Academic Writing: Writing and Reading in the Disciplines

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In Academic Writing: Writing and Reading in the Disciplines (2002), Janet Giltrow thoroughly examines writing genres, and presents the idea that genre is established through the combination of form and situation. Giltrow specifically discusses the genre theory, which explains how different genres of writing can possess different writing styles. She also refers to how the situation of a literary work can be evoked by the form in which the work has been written. Giltrow states that in the academic writing genre, this situation is achieved through the use of certain outstanding features that work to demonstrate knowledge making practices. Within the academic writing genre, as Giltrow explains, there are many separate disciplines that use a variety of methods to demonstrate these knowledge making practices. Giltrow examines an important aspect, which is found in all the disciplines within the academic writing genre, the establishment of a knowledge deficit. She explains that the knowledge deficit is created through the use of a combination of outstanding features found in academic writing. Among the key outstanding features used to establish the knowledge deficit; one that Giltrow refers to is modalized statements. Giltrow acknowledges variation in the application of modalized statements among the disciplines within the academic writing genre, although Giltrow acknowledges this variation, a thorough, detailed, and direct comparison between specific disciplines is not made. Using the knowledge of modalized statements gathered from Giltrow, this paper intends to perform a detailed examination and comparison between three separate disciplines within academic writing. I will analyze scholarly work from Neuroscience, Social Science and Composition in order to examine how modalized statements are employed, and how they are used to establish a knowledge deficit. The

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