The face of a scholar: selected interpersonal strategies in journal article introductions

This paper refers to face and face-work to account for the ways in which academic authors strive to satisfy the need to establish their credibility as experts in the field, to present their research as a valuable addition to the existing knowledge, and to confi rm their status as insiders – experienced members of the academic discourse community – in introductions to English-language linguistics articles. It relates the concern for face to the revised Create-a-Research-Space (CARS) model [John Swales, Genre Analysis, Cambridge: CUP, 1990] of rhetorical moves to better understand the choices the authors make in order to indicate a gap in the existing knowledge, to announce how their research intends to fill it in, and, in effect, to produce a publishable text. In particular, it examines references to other scholars and their research and explicit comments on the author’s own work and experience in 50 journal article introductions. The presented strategies are evidence of a dialogue the writing scholar undertakes with the discourse community by laying emphasis on contextualization of the research among other texts, by placing his/ her findings in relation to other fi ndings, by seeking acceptance for his/ her claims, and by attending to the social needs of others.