Rhetoric Review

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“That's Beyond the Scope of This Paper”: Analyzing

the Functions of a Familiar Phrase in Academic
Writing

Teresa Thonney

To cite this article: Teresa Thonney (2012) “That's Beyond the Scope of This Paper”: Analyzing
the Functions of a Familiar Phrase in Academic Writing, Rhetoric Review, 31:3, 309-326, DOI:
10.1080/07350198.2012.684002

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/07350198.2012.684002

Published online: 08 Jun 2012.

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Rhetoric Review, Vol. 31, No. 3, 309–326, 2012
Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN: 0735-0198 print / 1532-7981 online
DOI: 10.1080/07350198.2012.684002

T ERESA T HONNEY
Columbia Basin College

“That’s Beyond the Scope of This Paper”:

Analyzing the Functions of a Familiar
Phrase in Academic Writing

A single phrase––“beyond the scope of this paper”––is used by academic writers

to accomplish various communicative moves in research articles. Writers use the
phrase (1) to establish a territory and occupy a niche; (2) to introduce previous
research into the conversation; (3) to recommend further research; and (4) to
acknowledge limitations. An examination of its uses in scholarly articles from five
disciplines suggests that “beyond the scope of this paper” is a useful phrase to
introduce to students still learning how to claim the value and establish the focus
of their academic writing.

A growing body of corpus-based research has demonstrated the prevalence of

recurring phrases—sometimes called “lexical bundles”—in academic writing.1
In fact, stock phrases (such as “in order to,” “the fact that,” “in the case of,” and
“as a result of”) account for an estimated twenty percent of the words in academic
prose (Biber et al. 995). Using these familiar phrases is one way scholars establish
an academic voice. But many students have had little experience using academic
phrasing; in fact, Viviana Cortes found that students rarely use academic lexi-
cal bundles in the way expert writers do (420–21). She and others (for example,
Conrad; Bowker and Pearson) have argued that examining the use of these phrases
can help demystify some aspects of academic writing for novices.
This essay examines how a single familiar phrase—“beyond the scope of
this paper” (or “article” or “study”)—is used in academic writing. For a phrase
that by its nature limits authors, its rhetorical purposes are surprisingly diverse.
Specifically, writers use “beyond the scope” to accomplish four rhetorical moves:
(1) to establish a territory and occupy a niche; (2) to limit the review of previous

309
310 Rhetoric Review

research; (3) to recommend further research; and (4) to acknowledge limitations.

Together, the examples quoted in this essay demonstrate ways scholars have
used—and students can use—the phrase in their writing.

Procedure and Corpus

To learn how academic writers use “beyond the scope,” I searched for the
phrase in a sample of fifteen hundred journal articles, representing five areas of
study: biology, business management, composition or rhetoric, engineering, and
sociology. The articles are from fifteen well-established, peer-reviewed journals.
I considered a journal to be well established if it has been in publication for more
than ten years and if it is abstracted and indexed in several databases.
For each journal in the sample, I conducted a computer search of one hun-
dred articles, beginning with articles in the most recent issue available to me and
continuing in reverse chronological order until I reached one hundred articles.
Because publication frequency and number of articles per issue vary, the period
searched for each journal ranges from one to five years. Table 1 lists the journals
in the sample, the year each journal was established, and the volumes searched
for this study.

Table 1: Journals Representing Each Subject Area

Journals Year Began Volumes Searched

Biology
Conservation Biology 1987 Feb 2010 – Aug 2010
Human Biology 1929 Feb 2009 – Aug 2011
Journal of Experimental Biology 1923 Dec 2010 – Feb 2011
Business Management
Academy of Management Review 1976 July 2008 – July 2011
Journal of Economics & Management Strategy 1992 Spring 2009 – Fall 2011
Journal of Small Business Management 1963 Jan 2008 – July 2011
Composition/Rhetoric
College Composition and Communication 1950 Sept 2008 – June 2010
ELT Journal 1946 July 2008 – July 2011
Rhetoric Review 1982 Apr 2005 – Jan 2010
Engineering
Journal of Engineering Design 1990 Oct 2007 – Aug 2010
Journal of Structural Engineering 1983 Jan 2010 – Aug 2010
Microsystem Technologies 1994 July 2007 – July 2011
Sociology
Criminology 1963 Nov 2008 – Aug 2011
The Sociological Review 1908 Oct 2009 – June 2011
Sociology 1967 Dec 2009 – Aug 2011
That’s Beyond the Scope of This Paper 311

