly source to start with and that it also is meant for other scholars in their fields.  This is in line with the fact that it was peer reviewed for starters.  It also is indicative of this based on the language used.  There are very high level manufacturing jargon in this article to further prove that they are talking to other academics.  Welding is a very specific skill and the techniques used in it are special to the industry itself.  The authors mention all sorts of different attributes to steel by using the full name of the metals that they are talking about.  Metals in the manufacturing industry are classified by the size (length, width and height), hardness, tensile strength, metal alloy percentages, etc.  To the average person, 6010 aluminum does not mean anything, whereas to a manufacturer this is a very specific metal with specific properties.  In engineering, you need this specificity because sometimes you need very hard materials that cannot bend under any circumstance but sometimes you need to keep the weight down so you chose a lighter material instead.

As stated previously, this is a peer reviewed scholarly article. With that title comes a reason for writing it.  It was peer reviewed, which means that even others in that same field thought it was important and ground breaking enough to publish.  Peer review is a tough process to get through because you have to make a case that is new to everyone as well as important enough to tell the world about.  At TWI, they had conducted enough research so far to provide preliminary results.  Testing is by no means over so this publication is more of a memo to let others in their field know about the strides they are making.  It is extremely important to stay current with research due to everyone trying to make it to the top first, so to speak.  This helps to inform the community about further research that could be done.  It also will tell everyone who is working on similar research that TWI is this far ahead, so if you are doing this and not getting results then maybe try it this way.  It becomes a way of sharing test results so that everyone can benefit and do the most productive work possible.

Similarly to the authors, this work is intended for a specialized group of people.  It makes references to high level words that only manufacturers or engineers would know.  The purpose of this is simply to share the information gained in doing this research.  TWI has spent time and money to find the best way to weld metals using this process.  They have an interest in this technology and feel that it can help create better manufacturing processes or to improve the ones that already exist.  Therefore, they need to target those types of people for them to know about the technology.  It makes their future better if other believe in it.  Practicing engineers need to stay current with this type of stuff so they are going to use language that those engineers would know best.  They do not care about the person who works as a janitor in a hospital because he probably does not care since it does not affect him/her.  Therefore, they are not going to use everyday language to try and make it a best seller.  They only what people who care about this new advancement to read about it. 

Although it was touched on in earlier paragraphs, the purpose is already apparent since we know that it is academic writing.  It is to share information and research results with other academics in the fields of manufacturing and engineering.  This is shown through the use of dense manufacturing words that this article is littered with.  This is due to the fact that they do not care if the average “joe” can read it or not.  As long as they get their point across to their intended audience then mission accomplished.

To conclude, the article of “The Feasibility of Friction Stir Welding” done by  W.P Thomas, P.L Threadgill and E.D Nicholas was intended for the academic world of manufacturing and engineering on the principle that it uses high level language to communicate ideas, targets an academic audience and is a subject of research.  These all come together to show that the authors’ intent was driven by research findings and sharing results that were found in their research with others.