Scholarly Research Methods

Citation Analysis

What is Citation Analysis? Citation Analysis refers to examining how citations function in a particular text or discourse community to establish credibility/authority and appeals to ethos, pathos, and logos. It involves tracking how often and where specific works, authors, or ideas are cited to assess their influence in scholarly conversations. Writers, critics, and institutions engage ...

Genre Analysis

What Is Genre? Genre may refer to a type of writing, such as memos or research proposal. Genres are socially defined: they reflect the discourse conventions of a discourse community. For instance, academics have a particular style of writing — as do professional writers. Put simply, a “genre” arises when people share an understanding of ...

Critical Race Theory – Beyond Myths: What the Debate Misses

What Is Critical Race Theory? “Critical Race Theory” (CRT), which is defined by Kimberlé Crenshaw’s intersectionality, is — at its most basic explication — a lens, a perspective, through which folks, traditionally legal and sociological scholars, examine race matters and power dynamics. Related Concepts Audience Awareness; Interpretation, Interpretative Frameworks; Literacy; Perspective; Research; Rhetorical Analysis; Rhetorical ...

Post-Colonial Criticism

Post-Colonial Criticism is a research method, a type of textual research, that literary critics use to interpret texts a genre of discourse employed by literary critics used to share the results of their interpretive efforts. Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin, authors of The Empire Writes Back (1989), are three key figures who significantly ...

Structuralist Criticism

Structuralist Criticism is Key Terms: Dialectic; Hermeneutics; Semiotics; Text & Intertextuality; Tone Key Terms Definitions Sign the basic unit of Saussurean linguistics, a physical entity consisting of a signifier (an acoustic image) and a signified (a concept); a sign is said to be arbitrary because a logical relationship between the signifier and signified does not ...

Russian Formalism and New Criticism

Russian Formalism and New Criticism is a research method, a type of textual research, that literary critics use to interpret texts a genre of discourse employed by literary critics used to share the results of their interpretive efforts. Key Terms Definitions Form a genre or literary type (the lyric form, the drama form); the principle ...

Reader-Response Criticism

Reader-Response Criticism is a research method, a type of textual research, that literary critics use to interpret texts a genre of discourse employed by literary critics used to share the results of their interpretive efforts. Key Terms: Dialectic; Hermeneutics; Semiotics; Text & Intertextuality; Tone Key Terms Definitions Incomplete Text a text that remains incomplete because ...

Psychological Criticism

Psychological Criticism is a research method, a type of textual research, that literary critics use to interpret texts a genre of discourse employed by literary critics used to share the results of their interpretive efforts. Psychological criticism, or psychoanalytic criticism, took off in popularity in the early decades of the twentieth century. Sigmund Freud, who ...

Post-Structuralist, Deconstructive Criticism

Post-Structuralist, Deconstructive Criticism is Key Terms: Dialectic; Hermeneutics; Semiotics; Text & Intertextuality; Tone Key Terms Definitions Binary Opposition a pair of related terms or concepts that appear to be opposite in meaning (e.g. light/dark, good/evil, masculine/feminine) Privileged Term the preferred term of a binary opposition; the term’s connotation usually creates its privileged status Suppressed Term ...