SOCIO-RHETORICAL CONSTRUCTION OF THE INTRODUCTION SECTION IN ACADEMIC ARTICLES OF THE DISCIPLINARY CULTURE IN THE HISTORY AREA

ABSTRACT

This study aims to describe how the History area produces and understands the Introduction section of academic articles. For this, we rely on studies by Swales (1990), regarding his conception of genres and his methodological proposal CARS (Create a Research Space). Regarding the study of disciplinary culture, we have the theoretical contributions of Hyland (2000, 2009) and Bhatia (2004). Our research, of an exploratory-descriptive nature, presents a corpus of thirty academic articles, distributed in four journals in the History area, with stratification A1 according to WebQualis Capes, valid for 2013-2016. According to the investigation, we noticed that the Introduction of academic articles in the area under study is configured as an extensive section in which the authors present the context of the object of analysis, the exposure of previous research, the indication of the objectives of the study and the presentation of methodological aspects that made the research feasible.

Socio-Rhetorical analysis; Disciplinary culture; History Area; Academic article; Introduction section

RESUMO

Este estudo tem como objetivo descrever como a área de História produz e compreende a seção de Introdução de artigos acadêmicos. Para tanto, apoiamo-nos em estudos de Swales (1990), no que se refere à sua concepção de gêneros e à sua proposta metodológica CARS (Create a Research Space). No que tange ao estudo sobre cultura disciplinar, contamos com as contribuições teóricas de Hyland (2000, 2009) e Bhatia (2004). Nossa pesquisa, de natureza exploratório-descritiva, apresenta um corpus de trinta artigos acadêmicos, distribuídos em quatro periódicos da área de História, com estratificação A1 conforme WebQualis Capes, vigência 2013-2016. De acordo com a investigação, percebemos que a Introdução de artigos acadêmicos da área em estudo se configura como uma seção extensa na qual os autores apresentam a contextualização do objeto de análise, a exposição de pesquisas prévias, a indicação dos objetivos do estudo e a apresentação dos aspectos metodológicos que viabilizaram a realização da pesquisa.

Análise sociorretórica; Cultura disciplinar; Área de História; Artigo Acadêmico; Seção de Introdução

Introduction

Research around academic genres in specific disciplinary contexts has been gaining prominence in recent years in Brazil. In the scope of genres belonging to the academic universe, the article is highlighted among scientific productions. This is due to the fact that the academic article, as pointed out by Hyland (2009), is considered the genre with the highest status regarding the dissemination of scientific knowledge, since it is the main means of conveying information and results of researches. In addition, it is important to note that funding agencies require a consistent flow of academic article publications from graduate programs.

Considering the relevance of the article genre for the maintenance and credibility of academic communities, many researches have been focusing on the study of this genre. Thus, Swales (1990), from the description of the rhetorical configuration of the Introduction section of academic articles, proposes the methodological path CARS (Create a Research Space) that enabled the study of the most varied genres in different discursive spheres.

Here in Brazil, many researchers based themselves on the rhetorical perspective for genre analysis by Swales (1990) to investigate the various genres that permeate the academy. Among some investigations, we can mention the research of Motta-Roth (1995) that analyses the academic review genre in the areas of Linguistics, Economics and Chemistry; the research of Biasi-Rodrigues (1998), describing the genre abstract in Dissertations; the research of Bezerra (2002) that investigates the genre review in the area of Theology; the research of Silva (2015) analysing the justification section in research projects in the area of History; the research of Andrade and Mesquita (2016) that identifies the rhetorical organization of the Introduction section of the supervised internship report genre, produced by students from the Letters and Agronomy courses, among other studies.

Regarding the article genre, at the international level, we highlight the research of Nwogu (1997) that describes all the rhetorical sections that make up the academic article genre in Medicine area; the research of Holmes (1997), examining the structure of the Discussion sections in academic articles in the areas of History, Political Science and Sociology; the research of Yang and Allison (2003) that describe the sections on Results, Discussions and Conclusion of articles belonging to the area of Applied Linguistics; the research of Puebla (2008), with an analysis of the Discussion section in articles in the field of Psychology; the research of Basturkmen (2012), investigating the Discussion section in articles in the field of Dentistry; the research of Kanoksilapatham (2015), with a comparative study between the Introduction sections in the areas of Civil Engineering, Software and Biomedics; the research of Zhang and Wannaruk (2016) that approaches the Methodology section in articles produced by the Education area; and the research of Öztürk (2018) that analyses the Introduction section of articles produced within the scope of Applied Linguistics.

On the national level, we point out the research of Silva (1999), that offers a rhetorical analysis for the Results and Discussion section of articles in the Chemistry´s area; the research of Hendges (2001) that analyses the Literature Review section of articles in English in the areas of Economics and Linguistics; the research of Dias and Bezerra (2013) that analyses and proposes a rhetorical configuration proposal for the Introduction section of articles linked to the field of Public Health; the research of Costa (2015), that investigates and compares the socio-rhetorical structure of academic articles in the areas of Linguistics and Medicine; the research of Abreu (2016), describing socio-rhetorically articles in psychology area; the research of Silva (2019) that investigates the socio-rhetorical construction of academic articles in the areas of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, among other works.