I analyzed feature articles, research articles, and literature review essays only.
I excluded articles that did not present research findings—book reviews, forums,
interviews, addresses, symposiums, teaching notes, letters, introductions to issues,
and the like.
Because I was concerned only with how writers use “beyond the scope” to
limit their own work, I excluded the few instances where the phrase referred
to the work of another person. Because I was concerned only with uses of the
phrase “beyond the scope,” I did not consider synonymous phrases (for example,
such and such “will not be covered here”). After studying each occurrence of the
phrase, I developed a coding scheme and categorized each instance according to
the purpose the phrase helped the writer accomplish.

General Findings

Writers in all fifteen journals in the sample use the phrase “beyond the scope.”
In all, 125 instances of the phrase appear in the fifteen hundred articles searched.
In nine articles the phrase appears twice, and in two articles the phrase appears
three times; thus, the total number of occurrences (125) exceeds the number of
articles in which the phrase appears (112). Thirty-four of the articles have single
authors; thirty-five have two authors; and forty-three have three or more authors.
The phrase appears most often in the Academy of Management Review, which
has more than twice as many instances as any other journal in the sample. Table 2

Table 2: Number of Occurrences of “Beyond the Scope” by Journal

Number of Occurrences Article Word

Journal Title in 100 Articles Limit

Conservation Biology 3 3000–6000

Human Biology 9 (in 8 articles) none given
Journal of Experimental Biology 4 8000
Academy of Management Review 27 (in 21 articles) 10,000
Journal of Economics & Management Strategy 13 (in 11 articles) none given
Journal of Small Business Management 7 6000
College Composition and Communication 6 4000–7000
ELT Journal 5 3500
Rhetoric Review 5 7500
Journal of Engineering Design 15 (in 11 articles) none given
Journal of Structural Engineering 6 10,000
Microsystem Technologies 5 none given
Criminology 10 none given
The Sociological Review 4 8000
Sociology 6 8000
Total Number of Occurrences 125
312 Rhetoric Review

presents the number of times “beyond the scope” appears within one hundred
articles for each journal in the sample and each journal’s word limit for feature
articles (when specified by the journal).
There was no correlation between the appearance of the phrase and whether
an article was singly or jointly authored. Surprisingly, the phrase was no more
likely to appear in short articles (where authors might need to limit their scope)
than in long articles. In fact, the Academy of Management Review, which has
more occurrences of the phrase (twenty-seven) than any other journal, features
the longest articles in the corpus.
Table 3 compares the frequency of “beyond the scope” in the five subject
areas represented in the sample.

Table 3: Number of Occurrences of “Beyond the Scope” by Discipline

Discipline Number of Occurrences in 300 Articles

Business Management 47 (37.6% of all occurrences in the corpus)

Engineering 26 (20.8% of all 125 occurrences)
Sociology 20 (16% of all 125 occurrences)
Biology 16 (12.8% of all 125 occurrences)
Composition/Rhetoric 16 (12.8% of all 125 occurrences)

Total Number of Occurrences: 125

A chi-square test was conducted to determine if the difference in frequency

of “beyond the scope” among disciplines is significant. The results (chi-squared
[4, N = 1500] = 29.324, p < .00000672) showed the differences are highly sig-
nificant. This difference was attributable to the high number of occurrences of
the phrase in the Academy of Management Review (twenty-seven instances in
that journal alone). The Academy of Management Review publishes only theory-
driven articles, which are often broader in scope than the empirical studies,
data-driven articles, and scholarship of teaching articles included in the other
journals. Once results for this journal are removed from the sample, the ratio
of business management writers using the phrase is similar to that of the other
disciplines studied.
A second chi-square test was conducted for engineering, sociology, biology,
and composition/rhetoric articles only. The results (chi-squared [3, n = 1200] =
3.675, p = NS) showed no significant difference in the frequency of the phrase
for these four disciplines.
That’s Beyond the Scope of This Paper 313

Collocates

Table 4 includes the most common collocates appearing after the phrase
“beyond the scope” and their frequency in each subject area. “Of this paper” (or
“of the present paper”) is the most common collocate (thirty-nine percent of all
occurrences), appearing in the writing of all five disciplines.

