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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/36106
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/36106
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Speaking as a professor and author of several academic papers; I would avoid it.

Rhetorical questions are a technique we use in classrooms to generate interest or debate among students. That is a form of "entertainment" and entertainment is NOT the goal of a paper, it is reporting your research and conclusions, and you should not present any ambiguous or "teaser" lines in the process.

The reader cannot answer questions. You are not writing a mystery novel! This may seem "dry" but that is what is expected. To rewrite your text:

> In the previous section we saw that the values of X are particularly high when considering Y, suggesting [a,b,c]. We will now show this behavior can be interpreted as a result of [d].
> 
> Thus X's statement does seem credible in light of Y. To complete the argument, we must show that [e] holds, to justify why [f] holds.

In other words, it is fine to tell the reader in a 'summary line' what you are about to more formally prove or argue. Typically you can reword your questions to provide a summary statement of what is to come instead of the question, which is really the point of the question.

I certainly would not put a ban on all rhetorical questions in academic papers, but for **students** I would not allow them at all. Learn to write without them; stick to the facts and presenting your work, keep emotional appeal out of it. That is what is expected; at least in my scientific fields.

In other fields where I have read few academic papers (e.g. psychology or history or law) I could be swayed if shown several other highly quoted _recently published_ papers (e.g. in the last 20 years) that make heavy use of rhetorical questions.

But still, IMO you can avoid them and make a stronger paper. A rhetorical question is **always** an introduction to a discussion that can be rewritten to serve better as a summary statement imparting a fact about what comes next, and typically the statement will be shorter anyway.

Original score: 2