Academic Discourse and Genre

Nic McPhee, "2008-01-26 (Editing a paper) -19" via flickr.com, 01/28/2008
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Applied Geography is a scientific journal that covers international environmental issues and publishes the studies that are dedicated to them. The type of content that is published can range from papers to articles reviewing other case studies.

What types of genres?

• This issue of Applied Geography is composed of primarily papers discussing the concept of spacial data and it's implications for environmental policy. However, the first piece of content in the journal is an article that is essentially a study condensed into a few paragraphs, like it is giving more of an abstract than a full case study.

What are they called?

• The majority of the content are published research papers on case studies, which are essentially papers that explain an issue that a researcher or a group of researchers began to study. It also has the processes that they underwent/ did in order to learn more and come up with a viable solution to the issue. It also has a considerable length in comparison to articles, sometimes up to a hundred and sixty pages. The other article that was published is more of a review or abstract of a case study that either needs to be performed or has already been published. It is significantly lacking in data or analysis, and is quite a bit shorter, about two or three solid paragraphs.

How are they defined?

• I feel that a research paper could be defined as a presentation of a case study on a specific issue that consists of discussion, data, and analysis. These are primarily for fellow researchers and professors who have the ability to understand the content to the fullest degree. The review article, on the other hand, is more of an abstract of a larger case study that could have been published previously. It is more to inform and grab the interest of people who are not necessarily involved in academia, and who could not have a complete understanding of a full case study.