Table 4: Collocates Appearing after “Beyond the Scope”

Number of Instances (out of 125)

Collocate Biology Bus Mgt Engin Socio Comp/Rhet Total

of this paper 10 24 13 1 1 49 (39%)

of this article 0 6 4 13 7 30 (24%)
of this study 0 4 3 2 1 10 (8%)
of this research 0 1 2 2 1 6 (9%)
of the present work 0 1 2 1 1 5 (4%)
of the present investigation 0 3 1 0 0 4 (3%)
of this project 2 0 0 0 1 3 (2.5%)
of our theory 0 3 0 0 0 3 (2.5%)
of this analysis 1 1 0 0 0 2 (1.5%)
of this essay 0 0 0 0 2 2 (1.5%)
other collocates 3 4 1 1 2 11 (9%)

“Beyond the scope of this paper” is most common in biology, business man-
agement, and engineering journals, reflecting the tendency of writers in science
and business disciplines to refer to their publications as “papers,” rather than as
articles or essays. In sociology and composition/rhetoric journals, conversely, the
most common collocate is “of this article.”

Rhetorical Functions of “Beyond the Scope”

A number of scholars have analyzed communicative moves found in aca-

demic research articles. John Swales, for example, has described the three-
move structure of most introductions: establishing a territory, establishing a
niche, and occupying the niche. Swales further divides this structure, called
the Create-A-Research-Space (CARS) model, into steps a writer might take to
accomplish each move. The first move (establishing a territory), for instance, is
subdivided into three steps:
Establishing a territory: Step 1 Claiming centrality [importance] and/or
Step 2 Making topic generalization(s) and/or
Step 3 Reviewing items of previous research. (141)
314 Rhetoric Review

Swales and others (including Dudley-Evans; Berkenkotter and Huckin; Holmes;

Peacock) have also proposed move sequences for discussion sections. Moves
found in most models include stating the result, referring (again) to previous
research, explaining the results and their significance, recognizing limitations, and
recommending future research.
Using steps from these move sequences to create my coding scheme, I found
that writers use “beyond the scope” to accomplish four communicative moves in
research articles: (1) to establish a territory and occupy a niche; (2) to introduce
and limit reviews of previous research; (3) to recommend further research; and
(4) to acknowledge limitations. Table 5 includes the total number of occurrences
of each move, the number of occurrences of each move within each discipline,
and the relative frequency of each move within the corpus overall and within each
discipline.
These moves are described and illustrated in the remainder of this essay.

Table 5: Rhetorical Functions of “Beyond the Scope” (125 Occurences in 1,500 articles)

Rhetorical Function Number of Instances (out of 125)

Establish Territory 66 (52.8% of total occurrences)

Biology 7 (44% of biology examples)
Business Management 22 (47% of business management examples)
Composition/Rhetoric 7 (44% of writing/rhetoric examples)
Engineering 19 (73% of engineering examples)
Sociology 11 (55% of sociology examples)
Limit Reviews 25 (20% of total occurrences)
Biology 3 (19% of biology examples)
Business Management 12 (26% of business management examples)
Composition/Rhetoric 3 (19% of writing/rhetoric examples)
Engineering 6 (23% of engineering examples)
Sociology 3 (15% of sociology examples)
Call for Research 19 (15.2% of total occurrences)
Biology 3 (19% of biology examples)
Business Management 9 (19% of business management examples)
Composition/Rhetoric 5 (31% of writing/rhetoric examples)
Engineering 0 (0% of engineering examples)
Sociology 2 (10% of sociology examples)
Acknowledge Limitations 13 (10.4% of total occurrences)
Biology 3 (19% of biology examples)
Business Management 4 (9% of business management examples)
Composition/Rhetoric 1 (6% of writing/rhetoric examples)
Engineering 1 (4% of engineering examples)
Sociology 4 (20% of sociology examples)
That’s Beyond the Scope of This Paper 315

