Seminar papers:

Diferent purposes,
diferent features?
Christopher HENSON & Fernando SANZ LÁZARO
1 / 13
Overview

1)Introduction
2)Methods
3)Results
1)Structural features
2)Textual features
4)Conclusion

2 / 13
1. Introduction


Do seminar essays difer depending on their
academic feld?

If they do, to what extent?

3 / 13
2. Methods


The role of the gatekeepers among TV-journalists of the
digital-native generation (2012)
 Institut für Publizistik
 German
 Social media/Journalism


Dialectic between reality and illusion in Don Quixote's
dialogues: a Systemic-Functional approach (2016)
 Institut für Romanistik
 Spanish
 Literature/Linguistics

4 / 13
2. Methods


Structure of a scientifc paper (Englander 2014: 39-54):
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Methods
 Results
 Discussion


Textual features of academic register (28)
 High lexical density
 Highly nominal style
 Impersonal constructions
 Hedging (Ventola 1997: 167)

5 / 13
3. Results: Structure

Publizistik– Social Media/Journalism

61,03 % Introduction
Method
Results
Discussion

31,13 %

3,27 % 4,57 %

6 / 13
3. Results: Structure

Romanistik– Literature/Linguistics

88,29 %

Introduction
Method
Results
Discussion

3,14 % 4,13 % 4,45 %

7 / 13
 3. Results: Structure

306
Introducton
296

4084
Method
319
Publizistik
Romanistik
2083
Results
6331

219
Discussion
219
8 / 13
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000
3. Results: Textual features

Publizistik

Lexical density High

Nominalisation High

Style Impersonal

Statements Qualifed

“Das Auswählen/Kuratieren der Nachrichten oder die Schwerpunktsetzung

könnte aber wichtiger werden, da die Nachrichten nun auch ohne
Journalisten zu den Rezipienten kommen können.“
[Choosing/curating the news or the placement of emphasis could,
nevertheless, become more important as the news can also reach the
recipients without journalists.] 9 / 13
3. Results: Textual features

Romanistik

Lexical density High

Nominalisation High

Style Impersonal

Statements Qualifed

“Asimismo, la alusión al amo como un tercero en el sexto verso apunta a que

ambas monturas ocupan el mismo peldaño del escalafón social, esto es, el
de los hidalgos sirviendo a un noble de rango superior.“
[Furthermore, the allusion to the master as a third party in the sixth verse
points to both mounts as occupying the same rung on the social ladder, e.g.,
that of members of the lower nobility attending an aristocrat of higher rank.]
10 / 13
3. Results: Textual features

Publizistik Romanistik
Lexically dense
✔ ✔
High nominalisation
✔ ✔
Impersonal style
✔ ✔
Probability
assessments ✔ ✔
11 / 13
Conclusion


The texts have vast diferences in focusing on
Method or Results

Diferences a result of the varying requirements
for media/science and literature papers

Both texts share common linguistic features
regardless of their diferent felds and languages

12 / 13
References


Englander, Karen. 2014. Writing and publishing science research papers in
English. A global perspective. New York, NY: Springer.

Ventola, Eija. 1997. “Modalization: Probability — an exploration into its role
in academic writing“. Culture and styles of academic discourse (ed. Anna
Duszak). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 157-180.

Cofn, Caroline; Curry, Mary Jane; Goodman, Sharon; Hewings, Ann; Lillis,
Theresa M.; Swann, Joan. 2003. Teaching academic writing. A toolkit for higher
education. London: Routledge.

13 / 13