Jack Selzer references a prior publication at the very beginning of his article, when he mentions Janet Emig's The Composing Processes of Twelfth-Graders as an important document in studying writing habits. He uses Odell's Research On Composing as a guide to analyze his subject's writing. Later, Selzer mentions the authors Perl, Pianko, and Stallard, who did research in the same field. He compares the statistics of his subject to the subjects of these authors, as well as Donald Murray and Nancy Sommers. Finally, Selzer quotes Cooper and Odell by pointing out that research in composing "is tentative, subject to continual revision," and pointing out that researchers in the field don't submit to "the fallacy of reducing the composing process to a simple linear scheme," which is a quote by Sondra Perl.
These references to prior publications give credibility to Selzer's article. By showing us that he is aware of the previous research in his field, he ensures us that he knows what he's doing. He is also able to use these prior publications to emphasize certain points, or to compare and contrast with his own findings.
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