Establishing a Territory and Occupying a Niche

According to Swales’s Create-A-Research-Space model, writers use

research-article introductions to establish a territory, establish a niche, and occupy
the niche. Although the order of these moves can vary, most writers announce the
general research area (the “territory”) before the specific statement of purpose
(“occupying the niche”) (Swales 147). One of the more common functions that
the phrase “beyond the scope” serves is to mark the transition from general ter-
ritory to specific niche, as illustrated in the following passage from a Rhetoric
Review article:

1. This “secret life” [of rural African-American women] is validated

not only in oral traditions passed down through generations but also in
the transmission of material cultural goods, such as quilts, samplers,
and recipes, which represent alternative rhetorical options to cultur-
ally sanctioned forms of memorialization. It is beyond the scope of
this essay to explore all these options; here I explore how recipes and
associated text validate African-American women’s self-image and
resist dominant cultural memory in three cookbooks produced by the
National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) in the 1990s. . . . (Eves
280, my emphasis)

In passage one, the writer begins broadly with a list of ways the lives of rural
African-American women are validated (for example, oral traditions, quilts, sam-
plers), narrows to a specific “niche” within this broad territory (that is, recipes),
and finally occupies her particular corner of that niche (three cookbooks produced
by the NCNW). As seen in this passage, “beyond the scope” can serve as an aid to
writers as they create a research space for themselves. Often the phrase (italicized
in the remaining examples) limits a discussion to one or two aspects of a broad
subject, as in passage two, from sociology:

2. It is clear that the level and detail of description required to describe

the [television] show are far beyond the scope of this article. Instead,
in what remains, we have selected one character to focus on in greater
detail so as to provide one more detailed illustrative example of
the sociological content in The Wire. (Penfold-Mounce, Beer, and
Burrows 160)

In this passage “beyond the scope” segues into an announcement of the essay’s
specific topic (“occupying the niche” in Swales’s model). More often the phrase
316 Rhetoric Review

is used to announce what will be excluded from discussion, as seen in passage

three from biology:

3. Although most initiatives also address topics of soil, water,

and waste management, which relate indirectly to the impacts of
bioenergy production on biodiversity or environmentally sensitive
areas, these topics are beyond the scope of this analysis. (Henningberg
et al. 418)

Rather than using “beyond the scope” to announce what specific topics will or
will not be discussed, some writers use the phrase to announce they will give
a broad topic only brief or cursory attention, as illustrated in this passage from
engineering:

4. While a thorough injection mold design guide is beyond the scope

of this paper, our intent is to provide some insight into the injec-
tion molding design process for the microfluidic community as they
approach designing their own molds. (Geiger et al. 1537)

These passages illustrate a principle of genre theory: A writer’s purpose “governs

choice at the grammatical and lexical levels” (Dudley-Evans 220). Accordingly,
throughout the sample, when “beyond the scope” marks the transition from gen-
eral subject to specific focus, lexical choices underscore that communicative
purpose. For example, in passage four, “some insight into the injection
molding design process” contrasts with a “thorough injection mold design
guide.”
Many writers use “beyond the scope” early to preview what will and will
not be covered in an article, but nine writers who use the phrase to estab-
lish territory do so at the end to review what was and was not discussed.
For example, passage five is from the conclusion of a business management
article:

5. Although it was beyond the scope of this paper to provide a

comprehensive alternative institutional model for studying MNCs
[multinational corporations], we presented our views of how broaden-
ing the theoretical lens could benefit international management work.
(Kostova, Roth, and Dacin 1002)

The most common purpose of “beyond the scope” throughout the sample is
to identify what will and will not be discussed. This is true for every discipline
That’s Beyond the Scope of This Paper 317

studied. But the disproportionate frequency of this move within the engineering
passages (nineteen of twenty-six, or seventy-three percent) warrants special con-
sideration. Among engineers, “beyond the scope” is commonly used to limit the
description of methods. Here are examples:

• Detailed study of bonding process is beyond the scope and purpose of the
present research. (Pal and Sato 1170)
• Detailed theoretical modeling and study of these devices is beyond the
scope of this paper. (Datta et al. 465)
• Development of methodologies to generate specification ranges is beyond
the scope of this paper. (Ye and Gershenson 577)
• Criteria for model identification as well as the estimation methods are
beyond the scope of this brief introduction. (Guenov 83)

