Journals vs. Magazines

From Library Instruction Wiki

== Egg metaphor ==

I often use the instructions for boiling an egg to highlight the differences between magazines and journals. In a magazine, you are told to put eggs in a pan, cover with water and boil for 3 minutes, cool for 10 minutes and use for easy recipes (http://www.momswhothink.com/easy-recipes/easy-recipes.html) requiring boiled eggs. A journal will give more precise instructions: take 3 medium eggs, place in 2 cups water, bring to exactly 212 deg, boil 3 minutes, cool in pan of hot water for 10 minutes, remove from pan and dry carefully, place in bowl in refrigerator. In a magazine, the assumption is that you know what to do with boiled eggs and it doesn't really matter too much who is telling you how to do it. In a journal, it matters very much that the person telling you is very qualified, e.g. egg specialist, and that s/he assumes that all the information provided is necessary to understand how to boil that egg and that boiling that egg is most important part of the article. Students seem to get it that way. Joey Merritt-Dennis