DISPLAYING DISCIPLINARITY

Publishing in professional journals requires the author to display dis ciplinarity and yet to say something novel. This article approaches th is familiar rhetorical problem from a novel perspective by analyzing d isciplinarity as a kind of orthodoxy. Four elements of orthodoxy (narr ative knowledge, assumptions and methodologies, hierarchy, and doctrin al knowledge) are identified. Then, the article argues that an orthodo x ethos is created by signaling allegiance to a plurality of these ele ments. An example of an article that displays disciplinarity, David Ra up's ''Cohort analysis of generic survivorship,'' is analyzed, showing the author establishes his orthodox ethos by challenging only one of the elements of orthodoxy while simultaneously signaling allegiance to the others.