In these examples “beyond the scope” is used to restrict descriptions of processes,

modeling, methodologies, and estimation criteria.
“Beyond the scope” is a particularly useful phrase for engineers because
their research commonly involves taking into account multiple scenarios and
variables—more than can be addressed in any single article. Consider passage
six. After identifying the focus of his analysis, the writer mentions what types of
analyses won’t be discussed:

6. The other multi-disciplinary analyses required to identify the opti-

mal durability choice include: (1) market analyses and forecast of
system expected utility or revenue model u(t), (2) technical analysis
and estimate of the cost to operate and maintain the system cOM(t),
and (3) financial analysis of the investment risk in the system, usually
referred to as beta, which in turn is used to derive the appropriate risk-
adjusted discount rate for the investment, r. Each of these analyses
raises an interesting set of questions and challenges. Their treatment
is beyond the scope of this work. (Saleh 62)

Because thorough reporting of modeling and testing designs is often impossible,

engineers must limit the scenarios they will consider.
In eighteen engineering passages, “beyond the scope” is used to limit the
description of processes and methods, reflecting the many variables that must
be considered when doing research in this discipline. But writers in all fifteen
journals of the sample use “beyond the scope” to establish their focus—by naming
or excluding research topics, by narrowing the research focus, or by limiting the
318 Rhetoric Review

description of research processes. Used in this way, the phrase helps writers clear
a space for and justify the value of their research.

Limiting Literature Reviews

In the previous examples, writers use “beyond the scope” to establish the
parameters of their own research. A similar function of the phrase is to estab-
lish the parameters of the literature review. Specifically, writers use the phrase to
either explain why previous research is mentioned or establish the extent to which
previous research will be reviewed.
Literature reviews can serve various functions in research articles. In intro-
ductions they are used to establish territory (move one in Swales’s model); to
indicate a gap in the research (a step within move two of Swales’s model); and
to announce the goal of the present study (a step within move three) (Samraj 7).
In discussion sections writers use literature reviews to compare the results of the
present research to past research and to call for further research (Dudley-Evans
225). Similarly, when “beyond the scope” is used to introduce previous litera-
ture, there is variety in the functions and location of the move. In some cases,
the phrase introduces literature that addresses what is beyond the scope of the
author’s research, as illustrated in this passage from biology:

7. While quantifying the attention-altering or alerting function of

scent was beyond the scope of our experiment, van Swinderen and
Greenspan (van Swinderen and Greenspan, 2003) have shown that
in Drosophila melanogaster, attention-like increases in brain activity
. . . occur when flies are presented with a conditioned visual stimulus.
(Leonard, Dornhaus, and Papaj 120)

In other cases, the phrase limits the depth of the literature review, as in passage
eight (from business management):

8. A large and growing literature examines the role of VCs [venture

capitalists] in financing, developing, and monitoring young start-up
firms, activities directed toward taking promising firms public or sell-
ing them in the M&A [mergers and acquisitions] market. Although
a comprehensive review of this literature is beyond the scope of
this paper, we provide a brief review of some prominent themes.
(Agrawal and Cooper 1121)
That’s Beyond the Scope of This Paper 319

In passage nine (from a composition journal), the phrase limits the breadth of the
review to those sources most relevant to the discussion:

9. We see much evidence of the implicit values and practices of prag-

matism in composition and rhetoric from scholars who insist that
our theories and teaching practices mutually reinforce one another.
Discussing all such published works goes beyond the scope of this
project; the scholarship we outline briefly here represents only a few
texts that explicitly consider composition and rhetoric as pragmatism.
(Ryan and Graban W295)

As in earlier examples, the communicative move is signaled lexically. Inclusive

language (such as all) and restrictive language (such as a few) appears on either
side of the phrase:

• a comprehensive review of this literature vs. a brief review of some

prominent themes
• all such published works vs. only a few texts

In all, “beyond the scope” is used to introduce previous research in twenty-

five articles in the sample (twenty percent of all occurrences)—sometimes early
in the article (when reviewing literature in the introduction) and sometimes late
(when recommending sources that address matters the writer lacked time or space
to address).

