Writer responsibility across sections of research articles: Recycling of directional determinants by English and Iranian academics

Abstract

Motivated by the assumption that the recycling of directional determinants (DDs) (the research purposes, hypotheses, questions) across English research articles (RAs) is evidence of the writer's responsibility, this study sought to investigate any potential differences between English and Iranian researchers in the recycling of DDs throughout RA sections. To this end, 600 empirical RAs representing six soft science disciplines from 2006 to 2018 were chosen, 300 of which were authored by English L1 scholars and another 300 by Iranian researchers. The quantitative analysis revealed similarities between the two groups of scholars, with the DD recycling appearing more frequently in the Discussion section than in other sections, and in Economics than in other disciplines. In the qualitative phase, the two groups of authors' common rationales for the DD recycling, including editorial policy, RA length, English academic writing conventions, and reader guidance were determined. However, only two reasons were identified in novice Iranian researchers' responses: redundancy and English academic writing conventions. This implies that EAP writing course designers need to provide more explicit teaching materials to help novice non-English L1 researchers find out how the DD recycling in each RA section directs the writing of that section and contributes to text coherence.