Shapers of published NNS research articles

En route from its author's screen to the printed page of an English-language science journal, an NNS research article incorporates changes made or suggested by various people. Considering a hypothetical Dutch-authored research article, this paper describes these text shapers. They include language professionals as well as members of the author's discourse community. Their potential to change the text is discussed on the basis of a multidisciplinary review of the literature. The cultural, social, and economic factors influencing their reading and revisions are touched on, as are some implications for research on NNS writing, for revision theory, and for ESP teaching. (C) 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.