Recommending Future Research

When writers review previous research, they look to the past. When they look
to the future, “beyond the scope” is used to accomplish another standard move:
the call for further research.
Some writers use “beyond the scope” to call for a continuation of their
own research, as in the following passage from sociology, discussing historical
examples of “reverse discourses”:

10. Billy Kersands’ blackface song Old Aunt Jemima, whose protag-
onist subsequently became the stereotyped face of a flour company,
was originally intended to work against stereotype, not create one. . . .
Billy Johnson’s song No Coons Allowed followed a favoured style of
black songwriters who “addressed African American audiences with
the verse and white publishers and audiences with the chorus.” . . .
320 Rhetoric Review

These performers both critiqued and conformed to stereotypes and

thus appealed to white and black audiences. Later 20th-century black
and Jewish performance would continue this. While beyond the scope
of this article, Lenny Bruce’s reversal of “nigger”, Woody Allen
and Rodney Dangerfield on anti-Semitism, Mel Brooks on fascism
and racism, and Flip Wilson’s carnivalization of race stereotypes, all
deserve analysis as reverse discourse. (Weaver 36)

Others use “beyond the scope” to call for an expansion of their research—in
different settings or with different subjects. The following passage is from a
composition journal:

11. We call for classroom research that compares diverse and contrast-
ing demonstrations of teacher authority by male and female teachers
of writing in a variety of settings. In our view, studies of this sort,
attending to contexts and dynamics beyond the scope of our own
research, represent the most promising directions for future research.
(VanderStaay et al. W280)

Still others—such as the biology writer quoted below—use “beyond the scope”
to call for research with a different focus entirely:

12. Increased stress . . . response in offspring raised by low investing

mothers could be a part of patrigene strategy to increase mater-
nal investment . . . , which in turn escalates intrapersonal conflicts.
Intrapersonal reciprocity could subsequently be favored by natural
selection. . . . Both of these possibilities are beyond the scope of this
paper but deserve theoretical consideration. (Brown 229)

In the sample there are nineteen instances of “beyond the scope” used to rec-
ommend research (fifteen percent of all occurrences). In many of these instances,
the writers’ lexical choices emphasize the exhortative function (that is, to get
others to answer the call for research). For example:

• [These examples] all deserve analysis as reverse discourse.

• Studies of this sort . . . represent . . . promising directions for future
research.
• These possibilities . . . deserve theoretical consideration.
That’s Beyond the Scope of This Paper 321

By couching the call for research in language suggesting its worth (for example,
deserve, promising), the writers underscore the merits of their own as well as
future studies.

Acknowledging Limitations

Another function of “beyond the scope”—appearing in both introductions

and conclusions—is to acknowledge limitations. This move occurs when “writers
introduce one or more caveats about the findings, the methodology followed or
the claims made” (Dudley-Evans 225).
Numerous writers in the sample use “beyond the scope” to recognize limita-
tions of their research methods or findings, as seen in the following passage from
biology:

13. To understand the determinants of mortality, it is essential to split

the age span and undertake several separate studies. In this paper
we aim to study the oldest ages for which rigorous analyses can be
undertaken, although it is necessary to avoid the oldest old. They
are presumably highly selected from the origin cohort . . . , and the
high death rates at advanced ages require model specifications that
are beyond the scope of this paper. (Saarela and Finnäs 3)

In two instances authors use the phrase to call for research that addresses the
limitations of their own methods, as in this passage from engineering:

14. To achieve statistical significance a much larger number of tapes

with a wide variety of properties would need to be tested, which
is beyond the scope of this study. These results, therefore, are sim-
ply observations meant to provide a starting port for possible future
studies. (Petrek and Bhushan 435)

In passages fifteen and sixteen (from business management and sociology),

the writers do more than acknowledge limitations; they explain or justify
them:

15. Though insightful, the findings are hampered by several limita-

tions. The research design relies on firms that survived the economic
recession; thus, there is an inherent survivor bias. The study does
provide, however, for a deeper understanding of how smaller, start-
up firms that survived the recession were managed over the course
322 Rhetoric Review

of a recession. Unfortunately, the strategies of their counterparts that

failed due to recessionary pressures are beyond the scope of the study.
However, by examining firms that survived the recession, which was
especially intense within the technology sector, then survivability
offers a rough measure of firm performance. (Latham 197)
16. Although it would have been desirable to rate the level of neigh-
borhood disorder and crime independently for respondents in our
[survey] sample, this was simply beyond the scope of the origi-
nal study. Studies of the effect of disorder on fear, however, have
routinely used survey data to measure respondents’ subjective assess-
ments of their environment. . . . As Gau and Pratt . . . conclude,
“Certainly, merit exists in independent observations, but perceptual
measures should be preeminent in the research that addresses this
issue.” (Melde 792)

