Citation on introduction in academic writing

Citation 1
Database Name: CSA Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts
Title: Promotional Strategies In Research Article Introductions: An Interlinguistic And Cross-Disciplinary Genre Analysis
Author: Martin Martin, Pedro; Leon Perez, Isabel K
Source: Revista Canaria de Estudios Ingleses, 2009, 59, Nov, 73-87
Descriptors: *Academic Writing (00072); *Discourse/Text Genres (19280); *Genre Analysis (27610); *Writing Strategies (98780); *Cultural Differences (16400); *Rhetoric (73300); *Stylistics (84950); *English (21900); *Spanish (81800)
Abstract:
     Publishing research unavoidably involves an adequate use of promotional strategies in order to meet the expectations of the members of particular scientific communities, which may vary both across cultures and disciplines. In this paper, we examine comparatively the presence of rhetorical promotion in the Introduction section of 80 research articles written in English and Spanish in the two related subdisciplines of Clinical and Health Psychology, and Dermatology. The results revealed that, overall, the English texts present a higher degree of rhetorical promotion in both fields, although some degree of cross-disciplinary variation was also found. This indicates that, in shaping the promotional features of the genre, when professional and national cultural factors interact simultaneously, cultural factors tend to override the influence of disciplinary context.


Citation 2
Database Name: CSA Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts
Title: The Significance of Thematic Structure in the Scientific Journal Article, 1700-1980
Author: Banks, David
Source: Odense Working Papers in Language and Communication, 2008, 29, 1-29
Descriptors: *Academic Writing (00072); *Scientific Technical Language (75350); *English (21900); *Text Structure (89200); *Language History (42600); *Theme (89350); *Journals (Academic) (39875); *Natural Sciences (56606)
Abstract:
     This article is a diachronic study of the development of thematic structure in the scientific journal article from 1700 to 1980, based on a corpus taken from the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. Half of the corpus is derived from the physical sciences, and half from the biological. The grammatical functions of topical Themes are considered, as well as the incidence of textual and interpersonal Themes. Study of the thematic progression confirms that linear progression is more common than constant progression in this genre. The features which are selected as topical Theme are analysed in terms of 14 categories. It is shown that those which are related to the ongoing study are by far the most frequent, accounting for well over half of the topical Themes in most cases. A notable finding is the introduction of a significant number of mathematical Themes in the physical sector from the late nineteenth century onwards. This is related to a change in the interests of the physical scientists which move from an interest in experimentation as such to the mathematical modelling of physical phenomena. Study of the use of the passive voice leads to the conclusion that use of the passive derives from choices in thematic structure, so that thematic choice is one of the driving forces of the construction of this type of text. The general picture given by the study is one whereby the physical sciences are experimental from the beginning of the period under study, but the biological sciences remain observational until the mid-nineteenth century, when experiment begins to be introduced. A move from experiment to mathematical modelling occurs in the physical sector towards the end of the nineteenth century but has not affected the biological sector by the end of the period under study.