Hyland and Salager-Meyer [18] list the basic functions of academic writing: first, to persuade the academic community and construct knowledge; second, to legitimize the authority of science; and, third, to support the established hierarchical system, which accords the writers recognition and reward through publication. It is difficult for a re-searcher to pursue his career successfully unless he publishes. Publications ensure his promotion, tenure or grants to finance his research. Scientists who publish frequently are also likely to achieve important positions within their field. Scientific texts, howev-er, do not only describe reality or introduce new knowledge but also provide colloquy between the members of a community and an important tool for disciplinary knowledge construction. To become prolific publishers, academic writers must master the writing practices of their discipline. Persuading the readers, i.e., the other members of their dis-ciplinary community, involves making rhetorical choices appropriate to the context.
In today’s academia, English is the language of scientific writing for publication. It has been estimated that 80 % of the world’s scientific writing is in English [21], or that two thirds of scientific papers are published in English [56]. In 1997, John Swales in his article “English as Tyrannosaurus rex” called English “a powerful carnivore gobbling up the other denizens of the academic linguistic grazing grounds” [57, p. 374]. In recent years, attitudes toward the use of English in academic publishing have varied among the researchers in the field of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and its branch, English for Research Publication Purposes (ERRP). Various empirical studies have examined the international publication practices of multilingual researchers, i.e., of those who are not native speakers of English. Some [13, 59, 60] have presented English as a valuable lingua franca, which enables knowledge dissemination, international communication and scientific co-operation. Others [1-3, 10-15, 60-64] have focused on the several problems and challenges of non-native academics, who publish their research in Eng-lish-medium, peer-reviewed journals.
The challenges of non-native scientists are not limited to linguistic difficulties. Different cultures, disciplinary practices and rhetorical styles affect the features of academic writ-ing [66]. The concept of disciplinary culture refers to the research paradigms, values and writing conventions that influence language use and writing [18]. Research meth-odologists apply Thomas Kuhn’s [67] concept of paradigm to refer to the ontological and epistemological beliefs that underlie any approaches to inquiry. The two basic para-digms are quantitative and qualitative research. Because research parapara-digms influence academic discourse and its rhetorical conventions, there are differences in the rhetorical
conventions in which empirical research is presented. Academic disciplines are tradi-tionally defined as either “hard” or “soft” based on the type of knowledge they produce.
Bernstein [68] distinguishes between disciplines with “hierarchical knowledge struc-tures” and “horizontal knowledge strucstruc-tures”. According to this distinction, hard disci-plines with hierarchical knowledge structures consider scientific knowledge cumulative, value-free and based on empirical experiments. They also postulate explicit, universally shared criteria for the verification of fresh research findings. The soft disciplines with horizontal knowledge structures regard knowledge as reiterative, contextual and based on argumentation rather than verification according to a commonly approved set of cri-teria.
The studies of Swales [22], Li [69] and Li and Flowerdew [70] have shown that it may rather be stylistic differences than linguistic problems that affect the quality of multilin-gual writers’ texts. Swales [22] also points out that the NNS writer’s failure to describe a gap in the previous research is often more of a cultural issue than a linguistic problem.
Tardy [71] discusses the difficulties of multilingual students in expressing stance, when they are presenting their knowledge claims. Often the NNS writer’s reluctance to per-suade his readers is due to cultural values and literary practices. He may, e.g., not feel comfortable about making “overt attempts to boast”, which is the standard way to per-suade in English-based disciplinary communities. Mauranen [35] compared texts writ-ten by Anglo-American and Finnish academics. The former favored “marketing-type rhetorical strategies”, whereas the latter appeared as “the poetic type”. While the native writers of English guided their reader explicitly, the Finnish scholars were implicit and laconic, concentrating on the propositional content of the text. The scope of the present study does not include a thorough discussion of cultural differences in academic rheto-ric, which could, no doubt, offer interesting examples of linguistic transference.
In Finnish universities, particularly in natural sciences and engineering, publishing in English is fairly normative. For example, in the academic year 2011-2012, only 10 % of publications were national, and a mere 4 % of those were published in Finnish [72].
Researchers in natural sciences generally produce co-authored articles, which are typi-cally published in conference proceedings. They appear in a standardized format, which follows codified writing conventions and includes its own symbol systems. When scien-tists write up their research, they are expected to follow certain commonly approved, discipline-based practices and rhetorical style. To succeed, writers must develop a “dis-ciplinary awareness” [37]. As members of a dis“dis-ciplinary community, they construct and interpret academic arguments according to the appropriate conventions in their own field. Mauranen [35] refers to Finnish economists, but the following argument could also apply to Finnish researchers in Materials Science:
There is no reason in principle . . . for Finnish economists to try to change their rhetorical strategies. However, in practice, the Finnish culture is a minority cul-ture, and the Anglo-American culture dominates in the academic world. Aware
ness of these intercultural rhetorical differences is therefore particularly useful for Finnish writers, if they want to make informed choices about whether and when to conform to the expectations of the target audience. [35, p.18]
Nowadays, the native versus non-native dichotomy is becoming a secondary issue, and successful academic publishing is seen to follow from the scientists’ expertise and their academic seniority [23, 73]. Consequently, Swales [23] suggests rejecting the traditional distinction between NS and NNS writers. Instead, he prefers differentiating between experienced senior and less experienced junior researchers. In many cases, the non-native expert senior academic is a fluent writer, who masters the “rhetorical patterns [that] are inextricably related to the purposes of [his] discipline” [37, p.56]. However, in order to be a productive publisher, he must become academically literate in a foreign language. Several studies [2, 22, 64, 65] on multilingual academics participating in global academic communities through article and research publication have emphasized the need for instructional support for these writers. Explicit or implicit teaching of aca-demic writing skills ought to be based on disciplinary enculturation. Writing courses traditionally focus on teaching scientists to present their research in coherent and reader-friendly English. Instructors could also aim at developing non-native scientists’ aware-ness of the characteristic disciplinary practices and genres of academic writing.