It is important to highlight that looking at disciplinary variations about the academic article genre is not something recent. However, much of the research that aims to understand disciplinary areas is limited only to information present in the genre under analysis, not considering information about the disciplinary context in which this genre takes place. In other words, many studies highlight the areas in which the genres were produced, but there is still no clear dialogue between the information from the disciplinary culture on the conception of the genre and the data identified in the textual analysis of the copies of the genre itself.

In accordance with Hyland (2000), academic writing is a socially situated practice in which each discipline is characterized by norms, content, nomenclature, set of knowledge and particularities that constitute a distinct disciplinary culture. Thus, it is necessary to understand genres as actions intrinsically linked to the social processes of the communities in which they are inserted.

From the point of view that genres are sensitive to disciplinary variations (BHATIA, 2004), and that the study of genres must be linked to cultural aspects comprising a given disciplinary area, this article¹, anchored in Swales’ socio-rhetorical² proposition (1990, 2004) and Hyland’s conception of disciplinary culture (2000), propounds³ a socio-rhetorical description of the Introduction section in academic articles in the History area, by crossing information from this disciplinary culture with the data that emanate from the examples of the genre in study⁴.

For this purpose, we consider it pertinent to indicate the rhetorical organization of this manuscript, which consists of nine sections. Initially, the Introduction outlines the issues and objectives that justify carrying out our investigative endeavour. Sections 2, 3 and 4 are reserved for the theoretical discussion of the fundamentals that supported our research, thus, section 2 highlights the academic article genre, addressing its concepts and its subcategories, while section 3 launches the look at the conceptual assumptions about disciplinary culture in the context of genre analysis. The fourth section is characterized by the presentation of the methodological proposal CARS (Creating a Research Space) by Swales (1990), which guides the description of the genre undertaken in the present study. The fifth topic provides information on the type of research, participants involved, corpus size, as well as the entire methodological path that enabled and guided this investigative endeavour. Sections 6 and 7 are intended for the presentation and discussion of results, so that section 6 aims to provide an overview of aspects relevant to the disciplinary culture in the History area in Brazil and section 7 provides a description of the socio-rhetorical configuration of the Introduction section of academic articles produced within the scope of the disciplinary culture in the History area. In the eighth section, the final considerations of the work are presented, as well as the practical implications the research can bring to the area. And, finally, the References point to the citations that supported the research theoretically and methodologically.

The academic article genre

Swales (1990) conceptualizes the article genre as a text written for the dissemination of some scientific investigation, carried out by one or more authors. For the theorist, the article must be related to scientific discoveries and can also examine theoretical and / or methodological issues. Such texts must be published in research journals or specialized journals. According to the author, the academic article genre, throughout its history, has undergone several transformations in terms of rhetorical organization, syntactic and lexical characteristics, extension, forms of citation and insertion of notes, among other changes.

When analysing the structure of academic articles, Swales (1990) recognizes the IMRD configuration - Introduction, Methodology, Results and Discussion - widely used in articles produced, mainly, in the areas of exact sciences and nature. However, as the author himself warns, the referred configuration is subject to variations, according to the particularities of the areas of knowledge that produce the genre. Swales (2004), when re-discussing the IMRD standard, found the fluidity of this configuration, mainly in Human Sciences. In other words, the IMRD configuration may vary according to the rules of different disciplinary cultures.

Swales (2004) also proposes three categories for the academic article: theoretical article, experimental article, and literature review article, although he does not explicitly conceptualize each of these types. According to Swales (2004), the theoretical article is characterized by conducting a theoretical discussion without, necessarily, raising an analysis of data. In this regard, Bernardino (2007) adds that, in theoretical articles, the use of data for exemplifications is only at the service of a theoretical construction, and not an analysis of the data. The experimental article, according to Motta-Roth and Hendges (2010), has the central objective of presenting and discussing data from certain experiments, performing interpretations in the form of research results. In relation to the review article, Swales (2004) proposes that its main objective is to promote a discussion of the previous literature, having a global assessment of the state of the art in a field of knowledge. Let us step on to the theoretical discussion on the concept of Disciplinary Culture.

Disciplinary Culture

In accordance with Bhatia (2004), genre analysis has conventionally been seen as the study of linguistic behaviour in institutionalized, academic, or professional contexts, in which it is often felt that disciplinary distinctions do not play a significant role. In recent studies on disciplinary and professional discourse, it has been found that disciplinary distinctions play an important role, especially in the production of professional and / or academic genres.

From this same perspective, Hyland (2000) points out that the disciplines are also defined through their writing, that is, the crucial difference between them consists in the way the members of these disciplines write, more than simply what they write. Thus, academic discourse is neither uniform nor monolithic, in other words, its differences are not only related to the specific theme and vocabulary. This speech is the result of a set of practices and strategies, in which the convincing argument and appropriate tone are carefully administered to an audience. In this sense, academic writing is the product of institutional and interactional forces, which result from the diverse social practices of writers within their disciplinary cultures. These cultures differ across social and cognitive dimensions, offering contrasts in their goals, social behaviours, power relations, political interests, ways of speaking and structures of argument.

