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Q&A In academic writing why do some recommend to avoid "announcing" the topic?

There are reasons to repeat yourself, but they differ to what you imply. Academic readers are usually skimming through hundreds of papers to find the results relevant to their current work, so ...

posted 5y ago by Sideshow Bob‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T13:15:46Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/49072
License name: CC BY-SA 4.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Sideshow Bob‭ · 2019-12-08T13:15:46Z (almost 5 years ago)
There are reasons to repeat yourself, but they differ to what you imply.

1. Academic readers are usually skimming through hundreds of papers to find the results relevant to their current work, so

2. In a large paper on a complex topic it's easy to get lost, so do include signposting to help the reader remember their context. E.g. "The link between X and Z is a relevant consideration for our study of X and Y, therefore in the following section we discuss existing literature discussing links between X and Z."

But don't use the rhetorical device of "tell someone what you're going to tell them, tell them the thing, tell them what you told them" for the sake of driving a point home, as you would in rhetoric, or delivering spoken material as a teacher, etc. (Excepting the first sentence of the discussion/conclusions section where it is usual to summarize what you already told them, in shorter form). You repeat to make it easy for readers to find the appropriate part and remember context.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2019-11-26T12:49:36Z (almost 5 years ago)
Original score: 11