Synthesizing from sources: Patterns of citation use in the academia and implications for the design of electronic reading and writing systems

Electronic systems which claim to support academic reading and writing practices consider only the descriptive metadata of sources as fields of interest for writers. However, both the relative lack of success of these systems and research in citation practices (Bazerman 1988, Cozzens 1989, Paul 1998) point to the direction that the motivation of academics when they use sources in their writing is primarily rhetorical. However, no detailed model for the rhetorical use of citations which could lead to the development of an electronic system utilizing rhetorical metadata has ever been developed. This dissertation reports on research which led to the development of such a rhetorical model.; Using a combination of quantitative and ethnographic methods, documents produced by sixteen participants from four disciplines (Computer Science, Chemical Engineering, Materials Science Engineering and Humanities and Social Sciences), as well as interviews on their citation practices were analyzed. The analysis of documents showed that despite small disciplinary differences, all participants used similar patterns of reference use, namely elaboration, evaluation and relation to one's own work. The results from the two types of interviews (typical source use narratives and discourse-based interviews) clearly showed that participants from all stages in their academic career identify the motivation behind using sources in their work as primarily rhetorical. A detailed analysis of these responses led to the development of a model of rhetorical citation use.; In this model, the dimension of tune as well as the categories of value, relevance and significance were identified as the basis upon which a prototype for an electronic system, kairion, aimed at supporting the rhetorical nature of academic citation practices was developed. The implications of such a system modeled for the work of individual academics in different stages of their career as well for groups of researchers are also discussed.