In this sense, according to Bhatia (2004), disciplines have their characteristics, which are primarily understood in terms of specific knowledge, methodologies and practices shared by members of a community. In these terms, disciplinary construction occurs, especially, through their ways of thinking, building and consuming knowledge, their specific norms, and epistemologies and, above all, their specific objectives as well as disciplinary practices to achieve these objectives.

About the academic community, Hyland (2000) points out that the productions written in the academy are representations of legitimate discourses that help to define and maintain specific epistemologies and academic limits. Thus, Hyland (2000) stresses the importance of genre analysis for the understanding of this community since the texts are written to be understood within certain cultural contexts. In this context, Bhatia (2004) points out that any understanding of academic discourse needs to be seen in the light of disciplinary variations, which, according to the author, will lead to the perception, understanding, construction, interpretation and more appropriate use of academic discourses. Still according to Hyland (2000), the analysis of genres should promote a look at academic cultures, in which genres are realized. Thus, analysing academic genres is learning something about how each discipline views and defines knowledge.

After these brief considerations on disciplinary cultures, we present the CARS methodology proposed by Swales (1990) that guided us in our analysis.

The CARS Methodology

For the analysis and socio-rhetorical description of the Introduction section of academic articles produced by the disciplinary culture of the History area, we take as a guide the methodological proposal CARS (Create a Research Space), by Swales (1990).

Concerned about offering a rhetorical configuration proposition to help English students in the production of their works, Swales (1990), based on the analysis of the Introduction section of scientific articles, propounds a methodological way to describe genres, which was called CARS (Create a Research Space).

According to Biasi-Rodrigues, Hemais and Araújo (2009), the theoretical and methodological proposition CARS, began to be developed by Swales in 1984 from a corpus consisting of 48 research article introductions. Later, in 1987, the author extends the corpus to 110 introductions of articles from three distinct areas: Physics, Education and Psychology. The results of these two surveys pointed to a regularity of rhetorical moves in the textual composition of the Introductions for the articles. Although CARS was initially considered a model for describing article introductions, its application to several different genres provided the model with the condition of a methodology for genre analysis. The CARS methodology allows the recognition of how genres are constructed and characterized rhetorically from the identification of moves which, according to Swales (2004), correspond to rhetorical units performing a communicative function in the discourse articulated to the purposes of using the genre, and also the identification of the steps, considered as smaller informational units that compose the moves. The rhetorical moves and steps constitute the compositional configuration of the genres. Let us see, below, how the aforementioned description of Introductions of academic articles is organized through their moves and steps:

As shown in Figure 1, Introductions of academic articles are made up of 3 moves. Move 1 is responsible for presenting the area in which the study is inserted, with the objective of establishing a thematic delimitation and the importance of research. Move 2 seeks to establish the theoretical niche. Move 3 aims to occupy the research niche, presenting the reader with the object and objectives of the research.

Table 1
– CARS Methodological Proposal (Create a Research Space)

Move 1, Establishing a territory, consists of three steps, which are responsible for establishing the relevance of the research, making generalizations about the research topic and for surveying the research already carried out on the theme addressed in the current work. As pointed out by Biasi-Rodrigues, Hemais and Araújo (2009), in the first step, Claiming centrality, the author draws the attention of the discursive community to a significant and well-established research area. In the second step, Making topic generalization(s), the research author makes generalized statements about the theme addressed in the work, preparing the territory for the presentation of the research object of the research itself. In the third step, Review the literature, the author refers to previously reported research results.

Move 2, Establishing a niche, is characterized by dialogue with the previous knowledge built around the object investigated. In step 1A, Counter-claiming, the authors dispute with previous research. In step 1B, Indicating a gap, is considered by Swales (1990) to be the most prototypical among the four steps of the second move and is characterized by pointing out a gap to be filled in the chosen area of knowledge, or, as pointed out by Biasi -Rodrigues, Hemais and Araújo (2009), this step aims to highlight some limitations detected in previous works. It is designated by Swales (1990) as the most prototypical among the four steps of the second move. In step 1C, Question-raising, the authors have a polemical dialogue with previous research, causing questioning that can underpin the study in question. In step 1D, Continuing a tradition, the authors take advantage of previous studies to support the research in progress.

Move 3, Occupying the niche, according to Swales (1990), has the function of occupying the niche determined in Move 2, thus occupying an established research territory. This move is primarily characterized by the presentation of the research objectives. In step 1A, Outlining purposes, the authors present the main purposes of the research. In step 1B, Announcing present research, the authors present the research and its main characteristics. In step 2, Announcing principal findings, there is a description of the main results of the research and, finally, in step 3, Indicating RA (research article) structure, the authors show how the article is structured. According to the authors, the last two steps that are used to expose the main research results or indicate the structure of the article are less frequent than the first two, so the third and fourth steps are considered optional.

