{"title":"Making room for research promotion in RA discussion/closing sections: A Spanish-English comparative approach","authors":"Ana I. Moreno","doi":"10.1016/j.esp.2024.04.004","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Research articles in English have witnessed a growing emphasis on self-promotion, posing challenges for Spanish social scientists when writing for English-medium journals. One difficulty lies in effectively promoting their own research without compromising necessary content and exceeding word limits. To address this issue, this study explores strategies for making room for research promotion in the discussion/closing sections of social science research articles. A comparative analysis of these sections in English and Spanish was conducted, focusing on the communicative functions fulfilled by different segment types. The findings confirm that authors in English prioritise promoting the quality and applicability of their research over its contribution and relevance. They also reveal that these authors tend to include fewer non-promotional segments restating results, providing background information, and elaborating ideas compared to their Spanish counterparts. However, both groups of authors consistently include segments commenting on the results, as well as making recommendations for future research/practice. These segments are considered essential in this part-genre. This study provides insights for Spanish social scientists balancing self-promotion and other communicative goals in English research writing. The practical implications extend to English for research publication instruction, as well as the work of reviewers and editors of English-medium journals.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":47809,"journal":{"name":"English for Specific Purposes","volume":"75 ","pages":"Pages 86-101"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2000,"publicationDate":"2024-05-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0889490624000218/pdfft?md5=a3131209d9c2a00832a911285f28ff27&pid=1-s2.0-S0889490624000218-main.pdf","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"English for Specific Purposes","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0889490624000218","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"LINGUISTICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Research articles in English have witnessed a growing emphasis on self-promotion, posing challenges for Spanish social scientists when writing for English-medium journals. One difficulty lies in effectively promoting their own research without compromising necessary content and exceeding word limits. To address this issue, this study explores strategies for making room for research promotion in the discussion/closing sections of social science research articles. A comparative analysis of these sections in English and Spanish was conducted, focusing on the communicative functions fulfilled by different segment types. The findings confirm that authors in English prioritise promoting the quality and applicability of their research over its contribution and relevance. They also reveal that these authors tend to include fewer non-promotional segments restating results, providing background information, and elaborating ideas compared to their Spanish counterparts. However, both groups of authors consistently include segments commenting on the results, as well as making recommendations for future research/practice. These segments are considered essential in this part-genre. This study provides insights for Spanish social scientists balancing self-promotion and other communicative goals in English research writing. The practical implications extend to English for research publication instruction, as well as the work of reviewers and editors of English-medium journals.
期刊介绍:
English For Specific Purposes is an international peer-reviewed journal that welcomes submissions from across the world. Authors are encouraged to submit articles and research/discussion notes on topics relevant to the teaching and learning of discourse for specific communities: academic, occupational, or otherwise specialized. Topics such as the following may be treated from the perspective of English for specific purposes: second language acquisition in specialized contexts, needs assessment, curriculum development and evaluation, materials preparation, discourse analysis, descriptions of specialized varieties of English.