“that's beyond the scope of this paper”: analyzing the functions of a familiar phrase in...
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“That's Beyond the Scope ofThis Paper”: Analyzing theFunctions of a Familiar Phrasein Academic WritingTeresa Thonney aa Columbia Basin CollegePublished online: 08 Jun 2012.
To cite this article: Teresa Thonney (2012): “That's Beyond the Scope of This Paper”:Analyzing the Functions of a Familiar Phrase in Academic Writing, Rhetoric Review,31:3, 309-326
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Rhetoric Review, Vol. 31, No. 3, 309–326, 2012Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLCISSN: 0735-0198 print / 1532-7981 onlineDOI: 10.1080/07350198.2012.684002
TERESA THONNEY
Columbia Basin College
“That’s Beyond the Scope of This Paper”:Analyzing the Functions of a Familiar
Phrase in Academic Writing
A single phrase––“beyond the scope of this paper”––is used by academic writersto accomplish various communicative moves in research articles. Writers use thephrase (1) to establish a territory and occupy a niche; (2) to introduce previousresearch into the conversation; (3) to recommend further research; and (4) toacknowledge limitations. An examination of its uses in scholarly articles from fivedisciplines suggests that “beyond the scope of this paper” is a useful phrase tointroduce to students still learning how to claim the value and establish the focusof their academic writing.
A growing body of corpus-based research has demonstrated the prevalence ofrecurring phrases—sometimes called “lexical bundles”—in academic writing.1
In fact, stock phrases (such as “in order to,” “the fact that,” “in the case of,” and“as a result of”) account for an estimated twenty percent of the words in academicprose (Biber et al. 995). Using these familiar phrases is one way scholars establishan academic voice. But many students have had little experience using academicphrasing; in fact, Viviana Cortes found that students rarely use academic lexi-cal bundles in the way expert writers do (420–21). She and others (for example,Conrad; Bowker and Pearson) have argued that examining the use of these phrasescan help demystify some aspects of academic writing for novices.
This essay examines how a single familiar phrase—“beyond the scope ofthis paper” (or “article” or “study”)—is used in academic writing. For a phrasethat by its nature limits authors, its rhetorical purposes are surprisingly diverse.Specifically, writers use “beyond the scope” to accomplish four rhetorical moves:(1) to establish a territory and occupy a niche; (2) to limit the review of previous
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research; (3) to recommend further research; and (4) to acknowledge limitations.Together, the examples quoted in this essay demonstrate ways scholars haveused—and students can use—the phrase in their writing.
Procedure and Corpus
To learn how academic writers use “beyond the scope,” I searched for thephrase in a sample of fifteen hundred journal articles, representing five areas ofstudy: biology, business management, composition or rhetoric, engineering, andsociology. The articles are from fifteen well-established, peer-reviewed journals.I considered a journal to be well established if it has been in publication for morethan ten years and if it is abstracted and indexed in several databases.
For each journal in the sample, I conducted a computer search of one hun-dred articles, beginning with articles in the most recent issue available to me andcontinuing in reverse chronological order until I reached one hundred articles.Because publication frequency and number of articles per issue vary, the periodsearched for each journal ranges from one to five years. Table 1 lists the journalsin the sample, the year each journal was established, and the volumes searchedfor this study.
Table 1: Journals Representing Each Subject Area
Journals Year Began Volumes Searched
BiologyConservation Biology 1987 Feb 2010 – Aug 2010Human Biology 1929 Feb 2009 – Aug 2011Journal of Experimental Biology 1923 Dec 2010 – Feb 2011
Business ManagementAcademy of Management Review 1976 July 2008 – July 2011Journal of Economics & Management Strategy 1992 Spring 2009 – Fall 2011Journal of Small Business Management 1963 Jan 2008 – July 2011
Composition/RhetoricCollege Composition and Communication 1950 Sept 2008 – June 2010ELT Journal 1946 July 2008 – July 2011Rhetoric Review 1982 Apr 2005 – Jan 2010
EngineeringJournal of Engineering Design 1990 Oct 2007 – Aug 2010Journal of Structural Engineering 1983 Jan 2010 – Aug 2010Microsystem Technologies 1994 July 2007 – July 2011
SociologyCriminology 1963 Nov 2008 – Aug 2011The Sociological Review 1908 Oct 2009 – June 2011Sociology 1967 Dec 2009 – Aug 2011
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I analyzed feature articles, research articles, and literature review essays only.I excluded articles that did not present research findings—book reviews, forums,interviews, addresses, symposiums, teaching notes, letters, introductions to issues,and the like.
