Representaciones sociales del género académico ensayo en la licenciatura en historia

Little attention has been paid to the written genres produced by historians. Some researchers have found that the historical essay defies any definition, even by members of the discourse community of historians. It has been argued, in this written genre, there is a complex interweaving of two different modes of discourse, namely, narrative and argumentative. As a result, identifying the features that characterize this genre in the field of history has proven difficult. This study explores the social representations held about the essay as a genre in a disciplinary community. Within the framework of Grounded Theory (Glaser y Strauss 1967), the analysis shows that our informants do not share the same perceptions regarding the names associated with the essay as a genre in the field of History.