Two Important Issues for Academic Writers to Consider: The Inclusion of Citations and the Possibility of Publishing their Works.

           We do not generally use language to communicate with the world at large, but with individuals or group of individuals. As in life, groups are gathered into communities. One such group which is widely used to analyse written communication is discourse community, which Swales (1990) describes as a “a means of maintaining and extending a group´s knowledge” (p. 21). Being part of that group of people involves responding sufficiently well to the requirements of academic life, such as being acquainted with the importance of inclusion of citations to avoid plagiarism as a way to give credits to the other members of the community. Another aspect for the writers to be taken into account is to consider the possibility of publishing their work to share their own voice.

            Stolley and Brizee (2007) explains that gaining a familiarity of how to use proper citation is critically important, as inadvertent mistakes can lead to charges of plagiarism, which is the uncredited use (both intentional and unintentional) of somebody else's words or ideas. They also point out that “A charge of plagiarism can have severe consequences, including expulsion from a university or loss of a job, not to mention a writer's loss of credibility and professional standing.” (Stolley & Brizee, 2007). Simply acknowledging that certain material has been borrowed, and providing your audience with the information necessary to find that source, is usually enough to prevent plagiarism. As an academic literate one should be able to gain academic writing skills in order to construct and share meaning, but also be responsible enough when taking others´words as their own. Wallace (1991) states professional expertise is directly related to autonomy and self direction.  Writers should be able to develop knowledge and demonstrate it in a fair and correct way. For that reason it is important to respect and follow the American Psychological Association (APA)  which contains guidelines for every aspect of writing, especially in the social sciences, from determining authorship to constructing a table to avoiding plagiarism and constructing accurate reference citations.

            Sharing one`s knowledge is a challenge that any academic writer should consider. Thinking about the possibility of publishing a paper in order to make the voice heard is of ulmost importance. In order to do so, one should be aware of taking the audience in mind when the writing process starts so as to make the readers think, reflect and let them be active members of the discourse community they have become part of.   

                                                                   References

 Stolley, K. & Brizee, A. (2012, July, 5). Overview and contradictions. Retrieved from             http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/589/01/

Swales, J. M. (1990). Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings.    Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Wallace, M. J. (1991). Training foreign language teachers: A reflective approach.   Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.