From the analysis of the model of rhetorical configuration presented in the CARS Methodology, we realized how much each move and its respective steps are essential for the recognition of the compositional configuration proper to the introduction of scientific articles. It is worth mentioning that this configuration proposed in the CARS model (1990) does not take place in a homogeneous way, since the genres suffer variations according to their disciplinary context. However, even considering these disciplinary variations, the CARS methodological proposal is still an important tool for genre analysis. Still according to Swales (1990), the purpose of describing the compositional configuration is not to create stagnant models for the production and understanding of genres, but to facilitate the understanding and application of these genres by less experienced members. Thus, based on the proposal of the CARS Methodology (1990), we investigate and describe socio-rhetorically 30 examples of the academic article genre in the area of History.

After discussing the theoretical foundations, let us see the methodological path adopted to carry out this study.

Methodology

Our research is defined as an exploratory-descriptive study, whose data analysis is of qualitative and quantitative basis, considering that we aim to investigate how the disciplinary culture of the History area comprises the production of the academic article genre, realizing the recurrence / prototypic of moves and rhetorical steps characterizing that genre and explaining how this prototyping is related to the behaviours and purposes of the experienced members⁵ of the area.

With regard to the qualitative stage, we carried out a survey of the disciplinary culture of the area of History in an attempt to understand the set of values and practices in this area with regard to academic writing of the article genre. As for the quantitative character of the research, we describe the socio-rhetorical configuration in 30 issues of the article genre from that disciplinary culture, considering the recurrence of rhetorical moves and steps that characterize the referred genre.

The corpus articles were collected on the CAPES journals portal and on the Scielo portal between June and August 2017, in Qualis A1 periodicals. The journals involved in this sample were selected due to the representativeness of the area, so we chose those with stratification A1, based on the period 2013-2016. In addition, we chose those with an intense flow of publications in 2017, as we seek to have the most updated corpus possible. The articles come from four Brazilian periodicals in the History area, namely: Revista Brasileira de História (Brazilian Journal of History), Revista de História (History Journal), Revista Estudos Históricos (Historical Studies Journal) and Revista Tempo (Time Journal).

Regarding the analysis procedures, we adopted the methodological path proposed by Pacheco, Bernardino and Freitas (2018), which has sought to enable the socio-rhetorical analysis of academic genres from the description of disciplinary cultures. In this methodological approach, we initially seek a more accurate understanding of the disciplinary culture investigated with regard to the production of academic genres, and, from there, a dialogue is promoted between this information and the results obtained by linguistic analysis in the genre examples of the corpus under analysis.

With regard to the description of disciplinary culture, we sought guidance from theoretical sources (articles and books) that could clarify the path of scientific research in the area of History, and we also observe the instructions of the journals that compose our sample on how authors should conduct the construction of the manuscripts. In addition, we have information on documents that reveal how development agencies view the area. We also carried out a historical contextualization of the referred area in Brazil, tracing back its path over the years.

After understanding the historical path that allowed the consolidation of the area, we started to investigate how culture understands, uses, and organizes socio-rhetorically the genre in analysis.

To understand how disciplinary culture understands the genre under analysis, between August and September 2018, we used 6 interviews and 4 questionnaires to experienced members of the Graduate Programs in History at the Universidade Estadual do Ceará and Universidade Federal do Ceará, seeking more accurate information regarding the writing of the academic article genre. The questions asked during these questionnaires and interviews were linked to academic writing, especially to the compositional configuration of the academic article genre.

As for the choice of experienced members who made up our sample, we prioritized research professors linked to postgraduate programs based in Ceará, so that we could make possible a direct contact with those researchers. In this sense, we ruled out the possibility of interviewing the authors of the manuscripts, since the copies of our corpus were made up of articles produced by authors from different parts of the country. Furthermore, the representativeness of the disciplinary culture in the History area could be restricted, only, to the voices of those researchers.

According to data from the disciplinary culture, we stepped on to the socio-rhetorical analysis of the information units that make up the articles we compiled. After a preliminary analysis of the corpus, in which we identified the prototypical moves and steps of the genre under study, we returned to the disciplinary culture, through interviews with experienced members, to confirm or not the recognition of the recurrent rhetorical actions that were present in the analysed samples. To conclude the socio-rhetorical description, we returned to the copies of the investigated genre and articulate the data collected in the disciplinary culture with the data found in the texts, explaining what Swales (1990) calls the underlying reason the genre.

It is worth noting that, in order to identify recurrent rhetorical steps and moves in academic articles produced by the area of History that make up our corpus, we used the recognition of the rhetorical function, described by the members of the disciplinary culture participating in this study, linked to the analysis of the content described in text and the lexical elements that helped us recognize these rhetorical functions.

We also emphasize that, in order to clearly present the analysis carried out, we signalled, using bold letters, the lexical clues that helped us to identify the informational units that make up the moves and rhetorical step. Thus, based on the analysis of the corpus copies and on the information provided by the experienced members, we presented a proposal for a socio-rhetorical configuration for the understanding and production of the academic article genre in the investigated area.

After the methodological outline followed in this research, let us now take a look a brief contextualization in the disciplinary area of History in the Brazil.

