How do we make ourselves heard in the writing of a research article? A study of authorial references in four disciplines

Bibliographic Data

ID12059136
AuthorsMohsen Khedri (0000-0002-9286-4230, Sohar University and University of Cyprus, corresponding author), Konstantinos Kritsis (0000-0002-8011-2138, Sohar University and University of Cyprus)
Year2020
Volume40
Issue2
Pages194-217
Publication date2020-04-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAustralian Journal of Linguistics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0726-8602 • E-ISSN: 1469-2996
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/07268602.2020.1753011
OpenAlexW3036512798
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited45

This study examined the use of personal (exclusive first-person plural pronouns) and impersonal (abstract rhetors, periphrastic passives and it-clauses) authorial references in a corpus of 160 research articles in applied linguistics, psychology, environmental engineering and chemistry. The aim was to see if personal and impersonal authorial references, as realized by the rhetorical options chosen, are predisposed to differences across disciplinary rhetorical cultures. The results indicated disciplinary variations in both the frequency and use of personal and impersonal authorial references, especially when the disciplines were compared for contrasting effects. While the applied linguistics and psychology writers favoured the use of exclusive first-person plural pronouns to construct their authorial persona, the environmental engineering and chemistry writers preferred a more detached interpersonal style by opting predominantly for periphrastic passives. Also, the results showed differences in the incidence of use of personal and impersonal authorial references across discourse functions, which could be attributed to the adoption of different interpersonal strategies within the disciplines. The present results are expected to extend our understanding of disciplinary variations towards the use of authorial references in tandem with discourse functions in research articles in the selected disciplines, particularly in the relatively unexplored disciplines of chemistry and environmental engineering

Art · Construct (python library · Discipline · Humanities · Interpersonal communication · Linguistics · Persona · Personal pronoun · Plural · Rhetorical question · Social science · Sociology · Systemic functional linguistics · Computer Science · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology · Writing and Handwriting Education

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