Form and Function of Citations in Discussion Sections of Research Articles

Research articles, as the preferred genre for transferring knowledge, have attracted the attention of many researchers in various fields. It is now generally accepted that academic writing is not presenting information objectively but is asociall activity by which the authors negotiate with their audience to gain community acceptance for their findings. Oneof the ways to achieve such an acceptance is by establishing intertextual links to prior research using citation. Due toits importance, it has been well researched and several researchers have suggested typologies for the form and functionof citation in academic writing. However, few studies have focused on the rhetorical function of citation. Adopting Swales (1990) and Samraj s (2013) typologies and analyzing 45 research articles from five high impact journals in thefield of Applied Linguistics, this paper aims to identity the functions that citation serve in Discussion sections of thesearticles. The analysis shows that in addition to comparing findings with literature, which is identified in various genre studies, citations are used to support arguments of writers such as their explanation and interpretation of their results and their suggestions. It is concluded that by referring to literature, linguists contextualize their propositions and try topersuade their audience of their soundness.

Keywords:

citation , research article , discussion section , applied linguistics