چکیده:
Research articles have received a wide interest in discourse studies over the last
few decades. A vast number of studies have been centered on identifying the
organizational patterns of research articles in various fields. Although
Introduction section has enjoyed a lot of attention, very few studies have
focused on rhetorical structure of qualitative and quantitative research articles.
This genre-based investigation reports on a study of the Introduction sections of
15 qualitative and 15 quantitative research articles (RAs) in Applied Linguistics
(AL) from five high impact journals published from 2008-2012. Based on
Swales’ (2004) move structure model, the present study focuses on Move 3
(introducing the present work) and examines how qualitative and quantitative
research article writers introduce their work in Introduction section. The
analysis revealed that there were similarities in the overall presence and use of
steps in both groups. However, some differences in the overall presence and
frequency of directive determinants were obvious which could be attributed to
the different nature of these research designs. The findings reveal which options
are available to the writers for presenting their own work in introduction
sections of these two types of articles. By making explicit the norms and
conventions of the community, which are normally implicit, the findings of this
paper and similar genre studies can facilitate the participation of novice
members in their discourse community. This, in turn, can lead to a successful
academic writing.
Research articles have received a wide interest in discourse studies particularly in genre analysis over the last few decades. A vast number of studies have been centered on identifying the organizational patterns of research articles in various fields. While Introduction section has enjoyed a lot of attention, very few studies have focused on rhetorical structure of qualitative and quantitative research articles. This genre-based investigation reports on a study of the Introduction sections of 15 qualitative and 15 quantitative research articles in Applied Linguistics from five high impact journals published from 2008-2012. Based on Swales’ (2004) move structure model, this study focuses on Move 3 (introducing the present work) and examines how qualitative and quantitative research article writers introduce their work in Introduction section. The analysis revealed that there were similarities in the overall presence and use of steps in both groups, some differences in the overall presence and frequency of directive determinants were obvious which could be attributed to the different nature of these research designs.
خلاصه ماشینی:
This genre-based investigation reports on a study of the Introduction sections of 15 qualitative and 15 quantitative research articles (RAs) in Applied Linguistics (AL) from five high impact journals published from 2008-2012.
Based on Swales’ (2004) move structure model, the present study focuses on Move 3 (introducing the present work) and examines how qualitative and quantitative research article writers introduce their work in Introduction section.
g. , Basturkmen, 2012; Brett, 1994; Dobakhti, 2011; Dobakhti & Norizah, 2013; Hirano, 2009; Holmes, 2000; Kanoksilapatham, 2005; Lim, 2006; Lorés, 2004; Nwogu, 1997; Ozturk, 2007; Peacock, 2002; Posteguillo, 1999; Samraj, 2005; Sheldon, 2011; Soler-Monreal, Carbonell-Olivares, & Gil-Salom, 2011; Williams, 1999; Yang, 2001).
However, qualitative and quantitative designs are different in the knowledge claim that they make, the main purpose that they follow, the research questions that they impose, the data that they collect, and the methods that they use to analyze data (Creswell, 2009; McKay, 2006).
Therefore, the following questions were addressed: How ‘presenting the present work’ is positioned in Introduction sections of qualitative and quantitative research articles in Applied Linguistics?
For instance, Holmes (1997) identified Background between Introduction and Method sections and Yang and Allison (2003) identified three possible sections of Theoretical Basis, Literature Review, and Research Questions/Focus between the Introduction and Method sections in applied linguistics RAs. Analysis of the corpus of this study revealed several subheadings such as the Present study, Aims of the study, Research Questions, Background, Purpose of the Study, The experiment and specific content sub-headings.