Describing the disciplinary culture of History area in Brazil

According to the National Curriculum Guidelines for the History Graduation Course (BRASIL, 2001), the historian is the professional who studies the human past in its various aspects: economics, society, culture, ideas, daily life, among other perspectives. Thus, the historian investigates and critically interprets the events, seeking to rescue the memory of humanity and expand the understanding of the human condition. Thus, his/her work is based mainly on the investigation of historiographical sources.

According to the studies by Falcon (1996), the undergraduate courses in History at the Philosophy Colleges formed the first professionals in the area, graduates and / or bachelor’s in history. In this regard, Ferreira (2013) points out that the creation of university courses in history in the 1930s had as main objective the training of teachers for basic education. Regarding Postgraduate courses, the area currently has 71 programs, nine of which are professional master’s degrees, 23 are academic master’s degrees and 39 are academic master’s and doctorate degrees. (CAPES, 2016, 2017b).

Regarding the object of analysis of this study, the Introduction section of academic articles in History area, the historians Barros (2015) and Salis and Costa (2011), who study the Research Project genre, point out that the Introduction section has the function of guiding the reader along the paths taken by the historian towards the systematization of work, thus presenting the theme, the main sources investigated, the methodological aspects, the temporal and spatial cut ups, the importance of the theme to be addressed and its contextualization, the feasibility of the research and the objectives to be achieved.

Corroborating this standpoint, for one of the interviewed participants, the Introduction section is essential for the article, since all the essential information that underlies the work must be present in the introductory text. In addition, in this section, the author must inform “what he thinks about the object under analysis, the strategies used to account for that object and the problems that emerge from it.” Also, according to this participant, the Introduction “works like a travel itinerary”, which will point out the methodology, questions and concepts used by the author around his object. In this space, the author must describe the object that will be analysed throughout the article and outline the reasons that led him to research such an object, as well as “indicate what has already been researched around the object and point out the idea and question that will substantiate the work” (participant 6).

In agreement with this idea, participant 1 points out that, in the Introduction section, the historian must “present the object to be analysed, the research trajectory, the methodology and insert the historiography or bibliography” related to the subject of the article. In this same trend, participant 5 adds that, in the introductory text, the historian must present “the delimitation of the period that will be studied” and analysed throughout the article. Likewise, the participant 2 states that, in the Introduction, there must be “a clear exposition of the research object” and, as participants 3 and 9 indicated, emphasizes that, in this topic, the priority is “to situate the theme that will be worked on article”.

Thus, from the perspective of experienced members of the disciplinary culture in the area of History (interviewed participants), we can understand the rhetorical section of Introduction as an introductory text that contextualizes and presents the object to be investigated, delimiting it in time and space, which exposes previous research related to the theme to be addressed, inserting the work in the field of historiography, which punctuates the objectives of the study and which indicates the methodological aspects that underpinned the production of the manuscript.

Based on these considerations on the disciplinary culture of the History area with regard, especially, to the production of the academic article, we perform a socio-rhetorical description of the genre under analysis, considering that it is the disciplinary culture that best clarifies the underlying reason the configuration compositional of the genre (SWALES, 1990). Thus, let us see the result of this socio-rhetorical analysis for the Introduction section of academic articles in the History area.

Describing the rhetorical section of Introduction to academic articles in History area

Distinguishing itself from other disciplinary cultures, such as Linguistics and Medicine (COSTA, 2015) and Nutrition (PACHECO, 2016), the History area has long introductions. In the analysed corpus, the average number of pages dedicated to this section is four pages. Although the journals investigated in this study do not mention information about the mandatory nature of this section in articles to be submitted for publication, only three articles, in a universe of 30 copies, did not present this section, which may justify its importance for the production of the article genre in that area. Thus, let us see how the information units of the Introduction section of the analysed corpus are organized, based on the CARS model by Swales (1990).

Based on the guidelines of the disciplinary culture on the information units that can compose the socio-rhetorical configuration of the Introduction section of academic articles in the area of History, we compared the information units identified by us in the corpus under analysis and the rhetorical configuration proposed by Swales (1990) using the CARS model. As shown in Figure 2, five steps of the original model suggested by the author are present in the introductions of the investigated articles, namely: Making topic generalization(s); Reviewing items of previous research; Indicating a gap; Outlining purposes and Indicating research article structure. We emphasize that we adapted the nomenclatures of the moves and steps according to the disciplinary characteristics of the area under analysis, however, the rhetorical and informational function stands as proposed by Swales (1990).

Figure 2
– Frequency of informational units in Introductions of articles from the disciplinary culture of the History area

Following the prototypic criterion proposed by Swales (1990), for the recognition of genre by the community that uses it, we consider prototypical informational units in the Introduction section of academic articles in the disciplinary culture of the History area, the moves and steps that had the same or equal occurrence. greater than 50%, as suggested by Bernardino and Pacheco (2017). Therefore, we have move 1, Establishing a territory, and move 3, Occupying the niche. Move 2, Establishing a niche, did not reach the recurrence margin in the corpus, therefore, it will not be present in our final description for the Introduction section.

