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References and Disciplinary Community Conventions

By Paula Gabriela Ferrari

References and Disciplinary Community Conventions

Several recent studies have emphasized the importance of genre-based analysis as a tool for graduate students to understand how information is structured in the different written genres of the academy (Swales, 1987; Swales, 1990; Swales & Feak, 2004; Hyland, 2004).  This has been partly due to the need for graduate students and potential researchers to achieve international scholarly publication and develop their academic careers (Swales, 1987, p.42). Because the Research Article (RA) plays a pivotal role in the participatory mechanisms of scholarly discourse communities, RA writers ¨are very much concerned with positioning¨ (Swales & Feak, 2004, p.221) and are, thus, urged to support their argumentative claims with prior texts.  By showing their allegiance to a particular community, writers not only create a rhetorical gap for their research (Swales, 1990) but also ¨contribute to the stabilization of reproduction of disciplines¨ (Hyland, 2004, p.4).  Even though the literature acknowledges the importance of academic attribution, less attention has been paid to the constraints posed by the stylistic conventions of the different communities and the difficulties faced by graduate students when tackling with them.  In particular, few studies have been made to analyze the problems graduate students encounter in the preparation of reference lists which fully adhere to the conventions prescribed in the official manuals.  The purpose of this paper is to analyze a concrete reference list (see Appendix 1) considering its structure and components.

 There are several issues that can be highlighted regarding this reference list.  To begin with, the list seems to follow the guidelines defined by the Modern Language Association (MLA).  According to the Purdue University (2014), the reference list should begin with a centered heading which reads ¨Works Cited¨.  After that, all entries should appear in hanging indentation, which is the case in this concrete list.  The three entries included in this list appear to be web sources as they all finish with the word ¨Web¨ followed by the date the materials were accessed.  The first entry seems to be a page on a web site and thus it follows MLA requirements: the article name appears first in double quotation marks, followed by the author (written in italics), the publisher name, the publishing date, and the date the material was accessed (Purdue University, 2014).  

As regards the second entry, it should be pointed out that it is an online-only published interview.  According to Purdue University (2014), MLA style requires that in these cases the entry should begin with the name of the interviewee, followed by the words ¨Interview by¨ and the name of the interviewer’s name.  The remainder of the entry ought to include the interview title in quotation marks, the website name in italics, the publisher name, the publishing date and the date the material was accessed.  All these elements are present in this second entry.

In connection to the third entry,  the source is an article in a web magazine and, therefore, includes the elements required by MLA standards (Purdue University, 2014): the author’s surname and name, the article name in double quotation marks, the title of the web magazine in italics, the publisher name, publication date and the date of access.

In conclusion, the examination carried out in this paper reveals that this concrete list fully adheres to the conventions established by MLA.  The entries contain all the components required by MLA so that each source can be successfully retrieved.  It is noteworthy that MLA style requires the Works Cited page to include only the works that correspond to the sources cited in the in-text citations of the paper.  Unlike APA (2010) style, MLA conventions allow for the incorporation of a “Works Consulted” list, which contains sources not cited within the body of the paper for background or further reading (Purdue University, 2014).  Even though this paper has analyzed a single, short reference list, this analysis does indicate, overall, that the practice of referencing should always be handled with full academic rigour as ¨research in any field has significance only in relation to an existing literature, and citation helps to demonstrate accommodation to this community knowledge¨ (Hyland, 2004, p.37).


References 

American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association. (6th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.

Hyland, K. (2004). Disciplinary discourses: Social interactions in academic writing. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.

Purdue University, (2014).  MLA Formatting and Style Guide. Retrieved from: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/1/

Swales, J.M. (1987). Utilizing the literatures in teaching the research paper. TESOL Quarterly, 21(1), 41-68. doi: 10.2307/3586354

Swales, J.M. (1990). Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings. (Cambridge Applied Linguistics Series). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Swales, J. M. & Feak, C. B. (2004) Academic writing for graduate students: Essential tasks and skills (2nd ed.) Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press

Swales, J. M. & Feak, C. B. (2004) Academic writing for graduate students: Essential tasks and skills (2nd ed.) Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press

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