Authorial Stance in Research Articles: An intertextual perspective
Restricted (Penn State Only)
- Author:
- Zhang, Genggeng
- Graduate Program:
- Applied Linguistics
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- May 16, 2023
- Committee Members:
- Tommaso Milani, Program Head/Chair
Susan Strauss, Major Field Member
Xiaoye You, Outside Unit & Field Member
Deryn Verity, Major Field Member
Xiaofei Lu, Chair & Dissertation Advisor - Keywords:
- citation
academic writing
research writing
English for Academic Purposes
stance
engineering writing - Abstract:
- As a highly visible feature of academic knowledge exchange and the intertextual nature of academic discourse, citations play a crucial role in academic writing. While an extensive body of research has examined the forms and functions of citations in published research articles, there has been a lack of understanding of the citation patterns in rhetorical structures and the authorial stance writers take in citations. Although the unavoidable complexity of citation practices has challenged novice writers regardless of their proficiencies in English, citation-related training has often been constrained to linguistic and plagiaristic orientations targeting undergraduate students. There has been a void of research on in-training graduate students’ citation practices, let alone any insights delivered to inform disciplinary writing instruction. Addressing these gaps, this study identifies the linguistic realizations of citations and the stance-taking practices in the citations in social science and engineering research articles, examines the patterns in the rhetorical moves/steps, compares the patterns identified in student and expert research writings, and probes student writers’ practices and perceptions of the patterns identified from corpus analyses. In so doing, this study contributes to the field in the research dimension by understanding citation practices in research articles across six disciplines, the methodological dimension by developing an Appraisal Theory inspired approach to citation analysis, and the pedagogical dimension by uncovering emerging scholars’ practices, perceptions, and needs on citations and promoting the translation of findings to pedagogically useful materials in disciplinary academic writing in higher education contexts.