In six of thirteen passages illustrating acknowledgement of limitations, “beyond

the scope” is followed with an explanation of the limitation or a justification of
the findings.
One writer—from composition—used “beyond the scope” to acknowledge
the limitations of his own expertise. In this case, “beyond the scope” helps
create an attractive author persona by establishing the writer’s honesty and
humility:

17. A detailed explication of network theory, which emerges from

multiple disciplines . . . and involves various methodologies and types
of data (including advanced mathematical modeling), is beyond the
scope of this article (not to mention beyond the intellectual reach of
this author). But even a cursory consideration of some of its key com-
ponents offers a glimpse into the heuristic value of thinking with a
network model. (Gallagher 465)

The goal of most rhetorical moves is to convince readers of the legitimacy of

the writer’s claims. So it’s not surprising that when writers admit limitations,
surrounding language (underlined below) mitigates the effect:

• A much larger number of tapes . . . would need to be tested, which is beyond

the scope of this study. These results . . . provide a starting point. . . .
That’s Beyond the Scope of This Paper 323

• The strategies of their counterparts that failed due to recessionary pressures

are beyond the scope of the study. However, . . . survivability offers a rough
measure of firm performance.
• A detailed explication . . . is beyond the scope of this article. . . . But even a
cursory consideration of some of its key components offers a glimpse into
the heuristic value. . . .

What follows “beyond the scope” tempers what precedes the phrase, illustrating
how academic writers establish the value and worth of their research, even while
acknowledging its limitations.
Writers in each discipline represented in the sample use “beyond the scope”
when acknowledging limitations. In all, the phrase is used for this purpose thirteen
times (ten percent of all occurrences).

Conclusion

An engineer, who has authored eight hundred publications, was once asked
how he was able to write so many articles: “I do a little research,” he explained, “I
do a little typing, when I run through what I know and am up against something
I don’t, I simply type that such and such is ‘beyond the scope of this article,’
and I’m done” (qtd. in Belcher 272). This study indicates that the reasons for
claiming that “such and such is ‘beyond the scope of this article’” are more varied
than this engineer’s (tongue-in-cheek?) admission suggests. The phrase is used to
announce the focus, narrow the focus, exclude topics, introduce previous research,
call for future research, justify limitations, and even create a favorable ethos.
The sample does not indicate disciplinary differences in how often the phrase
is used. But it does suggest its frequency may be related to genre. In this sample,
the phrase most often limits the scope of theoretical articles in business manage-
ment, specifically in Academy of Management Review articles. Whether or not
the same is true for theoretical articles in other disciplines or even other business
management journals is uncertain but would seem likely given the open-ended
nature of theory. The sample does reflect one minor disciplinary difference: the
tendency of writers in hard sciences and business to refer to their publications as
“papers” rather than as “articles” (common in sociology, rhetoric, and composi-
tion). In general, though, there is considerable similarity in how academic writers
across disciplines use the phrase “beyond the scope.”
In expert prose grammatical and lexical features combine to create writ-
ing that is “academic.” When students use the linguistic features—including the
lexical bundles—of experts, they take an important step toward approximating
insider prose. It’s a step that professors tend to reward, according to some studies.
324 Rhetoric Review

McNamara, Crossley, and McCarthy, for example, found that even in first-year
composition courses, lexical diversity and linguistic sophistication is much more
prominent in high-scoring essays than in low-scoring essays (58, 69). For stu-
dents, knowing when and how to use academic phrasing is a key to success (Delpit
228; Rose 144; Schleppergrell 3). This study suggests that “beyond the scope” is
one useful rhetorical strategy to introduce to students still learning how to claim
the value of and achieve focus in their academic writing.

Note
1I thank RR reviewers Deborah Brandt and Barbara Johnstone for their helpful suggestions for

revision.

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326 Rhetoric Review

Teresa Thonney teaches composition and literature at Columbia Basin College, where she is
the leader of the English Department. Her primary research interest is the conventions of academic
writing.