Because I was concerned only with how writers use “beyond the scope” tolimit their own work, I excluded the few instances where the phrase referredto the work of another person. Because I was concerned only with uses of thephrase “beyond the scope,” I did not consider synonymous phrases (for example,such and such “will not be covered here”). After studying each occurrence of thephrase, I developed a coding scheme and categorized each instance according tothe purpose the phrase helped the writer accomplish.
General Findings
Writers in all fifteen journals in the sample use the phrase “beyond the scope.”In all, 125 instances of the phrase appear in the fifteen hundred articles searched.In nine articles the phrase appears twice, and in two articles the phrase appearsthree times; thus, the total number of occurrences (125) exceeds the number ofarticles in which the phrase appears (112). Thirty-four of the articles have singleauthors; thirty-five have two authors; and forty-three have three or more authors.
The phrase appears most often in the Academy of Management Review, whichhas more than twice as many instances as any other journal in the sample. Table 2
Table 2: Number of Occurrences of “Beyond the Scope” by Journal
Journal TitleNumber of Occurrences
in 100 ArticlesArticle Word
Limit
Conservation Biology 3 3000–6000Human Biology 9 (in 8 articles) none givenJournal of Experimental Biology 4 8000Academy of Management Review 27 (in 21 articles) 10,000Journal of Economics & Management Strategy 13 (in 11 articles) none givenJournal of Small Business Management 7 6000College Composition and Communication 6 4000–7000ELT Journal 5 3500Rhetoric Review 5 7500Journal of Engineering Design 15 (in 11 articles) none givenJournal of Structural Engineering 6 10,000Microsystem Technologies 5 none givenCriminology 10 none givenThe Sociological Review 4 8000Sociology 6 8000
Total Number of Occurrences 125
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presents the number of times “beyond the scope” appears within one hundredarticles for each journal in the sample and each journal’s word limit for featurearticles (when specified by the journal).
There was no correlation between the appearance of the phrase and whetheran article was singly or jointly authored. Surprisingly, the phrase was no morelikely to appear in short articles (where authors might need to limit their scope)than in long articles. In fact, the Academy of Management Review, which hasmore occurrences of the phrase (twenty-seven) than any other journal, featuresthe longest articles in the corpus.
Table 3 compares the frequency of “beyond the scope” in the five subjectareas represented in the sample.
Table 3: Number of Occurrences of “Beyond the Scope” by Discipline
Discipline Number of Occurrences in 300 Articles
Business Management 47 (37.6% of all occurrences in the corpus)Engineering 26 (20.8% of all 125 occurrences)Sociology 20 (16% of all 125 occurrences)Biology 16 (12.8% of all 125 occurrences)Composition/Rhetoric 16 (12.8% of all 125 occurrences)
Total Number of Occurrences: 125
A chi-square test was conducted to determine if the difference in frequencyof “beyond the scope” among disciplines is significant. The results (chi-squared[4, N = 1500] = 29.324, p < .00000672) showed the differences are highly sig-nificant. This difference was attributable to the high number of occurrences ofthe phrase in the Academy of Management Review (twenty-seven instances inthat journal alone). The Academy of Management Review publishes only theory-driven articles, which are often broader in scope than the empirical studies,data-driven articles, and scholarship of teaching articles included in the otherjournals. Once results for this journal are removed from the sample, the ratioof business management writers using the phrase is similar to that of the otherdisciplines studied.
A second chi-square test was conducted for engineering, sociology, biology,and composition/rhetoric articles only. The results (chi-squared [3, n = 1200] =3.675, p = NS) showed no significant difference in the frequency of the phrasefor these four disciplines.
