How do I approach intertextuality and my position as an author?

An academic paper will inevitably draw on others' knowledge. The secondary sources you use provide the basis for your theoretical framework and your position. You are reading texts, and in your own text you refer to statements, examples and arguments from those texts. You use them to support your own thoughts, conjectures and arguments.

The process of interlinking ideas from primary and secondary sources to support your own reasoning is called intertextuality. This interlinking of ideas creates a framework in which you gather others' knowledge in order to answer your research question. Choosing the primary and secondary sources you will discuss is a conscious decision that is verifiable and backed by arguments.

In your text, you show your position regarding the topic by means of:

  • the primary and secondary sources you are using in order to put forward arguments;
  • statements you are critiquing;
  • the critical discussion of your primary and secondary sources. In this context, critical means that you do not simply cite sources without commenting on them and on the positions that they take.

Checklist

  • Is your selection of primary and secondary sources conclusive?
  • Have you referenced them as required?
  • Have you commented on your selection of primary and secondary sources?
  • Have you introduced, explained and commented on quotations?
  • Have you used quotations to support your arguments?
  • Have you linked statements from primary and secondary sources and made statements covering several texts?
  • Have you commented on these statements?
  • Have you selectively chosen primary and secondary sources or have you also taken opposing positions into account?
  • Have you presented these opposing positions argumentatively and given reasons for them?
  • Have you introduced, explained and commented on diagrams and figures?
  • Have you used primary and secondary sources, diagrams and figures to make your paper more easily comprehensible?
  • Have you used them with regard to your research question?
  • Have you presented your own position and backed it up based on the sources used?