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Volume 25:6 June 2025
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Data Commentaries in Science and Engineering Research Articles

Jasti Appa Swami

Abstract

Data commentaries assume significance in shaping a research article. They accompany visuals in results sections of research papers. Their positioning in results sections of research reports is conventionally determined by discursive practices of a given discipline. In this paper, an attempt is made to understand how data commentaries in science and engineering research articles are discursively constructed. The paper discusses what data commentaries are and their relation to nonverbal materials, the way they are recognized as a subgenre of results sections, the move structure and the interface between visuals and data commentaries in science and engineering research articles.

Keywords:data commentaries, non-verbal materials, move structure, results section

Introduction

Nonverbal elements (NVEs) in science and engineering discourse are the visualizations in the form of graphs, tables, diagrams, figures, images, data plots, microscopic images, schematics, chromatographs/spectrographs, 3D models, photographs, pie charts, bar charts, etc. Research indicates that NVEs play an important role in "the construction of knowledge and its communication across a range of contexts" (Curry, 2014, p. 87) in science and engineering discourse. One important medium through which new scientific knowledge gets communicated is research papers in journals. Though NVEs may be present in other sections of the research report, it is the results section that abounds with NVEs in various combinations of visual displays of results. Yet NVEs cannot speak for themselves. It is, therefore, necessary to have what are known as data commentaries (DCs) for directing the reader to the desired interpretation of NVEs.

Data commentaries are verbal interpretations of NVEs that draw the reader's attention to a) the background information of the NVE, b) location and summary of the visual, c) the most important findings in the visual, and d) comment on results presented in the visual. Both the NVEs and data commentaries in the results section of science and engineering research papers are interdependent and make non-linear reading paths (Sancho Guinda, 2012) as there is recursive interplay between the data commentary and the NVE in the communication of scientific knowledge generated (Curry, 2014), as a result of which the reader moves back and forth between text and graphics while figuring out "the story of scientific discovery" (Stoller & Robinson, 2013, p. 49) in results sections. This interplay contributes to the multimodal nature of science and engineering communication.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Jasti Appa Swami
Assistant Professor Centre for English Language Studies University of Hyderabad
jastiappaswamihcu@gmail.com
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