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Collocates
Table 4 includes the most common collocates appearing after the phrase“beyond the scope” and their frequency in each subject area. “Of this paper” (or“of the present paper”) is the most common collocate (thirty-nine percent of alloccurrences), appearing in the writing of all five disciplines.
Table 4: Collocates Appearing after “Beyond the Scope”
Number of Instances (out of 125)
Collocate Biology Bus Mgt Engin Socio Comp/Rhet Total
of this paper 10 24 13 1 1 49 (39%)of this article 0 6 4 13 7 30 (24%)of this study 0 4 3 2 1 10 (8%)of this research 0 1 2 2 1 6 (9%)of the present work 0 1 2 1 1 5 (4%)of the present investigation 0 3 1 0 0 4 (3%)of this project 2 0 0 0 1 3 (2.5%)of our theory 0 3 0 0 0 3 (2.5%)of this analysis 1 1 0 0 0 2 (1.5%)of this essay 0 0 0 0 2 2 (1.5%)other collocates 3 4 1 1 2 11 (9%)
“Beyond the scope of this paper” is most common in biology, business man-agement, and engineering journals, reflecting the tendency of writers in scienceand business disciplines to refer to their publications as “papers,” rather than asarticles or essays. In sociology and composition/rhetoric journals, conversely, themost common collocate is “of this article.”
Rhetorical Functions of “Beyond the Scope”
A number of scholars have analyzed communicative moves found in aca-demic research articles. John Swales, for example, has described the three-move structure of most introductions: establishing a territory, establishing aniche, and occupying the niche. Swales further divides this structure, calledthe Create-A-Research-Space (CARS) model, into steps a writer might take toaccomplish each move. The first move (establishing a territory), for instance, issubdivided into three steps:
Establishing a territory: Step 1 Claiming centrality [importance] and/orStep 2 Making topic generalization(s) and/orStep 3 Reviewing items of previous research. (141)
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Swales and others (including Dudley-Evans; Berkenkotter and Huckin; Holmes;Peacock) have also proposed move sequences for discussion sections. Movesfound in most models include stating the result, referring (again) to previousresearch, explaining the results and their significance, recognizing limitations, andrecommending future research.
Using steps from these move sequences to create my coding scheme, I foundthat writers use “beyond the scope” to accomplish four communicative moves inresearch articles: (1) to establish a territory and occupy a niche; (2) to introduceand limit reviews of previous research; (3) to recommend further research; and(4) to acknowledge limitations. Table 5 includes the total number of occurrencesof each move, the number of occurrences of each move within each discipline,and the relative frequency of each move within the corpus overall and within eachdiscipline.
These moves are described and illustrated in the remainder of this essay.
Table 5: Rhetorical Functions of “Beyond the Scope” (125 Occurences in 1,500 articles)
Rhetorical Function Number of Instances (out of 125)
Establish Territory 66 (52.8% of total occurrences)Biology 7 (44% of biology examples)Business Management 22 (47% of business management examples)Composition/Rhetoric 7 (44% of writing/rhetoric examples)Engineering 19 (73% of engineering examples)Sociology 11 (55% of sociology examples)
Limit Reviews 25 (20% of total occurrences)Biology 3 (19% of biology examples)Business Management 12 (26% of business management examples)Composition/Rhetoric 3 (19% of writing/rhetoric examples)Engineering 6 (23% of engineering examples)Sociology 3 (15% of sociology examples)
Call for Research 19 (15.2% of total occurrences)Biology 3 (19% of biology examples)Business Management 9 (19% of business management examples)Composition/Rhetoric 5 (31% of writing/rhetoric examples)Engineering 0 (0% of engineering examples)Sociology 2 (10% of sociology examples)
Acknowledge Limitations 13 (10.4% of total occurrences)Biology 3 (19% of biology examples)Business Management 4 (9% of business management examples)Composition/Rhetoric 1 (6% of writing/rhetoric examples)Engineering 1 (4% of engineering examples)Sociology 4 (20% of sociology examples)
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Establishing a Territory and Occupying a Niche
According to Swales’s Create-A-Research-Space model, writers useresearch-article introductions to establish a territory, establish a niche, and occupythe niche. Although the order of these moves can vary, most writers announce thegeneral research area (the “territory”) before the specific statement of purpose(“occupying the niche”) (Swales 147). One of the more common functions thatthe phrase “beyond the scope” serves is to mark the transition from general ter-ritory to specific niche, as illustrated in the following passage from a RhetoricReview article:
1. This “secret life” [of rural African-American women] is validatednot only in oral traditions passed down through generations but also inthe transmission of material cultural goods, such as quilts, samplers,and recipes, which represent alternative rhetorical options to cultur-ally sanctioned forms of memorialization. It is beyond the scope ofthis essay to explore all these options; here I explore how recipes andassociated text validate African-American women’s self-image andresist dominant cultural memory in three cookbooks produced by theNational Council of Negro Women (NCNW) in the 1990s. . . . (Eves280, my emphasis)
In passage one, the writer begins broadly with a list of ways the lives of ruralAfrican-American women are validated (for example, oral traditions, quilts, sam-plers), narrows to a specific “niche” within this broad territory (that is, recipes),and finally occupies her particular corner of that niche (three cookbooks producedby the NCNW). As seen in this passage, “beyond the scope” can serve as an aid towriters as they create a research space for themselves. Often the phrase (italicizedin the remaining examples) limits a discussion to one or two aspects of a broadsubject, as in passage two, from sociology:
2. It is clear that the level and detail of description required to describethe [television] show are far beyond the scope of this article. Instead,in what remains, we have selected one character to focus on in greaterdetail so as to provide one more detailed illustrative example ofthe sociological content in The Wire. (Penfold-Mounce, Beer, andBurrows 160)
In this passage “beyond the scope” segues into an announcement of the essay’sspecific topic (“occupying the niche” in Swales’s model). More often the phrase
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is used to announce what will be excluded from discussion, as seen in passagethree from biology:
3. Although most initiatives also address topics of soil, water,and waste management, which relate indirectly to the impacts ofbioenergy production on biodiversity or environmentally sensitiveareas, these topics are beyond the scope of this analysis. (Henningberget al. 418)
Rather than using “beyond the scope” to announce what specific topics will orwill not be discussed, some writers use the phrase to announce they will givea broad topic only brief or cursory attention, as illustrated in this passage fromengineering:
4. While a thorough injection mold design guide is beyond the scopeof this paper, our intent is to provide some insight into the injec-tion molding design process for the microfluidic community as theyapproach designing their own molds. (Geiger et al. 1537)
These passages illustrate a principle of genre theory: A writer’s purpose “governschoice at the grammatical and lexical levels” (Dudley-Evans 220). Accordingly,throughout the sample, when “beyond the scope” marks the transition from gen-eral subject to specific focus, lexical choices underscore that communicativepurpose. For example, in passage four, “some insight into the injectionmolding design process” contrasts with a “thorough injection mold designguide.”
Many writers use “beyond the scope” early to preview what will and willnot be covered in an article, but nine writers who use the phrase to estab-lish territory do so at the end to review what was and was not discussed.For example, passage five is from the conclusion of a business managementarticle:
5. Although it was beyond the scope of this paper to provide acomprehensive alternative institutional model for studying MNCs[multinational corporations], we presented our views of how broaden-ing the theoretical lens could benefit international management work.(Kostova, Roth, and Dacin 1002)
The most common purpose of “beyond the scope” throughout the sample isto identify what will and will not be discussed. This is true for every discipline
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studied. But the disproportionate frequency of this move within the engineeringpassages (nineteen of twenty-six, or seventy-three percent) warrants special con-sideration. Among engineers, “beyond the scope” is commonly used to limit thedescription of methods. Here are examples:
• Detailed study of bonding process is beyond the scope and purpose of thepresent research. (Pal and Sato 1170)
• Detailed theoretical modeling and study of these devices is beyond thescope of this paper. (Datta et al. 465)
• Development of methodologies to generate specification ranges is beyondthe scope of this paper. (Ye and Gershenson 577)
• Criteria for model identification as well as the estimation methods arebeyond the scope of this brief introduction. (Guenov 83)
In these examples “beyond the scope” is used to restrict descriptions of processes,modeling, methodologies, and estimation criteria.
