Corporum (Jun 2022)
Citation Practices: A Corpus-Based Analysis of Literature Reviews Sections of Ph.D.Theses in Biological Sciences
Abstract
The writers construct a coherent discourse by presenting their stance based on previous research in academic contexts. Citation forms, being an essential part of discursive practices, have always been of interest to academics and researchers to explore their structural and functional significance. Since the issue regarding these discursive aspects of citation practices has not been explored in Pakistan. The objective of the study is to differentiate the referring patterns of the theses writers at the doctoral level in Pakistan. To explore differences in discursive practices regarding citations by theses’ writers in L2 academic context. To this end, a corpus of the literature review chapters of Ph.D. theses of Biological Sciences, thirtyin number, was constructed and later on analyzed through AntConc. Swales (1990) and Thompson and Tribble’s (2001) studies were taken as the theoretical framework for the analysis and further interpretation of data. The study was delimited to integrated and non-integrated citations, including the subcategories. It was found that majority of the writers preferred to use Source as sub pattern of non-integrated citations. Similarly, the structural and semantic analysis of these forms makes up a significant part of the study, which obviously reflects the indigenous practices of the writers in putting their voices into different forms of citation.