Following this recurrence criterion, we present, in Figure 3, a possible pattern for the rhetorical section of Introduction of academic articles in the History area. It is worth mentioning that we aim to present the socio-rhetorical configuration that the disciplinary culture itself points to us from the analysis carried out throughout the present study and which is reflected in the prototypical configuration of academic articles produced by the area.

Figure 3
– Rhetoric description of the section of Introduction

For the elaboration of this description, we sought a terminology that more clearly identified the rhetorical function of the informational units (moves and steps) that make up the section under analysis. To present this description, we considered the most recurrent order of moves and steps present in the analysed articles.

We understand that, in general, the Introduction section of the disciplinary culture of the History area historically contextualizes the theme that will be investigated, points out researches already carried out that have some relation with the theme to be discussed throughout the article, presents the research objectives and exposes the methodological path chosen by the author for the realization of the manuscript. After these more general assertions, let us see, below, each move that composes the Introduction section in academic articles in the area.

The first move, Presenting the research, aims to situate the reader in relation to the theme that will be worked on throughout the article. This move has three steps for its effective realization: Contextualizing the object of analysis historically, Presenting previous research and Presenting the research objectives.

The first step, Contextualizing the object of analysis historically, concerns the demarcation of the space and time in which the theme worked in the article is inserted. In our analysis, we observed that the object of investigation in the area of History is too broad, since “all human action over time can be the object of analysis for the historian”, as pointed out by participant 3. Thus, in face of such breadth of possibilities, the first step taken by the historian, when looking at research, writing or investigation in history, is to delimit the space and time in which the object of analysis is immersed. To this end, the historian contextualizes his object of analysis by presenting the moment in which the event occurred or the period to which the source is related, often citing the date, the place, the historical facts that marked that period, historical characters that were important for the period under analysis, among other information that help in defining the theme that will be worked on (excerpts 1 to 3).

Excerpt (01) - On December 30, 1830, D. Pedro I, with Empress D. Amélia and his entourage, went on a trip to the province of Minas Gerais with the objective of reducing tensions with the liberal regional leaders and raising support for the political dispute in the Court. For almost 2 months, he visited several villages such as Barbacena, São João Del Rey, São José Cachoeira, Sabará, Caeté and Mariana, until he reached his final destination - the capital Ouro Preto. The fact that D. Pedro abdicated less than a month after his return shows that the trip was not successful in terms of the intended objectives, but that does not imply that it was completely unimportant. On the contrary, it seems that the Emperor’s journey through Minas Gerais, by temporarily concentrating a series of events that acquire their own meaning in this context, can be considered as a moment of singular importance to analyse the role of the provinces in the configuration and viability of the monarchical state and constitutional, a theme of growing interest in historiography (Silva, 2005; Slemian, 2006; Oliveira, 2009) [...]. (AAH02)⁶,⁷

Excerpt (02) -In Bohemia of the first half of the 15^thcentury, the clash traditionally known as the Hussite Wars marked the space of religious and political disputes in this kingdom of the Holy Roman Empire. Emperor Wenceslas IV (Václav IV) was dead while his brother Sigismundo (Zikmund Lucemburský) sought to establish himself in power in this region. After the Council of Constance (1414-1418) and the Papal Schism resolved, it was time to root out the Hussite heresy from the Czech lands. Martin V, the new pope, with the support of Sigismund, sends armies of crusaders to battle against the Taborites, Czech warriors with wide religious fervour. Led by Jan Žižka, despite being outnumbered, the Taborites overcome five different incursions by the enemy. The Czechs are stronger, Sigismundo, the “red fox”, remains rejected in Prague and the kingdom of heaven is about to establish itself on Earth [...]. (AAH08).

Excerpt (03) - The establishment of the exclusive metropolitan colonial trade, that is, the end of the free trade regime in the colony, which was in force since the creation of the so-called hereditary captaincies, must be understood as a process. Started at the end of the 16^thcentury, starting from the 1591 charter, reinforced by the 1605, it would have been consolidated during the second decade of the 17^th century and concluded during the period of the Dutch invasions of Bahia in 1624 and Pernambuco in 1630, without that this means that licenses, fraud and smuggling have completely ceased to exist [...]. (AAH14).

The second step, Presenting previous research, carries out a bibliographic review of the theme investigated, pointing out the research and studies already carried out around the theme. According to participants 3 and 4, the bibliographic review “allows us to understand the historicity of the historical object under study”. The participants also stressed that for the good performance of an article, it is necessary to present relevant bibliographic sources.

This step has an essential character, since we did not identify in the articles produced by the History area a section dedicated exclusively to the review of the literature, in which the authors could discuss previous works and theories. According to participant 9, “it is from the survey of previous research that the historian traces a dialogue between the object under study and the existing literature, in order to point out the new results or discoveries”. According to the participants of this research, it is not common in the area of History to discuss theories. Thus, the author of an article tries to establish a dialogue between the analysis of historical sources and the existing research and theories that maintain a close relationship with what is being investigated. In this sense, the dialogue with the literature review is part of the investigative process as a whole and, therefore, is diluted throughout the article and not only in the Introduction.