“Beyond the scope” is a particularly useful phrase for engineers becausetheir research commonly involves taking into account multiple scenarios andvariables—more than can be addressed in any single article. Consider passagesix. After identifying the focus of his analysis, the writer mentions what types ofanalyses won’t be discussed:
6. The other multi-disciplinary analyses required to identify the opti-mal durability choice include: (1) market analyses and forecast ofsystem expected utility or revenue model u(t), (2) technical analysisand estimate of the cost to operate and maintain the system cOM(t),and (3) financial analysis of the investment risk in the system, usuallyreferred to as beta, which in turn is used to derive the appropriate risk-adjusted discount rate for the investment, r. Each of these analysesraises an interesting set of questions and challenges. Their treatmentis beyond the scope of this work. (Saleh 62)
Because thorough reporting of modeling and testing designs is often impossible,engineers must limit the scenarios they will consider.
In eighteen engineering passages, “beyond the scope” is used to limit thedescription of processes and methods, reflecting the many variables that mustbe considered when doing research in this discipline. But writers in all fifteenjournals of the sample use “beyond the scope” to establish their focus—by namingor excluding research topics, by narrowing the research focus, or by limiting the
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description of research processes. Used in this way, the phrase helps writers cleara space for and justify the value of their research.
Limiting Literature Reviews
In the previous examples, writers use “beyond the scope” to establish theparameters of their own research. A similar function of the phrase is to estab-lish the parameters of the literature review. Specifically, writers use the phrase toeither explain why previous research is mentioned or establish the extent to whichprevious research will be reviewed.
Literature reviews can serve various functions in research articles. In intro-ductions they are used to establish territory (move one in Swales’s model); toindicate a gap in the research (a step within move two of Swales’s model); andto announce the goal of the present study (a step within move three) (Samraj 7).In discussion sections writers use literature reviews to compare the results of thepresent research to past research and to call for further research (Dudley-Evans225). Similarly, when “beyond the scope” is used to introduce previous litera-ture, there is variety in the functions and location of the move. In some cases,the phrase introduces literature that addresses what is beyond the scope of theauthor’s research, as illustrated in this passage from biology:
7. While quantifying the attention-altering or alerting function ofscent was beyond the scope of our experiment, van Swinderen andGreenspan (van Swinderen and Greenspan, 2003) have shown thatin Drosophila melanogaster, attention-like increases in brain activity. . . occur when flies are presented with a conditioned visual stimulus.(Leonard, Dornhaus, and Papaj 120)
In other cases, the phrase limits the depth of the literature review, as in passageeight (from business management):
8. A large and growing literature examines the role of VCs [venturecapitalists] in financing, developing, and monitoring young start-upfirms, activities directed toward taking promising firms public or sell-ing them in the M&A [mergers and acquisitions] market. Althougha comprehensive review of this literature is beyond the scope ofthis paper, we provide a brief review of some prominent themes.(Agrawal and Cooper 1121)
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In passage nine (from a composition journal), the phrase limits the breadth of thereview to those sources most relevant to the discussion:
9. We see much evidence of the implicit values and practices of prag-matism in composition and rhetoric from scholars who insist thatour theories and teaching practices mutually reinforce one another.Discussing all such published works goes beyond the scope of thisproject; the scholarship we outline briefly here represents only a fewtexts that explicitly consider composition and rhetoric as pragmatism.(Ryan and Graban W295)
As in earlier examples, the communicative move is signaled lexically. Inclusivelanguage (such as all) and restrictive language (such as a few) appears on eitherside of the phrase:
• a comprehensive review of this literature vs. a brief review of someprominent themes
• all such published works vs. only a few texts
In all, “beyond the scope” is used to introduce previous research in twenty-five articles in the sample (twenty percent of all occurrences)—sometimes earlyin the article (when reviewing literature in the introduction) and sometimes late(when recommending sources that address matters the writer lacked time or spaceto address).
Recommending Future Research
When writers review previous research, they look to the past. When they lookto the future, “beyond the scope” is used to accomplish another standard move:the call for further research.
