Building a credible and believable narrative: the role of direct examination in expert witness testimony

Educational best practices deem that students must be able to access, utilize and produce the discourse of the target community - a site that is shaped by social, institutional and historical underpinnings. The domain of law in Malaysia and the Malaysian courtroom, for instance, is one site that is...

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Main Author: Noraini Ibrahim
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Pusat Pengajian Bahasa dan Linguistik, FSSK, UKM 2007
Online Access:http://journalarticle.ukm.my/1168/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/1168/1/8_NORAINI.pdf
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author Noraini Ibrahim,
author_facet Noraini Ibrahim,
author_sort Noraini Ibrahim,
building UKM Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Educational best practices deem that students must be able to access, utilize and produce the discourse of the target community - a site that is shaped by social, institutional and historical underpinnings. The domain of law in Malaysia and the Malaysian courtroom, for instance, is one site that is influenced and shaped by such variables. To participate meaningfully in such a domain thus requires participants to be aware of literacy practices, which in turn, involve the acquisition and learning of the relevant and existing complex roles, identities, codes, registers and social artifacts. While officers of the court (judges and counsels for instance), are trained participants, witnesses who are called to court to give evidence are not. As such during direct examinations, which mark the start of the process of evidence taking, witnesses are usually led by counsels through the questioning process to build a foundation of their narrative. This paper, which is based on a case study of criminal trial in Malaysia, will show how the successful undertaking of direct examinations, is crucial for a narrative version that is believable and credible. The roles of the judge, counsels and expert witnesses in the adversarial system practiced in Malaysia and the strategies employed by the counsels during the direct examinations of expert witnesses will also be highlighted.
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spelling ukm-11682016-12-14T06:29:00Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/1168/ Building a credible and believable narrative: the role of direct examination in expert witness testimony Noraini Ibrahim, Educational best practices deem that students must be able to access, utilize and produce the discourse of the target community - a site that is shaped by social, institutional and historical underpinnings. The domain of law in Malaysia and the Malaysian courtroom, for instance, is one site that is influenced and shaped by such variables. To participate meaningfully in such a domain thus requires participants to be aware of literacy practices, which in turn, involve the acquisition and learning of the relevant and existing complex roles, identities, codes, registers and social artifacts. While officers of the court (judges and counsels for instance), are trained participants, witnesses who are called to court to give evidence are not. As such during direct examinations, which mark the start of the process of evidence taking, witnesses are usually led by counsels through the questioning process to build a foundation of their narrative. This paper, which is based on a case study of criminal trial in Malaysia, will show how the successful undertaking of direct examinations, is crucial for a narrative version that is believable and credible. The roles of the judge, counsels and expert witnesses in the adversarial system practiced in Malaysia and the strategies employed by the counsels during the direct examinations of expert witnesses will also be highlighted. Pusat Pengajian Bahasa dan Linguistik, FSSK, UKM 2007 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/1168/1/8_NORAINI.pdf Noraini Ibrahim, (2007) Building a credible and believable narrative: the role of direct examination in expert witness testimony. 3L; Language,Linguistics and Literature,The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies., 13 . pp. 143-172. ISSN 0128-5157 http://www.ukm.my/~ppbl/3L/3LHome.html
spellingShingle Noraini Ibrahim,
Building a credible and believable narrative: the role of direct examination in expert witness testimony
title Building a credible and believable narrative: the role of direct examination in expert witness testimony
title_full Building a credible and believable narrative: the role of direct examination in expert witness testimony
title_fullStr Building a credible and believable narrative: the role of direct examination in expert witness testimony
title_full_unstemmed Building a credible and believable narrative: the role of direct examination in expert witness testimony
title_short Building a credible and believable narrative: the role of direct examination in expert witness testimony
title_sort building a credible and believable narrative: the role of direct examination in expert witness testimony
url http://journalarticle.ukm.my/1168/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/1168/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/1168/1/8_NORAINI.pdf