The occurrence of this step was mainly due to the citation of references from previous works related to the theme addressed in the article. The citations were given by the authors’ nominalization. In 70% of the analysed corpus, references were in parentheses, however, we also observed direct citations in the body of the text, especially when the author of the article explored, more closely, a certain work or author (excerpts 4 and 5).

Excerpt (04) - Therefore, identifying and unravelling evidence related to his life means revisiting the historiographic debates related to the explosion of the biographical in contemporary times, specifically, to the composition of historical biography (Dosse, 2009; Levi, in Ferreira; Amado, 1998, p .167-182; Levillain, in Rémond, 1996, p.141-184; Loriga, 2011). (AAH03)

Excerpt (05) - Sociologists and historians have seen it for decades as the key to major changes: the “reopening of the Mediterranean Sea”, the “vanguard of the communal movement”, the “diffusion of mercantile capitalism” (Nicholas, 2014, p .54-168; Holton, 2013, p.33-115). (AAH07)

Step 3, Introducing the research objectives, is characterized by presenting the research purposes, as pointed out by Motta-Roth and Hendges (2010) on the importance of establishing, in the Introduction, the designation of the study objectives. This step did not exceed the limit of a paragraph. And in 57% of the articles that presented this step, the objectives were presented succinctly, taking no more than two lines of the text. As in the areas of Medicine, Linguistics, Psychology and Nutrition, the referred step, in the History area, is generally marked by the expression “objective”, which is accompanied by infinitive verbs.

Most of the investigated participants corroborated the idea of participant 8 regarding the importance of this step for the Introduction section of the articles. Thus, according to the aforementioned participant, the Introduction must “clearly present the objectives that the study proposes for the reader to understand the research in its entirety”. We observed that the articles presenting this step do not subdivide it into a general objective and specific objectives, considering that the analysed manuscripts presented only a single objective that encompasses all the purposes that the investigation intends to achieve.

In general, the research methodology manuals, as well as the experienced members participating in this study, characterize this step as responsible for presenting the purpose of the work, the goal to be achieved, as well as what the researcher really wants to accomplish (excerpts 6, 7 and 8).

Excerpt (06) - The purpose of this article is to describe the disputes between these two distinct models of patrimonialization in protected areas, discussing a specific case: that of the Pedra Branca State Park. (AAH20)

Excerpt (07) - [...] which aims to understand how and what has been considered by the government as an asset of the Afro-Brazilian population and what residents think about heritage assets that population. (AAH21)

Excerpt (08) - In this line, we are interested in highlighting the use of writing by those who did not have access to the systematized learning of the first letters. (AAH16)

Regarding the last move that makes up the Introduction section of academic articles produced in the area of History, Indicating methodological information, we observe that the referred move is related to the methodology used by the author for the production of the work. All participants in this study highlighted the importance of this move in the composition of the Introduction section of academic articles. In this sense, participant 8 emphasizes that “the methodological part must be succinct”, but must be present in the article, “even if it is in a footnote”. This move has two steps: Indicating information about the historiographic sources and Indicating methodological procedures for the analysis of the investigated historical object.

Step 1, Indicating information about the historiographic sources, is characterized by presenting information about the investigated sources that will be analysed throughout the article. In this step, the historian provides information regarding the source selection and composition procedures, the context surrounding the collection of the source, among other information that the author deems relevant to the work. According to participant 10, “currently the object of investigation of history is historiographical sources. And every human action can be a source that can be analysed by the historian”. Thus, the participant stresses the importance of delimiting and presenting the investigated source in a clear and coherent way so that the reader understands what will in fact be analysed and discussed throughout the manuscript.

Excerpt (09) - [...] we selected the female wills registered at the notary office of the 1st office of the then district of Rio das Velhas, captaincy of Minas Gerais, in the period from 1780 to 1822. (AAH09)

Excerpt (10) - In this work, based on the analysis of treaties, legislation and other texts of the time, we will seek to track the understanding of the colonies that supported the ongoing discussion, as well as assess the impact of these treaties on trade with Brazil, deepening the considerations of Fernando Novais and Evaldo Cabral de Mello. (AAH14)

In step 2, Indicating methodological procedures for the analysis of the investigated historical object, the author indicates the procedures adopted for the analysis of the data collected from the investigated sources and the historiographic debate carried out. In this step, the author indicates the methodological path taken which made the work possible. Most of the experienced members of the area highlighted the importance of exposing the methodological path taken by the author in order to understand the research in its entirety, thus facilitating the understanding of the discussions presented.