Some writers use “beyond the scope” to call for a continuation of theirown research, as in the following passage from sociology, discussing historicalexamples of “reverse discourses”:
10. Billy Kersands’ blackface song Old Aunt Jemima, whose protag-onist subsequently became the stereotyped face of a flour company,was originally intended to work against stereotype, not create one. . . .Billy Johnson’s song No Coons Allowed followed a favoured style ofblack songwriters who “addressed African American audiences withthe verse and white publishers and audiences with the chorus.” . . .
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These performers both critiqued and conformed to stereotypes andthus appealed to white and black audiences. Later 20th-century blackand Jewish performance would continue this. While beyond the scopeof this article, Lenny Bruce’s reversal of “nigger”, Woody Allenand Rodney Dangerfield on anti-Semitism, Mel Brooks on fascismand racism, and Flip Wilson’s carnivalization of race stereotypes, alldeserve analysis as reverse discourse. (Weaver 36)
Others use “beyond the scope” to call for an expansion of their research—indifferent settings or with different subjects. The following passage is from acomposition journal:
11. We call for classroom research that compares diverse and contrast-ing demonstrations of teacher authority by male and female teachersof writing in a variety of settings. In our view, studies of this sort,attending to contexts and dynamics beyond the scope of our ownresearch, represent the most promising directions for future research.(VanderStaay et al. W280)
Still others—such as the biology writer quoted below—use “beyond the scope”to call for research with a different focus entirely:
12. Increased stress . . . response in offspring raised by low investingmothers could be a part of patrigene strategy to increase mater-nal investment . . . , which in turn escalates intrapersonal conflicts.Intrapersonal reciprocity could subsequently be favored by naturalselection. . . . Both of these possibilities are beyond the scope of thispaper but deserve theoretical consideration. (Brown 229)
In the sample there are nineteen instances of “beyond the scope” used to rec-ommend research (fifteen percent of all occurrences). In many of these instances,the writers’ lexical choices emphasize the exhortative function (that is, to getothers to answer the call for research). For example:
• [These examples] all deserve analysis as reverse discourse.• Studies of this sort . . . represent . . . promising directions for future
research.• These possibilities . . . deserve theoretical consideration.
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By couching the call for research in language suggesting its worth (for example,deserve, promising), the writers underscore the merits of their own as well asfuture studies.
Acknowledging Limitations
Another function of “beyond the scope”—appearing in both introductionsand conclusions—is to acknowledge limitations. This move occurs when “writersintroduce one or more caveats about the findings, the methodology followed orthe claims made” (Dudley-Evans 225).
Numerous writers in the sample use “beyond the scope” to recognize limita-tions of their research methods or findings, as seen in the following passage frombiology:
13. To understand the determinants of mortality, it is essential to splitthe age span and undertake several separate studies. In this paperwe aim to study the oldest ages for which rigorous analyses can beundertaken, although it is necessary to avoid the oldest old. Theyare presumably highly selected from the origin cohort . . . , and thehigh death rates at advanced ages require model specifications thatare beyond the scope of this paper. (Saarela and Finnäs 3)
In two instances authors use the phrase to call for research that addresses thelimitations of their own methods, as in this passage from engineering:
14. To achieve statistical significance a much larger number of tapeswith a wide variety of properties would need to be tested, whichis beyond the scope of this study. These results, therefore, are sim-ply observations meant to provide a starting port for possible futurestudies. (Petrek and Bhushan 435)
In passages fifteen and sixteen (from business management and sociology),the writers do more than acknowledge limitations; they explain or justifythem:
15. Though insightful, the findings are hampered by several limita-tions. The research design relies on firms that survived the economicrecession; thus, there is an inherent survivor bias. The study doesprovide, however, for a deeper understanding of how smaller, start-up firms that survived the recession were managed over the course
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of a recession. Unfortunately, the strategies of their counterparts thatfailed due to recessionary pressures are beyond the scope of the study.However, by examining firms that survived the recession, which wasespecially intense within the technology sector, then survivabilityoffers a rough measure of firm performance. (Latham 197)
16. Although it would have been desirable to rate the level of neigh-borhood disorder and crime independently for respondents in our[survey] sample, this was simply beyond the scope of the origi-nal study. Studies of the effect of disorder on fear, however, haveroutinely used survey data to measure respondents’ subjective assess-ments of their environment. . . . As Gau and Pratt . . . conclude,“Certainly, merit exists in independent observations, but perceptualmeasures should be preeminent in the research that addresses thisissue.” (Melde 792)
In six of thirteen passages illustrating acknowledgement of limitations, “beyondthe scope” is followed with an explanation of the limitation or a justification ofthe findings.
