Analyzing 2 Articles

Research articles and research theses constitute two key genres used by scientific communities for the dissemination and ratification of knowledge. Both genres are produced at advanced stages of individuals' enculturation in disciplinary communities present original research aim to persuade the academic community to accept new knowledge claims, and are the result of social negotiations between authors and disciplinary gatekeepers.However, despite their similarities, these two academic genres differ as regards the status of their authors in academic discourse communities and the power asymmetries between themselves and disciplinary gatekeepers. Awareness of these differences in relations of power and of the social forces behind the formation of genres, which are constituents of advanced academic literacy, defines the rhetorical strategies used by the authors of these two genres.

Article1

Rhetorical strategies in engineering research articles and research theses: Advanced academic literacy and relations of power by Dimitra Koutsantoni (University of Birmingham, 9A Stuart Crescent, London N22 5NJ, UK,Available online 19 January 2006.)

When research article authors submit their articles for publication and offer their claims for negotiation and validation by referees and peer reviewers, they find themselves having low relative statuses, while critics have more powerful positions, are in control of which paper becomes accepted for publication or not, and have the power to impose their own standards and expectations. This means that contributors need to adhere to gatekeepers' expectations in order to achieve publication and solicit acceptance for their claims. However, even though research article authors may be of lower relative status than disciplinary gatekeepers, they may be of the same absolute status as them, and have expertise on a branch of knowledge. This learned authority, as Watt (1982) explains, requires personal excellence and is constant, as opposed to the institutional authority to make decisions on which papers are to be accepted or not, which gatekeepers hold. Such authority has a term after which it expires (Watt, 1982). This may counterbalance the power and status asymmetries and give expert authors more room to present themselves as experts and address gatekeepers as equals.

Research students, on the other hand, are of lower both relative and absolute status than their examiners. Even though they may make original contributions to knowledge and have some learned authority, their examiners are still of a higher status and possess both learned and institutional authority, which prevents students from claiming expertise and authority of knowledge.

However, even individuals thought to possess lower status and power can contest, dispute and challenge the roles assigned to them by others, as individuals' power and authority are ratified by community members and obtained through strategies of appropriate social behaviour (Diamond, 1996). Belcher (1995) points out that the means of achieving the goals of persuasion and consensus building is rhetorical, and as Olson and Torrance (1983) maintain, texts can acquire authority not only by virtue of the status of their writer, but also by their ability to stand up to criticism. Delivery of a persuasive message and acquisition of credibility and authority, as Gilsdorf (1987) maintains, can be ...