Excerpt (11) - For this, itsanalysis the history of the bank considering the international political economy in which it operated and its interface with economic thought. The bank is approached as a political, intellectual, and financial actor, anchored in the unique condition of lender, articulator of policies and inducer of ideas and prescriptions in matters of capitalist development, in Anglo-Saxon terms. (AAH10)

Excerpt (12) - This text intends to bring to light part of the epistolary material collected in the police cans of the Public Archive of the State of São Paulo between the years 1870 and 1915, analysing it from a double perspective: observing the epistolary practice in itself, which underlies the very personal enhancement of the “me” - in other words, “the writing of itself” (Gomes, 2004) - in a strictly institutional context (the police with a military inclination), and at the same time using the sensibilities of a “Biographical history” that works as an instrument to highlight the subjectivities of the common man, tracing the individualities of the anonymous mass, to which “the subordinate classes” are usually relegated in the corresponding studies (Loriga, 2007: 209). (AAH16)

We consider this move, Indicating methodological information, relevant, since the articles produced by that area do not have a section dedicated to the methodological aspects used to carry out the work. In the area of History, according to the experienced members participating, the academic article must at some point present the description about the sources, documents and historical remains used, as well as describe how these sources were used and which perspectives of analysis were adopted to carry out the work. We emphasize that this move is contemplated in just a paragraph or a few lines, in view of its succinct and objective character, as pointed out by the experienced members participating.

After analysing the socio-rhetorical configuration of the Introduction section of academic articles produced by the History area, we find that the area presents a rhetorical model that is close to that proposed by Swales (1990), since, in our analysis, most moves and steps described are closer to the rhetorical configuration proposed by the author. Therefore, the Introduction section is usually initiated by the historical contextualization of the theme that will be worked in the article, leading the author to situate the reader about time, space, context, among other information that help in understanding and delimiting the theme. Concomitant to the historical context, research, works, and authors related to the theme that will be developed throughout the article are presented. Finally, the author of the manuscript presents the objectives of his investigation and the methodological path that made the study feasible, pointing out all the relevant information and approaches about the sources that were used in the research.

To conclude the appreciation of the introduction section in academic articles of History area, let´s move on the theoretical and practice consideration arising from this socio-rhetorical description.

Final Considerations

Taking into account that the socio-rhetorical proposal for the study of genres aims to establish an understanding about the practices, values, purposes, methodologies and objects of study of a given disciplinary culture and its relationship with the configuration of genres, this study investigated, from the perspective of the disciplinary culture of the area of History, how the rhetorical section of Introduction of academic articles is conceived and practiced by that area.

In view of the above, we verified that this section was relevant to the area not only due to its significant recurrence, but, above all, due to the great volume of information it presents, being considered by many members of the area as the microcosm of the work, since it contemplates the historical contextualization involving the theme to be discussed, the survey of the state of the art, the clear exposition of the objectives of the manuscript, as well as the presentation of the methodological aspects of the research. It is relevant to highlight that, in other disciplinary cultures, information on methodological aspects, for example, does not always deserve to be highlighted in this section, as in the areas of Nutrition (PACHECO, 2016) and Psychology (ABREU, 2016), considering that information about choices and the methodological path taken in an investigation are detailed in the Methodology section, and not in the section that introduces the manuscript

We also emphasize that our research is relevant to the study of academic genres, since we aim to understand the academic article genre in the light of the communicative purposes that underlie its realization. We are not limited to describing the rhetorical configuration of the academic article of a specific disciplinary area, we seek, rather, to understand and explain how the practices and values of that disciplinary culture influence this rhetorical configuration. Thus, for this to become possible, we seek to build a dialogue between the information provided by the disciplinary culture in the History area with the textual data present in the copies of the genre under analysis. In other words, we performed a socio-rhetorical description of the academic article genre in the disciplinary culture of the History area.

We believe that the present study can provide subsidies to teachers and students of the disciplinary culture of the History area with regard to the comprehension of the writing of the academic article genre, considering that we have developed a systematization in relation to the way the rhetorical section of Introduction to the said genre is understood, organized and produced by the investigated disciplinary area.

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• 1
  In this research, all the participants involved signed a Free and Informed Consent Term, guaranteeing us the legal use of the data obtained through the interviews and questionnaires, according to the Research Ethics Committee - CEP of UECE – UniversidadeEstadual do Ceará, process No. 2.856.892.
• 2
  According to Pacheco, Bernardino and Freitas (2018, p. 128), we understand as a socio-rhetorical proposition the theoretical and methodological assumptions that make it possible to “explain the prototypical rhetorical configuration of the genre in the light of the beliefs, values and purposes of the social group that uses the genre”.
• 3
  This study presents part of the results of a larger research, in which all the rhetorical units of copies of the academic article in the field of History are described; however, due to the need for more room for the appreciation of those data, we limit ourselves to the Introduction section.
• 4
  It is worth mentioning that this research is linked to the Research Group on Academic Discourse, Identity and Literacy (DILETA) and to the Research Project on Discursive Practices in Academic Disciplinary Communities, with the purpose of investigating how different disciplinary cultures construct socio-rhetorically academic genres.
• 5
  We consider experienced members to be those professors / researchers who are part of the teaching staff of a Postgraduate Program in History and who present a significant flow of publications of academic articles in journals relevant to that area.
• 6
  We labeled the 30 articles that make up the corpus of analysis with the acronym AAH (Academic Article of History) followed by the cardinal numbers 1 to 30.
• 7
  We highlight, in bold, the lexical clues that helped us to identify the rhetorical steps.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  04 June 2021
• Date of issue
  2021

History

• Received
  27 June 2019
• Accepted
  17 June 2020