One writer—from composition—used “beyond the scope” to acknowledgethe limitations of his own expertise. In this case, “beyond the scope” helpscreate an attractive author persona by establishing the writer’s honesty andhumility:
17. A detailed explication of network theory, which emerges frommultiple disciplines . . . and involves various methodologies and typesof data (including advanced mathematical modeling), is beyond thescope of this article (not to mention beyond the intellectual reach ofthis author). But even a cursory consideration of some of its key com-ponents offers a glimpse into the heuristic value of thinking with anetwork model. (Gallagher 465)
The goal of most rhetorical moves is to convince readers of the legitimacy ofthe writer’s claims. So it’s not surprising that when writers admit limitations,surrounding language (underlined below) mitigates the effect:
• A much larger number of tapes . . . would need to be tested, which is beyondthe scope of this study. These results . . . provide a starting point. . . .
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• The strategies of their counterparts that failed due to recessionary pressuresare beyond the scope of the study. However, . . . survivability offers a roughmeasure of firm performance.
• A detailed explication . . . is beyond the scope of this article. . . . But even acursory consideration of some of its key components offers a glimpse intothe heuristic value. . . .
What follows “beyond the scope” tempers what precedes the phrase, illustratinghow academic writers establish the value and worth of their research, even whileacknowledging its limitations.
Writers in each discipline represented in the sample use “beyond the scope”when acknowledging limitations. In all, the phrase is used for this purpose thirteentimes (ten percent of all occurrences).
Conclusion
An engineer, who has authored eight hundred publications, was once askedhow he was able to write so many articles: “I do a little research,” he explained, “Ido a little typing, when I run through what I know and am up against somethingI don’t, I simply type that such and such is ‘beyond the scope of this article,’and I’m done” (qtd. in Belcher 272). This study indicates that the reasons forclaiming that “such and such is ‘beyond the scope of this article’” are more variedthan this engineer’s (tongue-in-cheek?) admission suggests. The phrase is used toannounce the focus, narrow the focus, exclude topics, introduce previous research,call for future research, justify limitations, and even create a favorable ethos.
The sample does not indicate disciplinary differences in how often the phraseis used. But it does suggest its frequency may be related to genre. In this sample,the phrase most often limits the scope of theoretical articles in business manage-ment, specifically in Academy of Management Review articles. Whether or notthe same is true for theoretical articles in other disciplines or even other businessmanagement journals is uncertain but would seem likely given the open-endednature of theory. The sample does reflect one minor disciplinary difference: thetendency of writers in hard sciences and business to refer to their publications as“papers” rather than as “articles” (common in sociology, rhetoric, and composi-tion). In general, though, there is considerable similarity in how academic writersacross disciplines use the phrase “beyond the scope.”
In expert prose grammatical and lexical features combine to create writ-ing that is “academic.” When students use the linguistic features—including thelexical bundles—of experts, they take an important step toward approximatinginsider prose. It’s a step that professors tend to reward, according to some studies.
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McNamara, Crossley, and McCarthy, for example, found that even in first-yearcomposition courses, lexical diversity and linguistic sophistication is much moreprominent in high-scoring essays than in low-scoring essays (58, 69). For stu-dents, knowing when and how to use academic phrasing is a key to success (Delpit228; Rose 144; Schleppergrell 3). This study suggests that “beyond the scope” isone useful rhetorical strategy to introduce to students still learning how to claimthe value of and achieve focus in their academic writing.
Note
1I thank RR reviewers Deborah Brandt and Barbara Johnstone for their helpful suggestions forrevision.
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Teresa Thonney teaches composition and literature at Columbia Basin College, where she isthe leader of the English Department. Her primary research interest is the conventions of academicwriting.
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