Chapter 1 Introduction 2
Chapter 1 Introduction 2
Chapter 1
Introduction
considerations should research writers need to take into account in presenting research
the important academic genres, the methods section of research articles, is put into its
correct form and shape. Also, it reveals great interest on how one shouldsystematically
acquire the academic English used of texts in various disciplines. To address these
writing.
need to provide models of academic and scientific texts for the students, so that they
can produce those texts appropriately. In recent years, discourse and genre analysis
implications for applied linguistics, especially in the teaching and learning of languages,
mass communication, writing research, language reform and a number of other areas
related to professional and academic communication. Hence, over the years there has
specifically Research Articles (RA) since it is considered as one of the most essential
academicians around the globe generally recognize the research article (RA) as the
2
knowledge production (Yang & Allison, 2003, p. 365). Due to the prestigious status of
the research paper in the eyes of the academic discourse community (Swales, 2004), it
is often the genre through which researchers make the results of their work known to
others, and further gain recognition for their position in the discourse community.
means for discourse community members to attain a higher level in the research
community hierarchy, which may then translate into opportunities for career
academic discourse communities generally strive to maintain the quality and standard of
have suggested numerous generic structures of various sections of the RA, which
consist of a series of different moves and steps whereby, scholars and scientists need
to communicate their ideas and findings using publications which require them to have a
full grasp of the discourse communitys conventions (Martin, 2003). Genre analysis
therefore, is the analysis of language use in broader sense in order to account for not
only the way text is constructed but also for the way it is likely to be interpreted, used
and exploited in specific contexts to achieve specific goals where it involves rhetorical
moves of a special type of text written in a particular discourse community that gives
idea on both nave and experienced writer the overall characteristics and picture of a
genre to make, create and organize effective text in different academic pursuits like
3
writing research articles(Bhatia, 2002). With this in mind, it can be said that a move is
learners on the communicative functions and the linguistic features of academic texts.
So far as such texts are concerned, research articles are generally considered a genre
In line with this field, research articles are among the genres which have
(1971, 1980), result section by Brett (1994), and discussion section by Holmes (1997),
Lindeberg (1994) and Berkenkotter and Huckin (1995). However among these four
prototypical academic genre sections, comparatively less attention has been given to
methods (Bruce, 1983; Swales, 1990) which form an important component of both
attentionwhere others have not focused as much scholarly attention to this section
that it often functions as a thread that binds a particular research method with previous
research procedures, or the section itself with other key sections, especially the
Introduction and Results. Without a sound Method section, writers will not be able to
convince the readership of the validity of the means employed to obtain findings.
4
Writers may also use the method section to strengthen the credibility of their findings to
expected challenges to their research designs, and to ward off possible doubts about
nevertheless, a few studies have been found and to date I have not come across any
researches in the country that utilized method section as a corpora in genre analysis. It
is in this circumstance that this research has been founded to probe rhetorical moves
and linguistic features of research article methodology with a hope that this will
contribute to the body of knowledge concerning the rich topics on genre analysis and
research writing. More so,despite the significance of knowing and understanding the
different moves in Research Articles still, the question remains if different researchers
have employed or have familiarity of research article moves and steps in their research
writing particularly in their method sections. Do researchers come across with the
three flagship courses of the University of Southern Mindanao (USM) employ rhetorical
moves and steps constituting the structure of the method section in the research articles
moves and constituent steps of the RAs. To give light with this matter, I was
the rhetorical organization and development of the methods section in RAs, focusing
genre sections, the research article methods, of the three flagship courses of USM
utilizing the perspective of one of the categories of discourse analysis which is genre
analysis and whether these courses observe different or similar moves and steps in
presenting their research methodology. Since I have not come across with studies that
deal with the rhetorical moves and linguistic features of research article methods,
research journals of the three flagship courses of USM and eventually introduce the
framework to the institution as how research methods from various disciplines are put
into their appropriate form and shape in research journal basedon the moves and steps
identified.
writing specifically when one aims to have his/her researches refereed. Hence, this
The corpora were the highlight of the analysis where the two comprehensive
Kanoksilopatham (2005) and Lim ( 2006)were taken into account as backbone of the
analysis.
6
Research Questions
Recognizing the facts presented above particularly the scantiness of researches
in the country that dealt with rhetorical moves and linguistic features that transpired in
method sections, I was able to come up with two research questions that guided me
1. What are the rhetorical moves and steps in the method section of
2. What are the linguistic features found in the research article methods
Theoretical Lens
structure for the RA (research article). Many linguists have undertaken the analysis of
the rhetorical structure of this genre. Specially, numerous have been the studies of the
Introduction in RAs from several disciplines written in English by native and non-native
speakers (i.e. Crookes 1985; Taylor and Tingguang 1991; Linderberg 1995;Nwogu
These studies generally conclude that the CARS model (i.e. Establishing a
territory, Establishing a niche, Occupying the niche) proposed by Swales (1990) is not
usually consistently applied, that is, that certain moves (sub-sections which fulfil a sub-
rhetorical function) and/or steps (minor sub-sections within the latter)tend to be deleted
7
in particular fields and/or in particular national cultural contexts and that the order of
appearance of these moves and steps may be altered according to these two factors.
These findings, thus, seem to indicate that the rhetorical structure of the RA is to
some extent dependent on the discipline to which it belongs and/or the linguistic/cultural
context in which it is written. Hence, research articles specifically method section varies
across disciplines whereby some moves and steps are present or missing depending on
the fieldwhere the corpora are gathered. In fact, researchers such as Brett (1994)
pointed out that the Method sections in his corpus appeared to have three rhetorical
moves or tasks (Brett, 1994, p. 49): (1) to describe how the data have been obtained,
(2) to explain how the concepts and variables of the research work, and (3) to state but
not to explain the statistical techniques used in getting results in quantitative sociology.
Nwogu (1997) analysed 15 articles on medical research and identified three moves with
their constituent elements for medical Method sections: (1) describing data-collection
procedures and Lim (2006) in Method sections in the corpus of management research
articles contain three major moves: (1)describing data collection procedures, (2)
delineating procedures for measuring variables (i.e., describing them in detail), and (3)
This study examined the rhetorical moves of methods sections of the three
Agricultural Sciences and Biology.As models differ, methods sections were searched
using the move names and not models proposed by the previous researchers who
8
The findings of this study may bear relevance and significance to the
to improve the pedagogical pursuit among teachers.This study might help Technical
significance of how should writing courses be tailored to meet the needs of students
endeavor may open the awareness and interests of applied linguists to continue
whatever recommendations and implications may be given for further studies and
Lastly, the result of this study could be used by the researchers for them to put
their studies in the right form and shape particularly in the methods section of their
Definition of Terms
To establish common schema in the framework of this study the following words
Genre is a term for grouping texts together, representing how writers typically
use language to respond to recurring situation (Hyland, 2004). A genre comprises a set
9
focused on the identification of schematic units or move structure in any genre studies
(Nwogu,1997). One of the research line in genre analysis is move analysis. The move
each unit. Each one of the moves where a text is segmented constitutes a section,
revealing a specific communicative function, but this is linked to and contributes to the
general communicative objective of the whole genre (Parodi, 2010). In this study, genre
analysis was utilized in order to determine the rhetorical moves and steps that form the
Rhetorical Move is a unit of language created by the writer and is realized by its
function or the purpose for which it is utilized in a discourse. A move can be classified in
the form of clause, sentence or paragraphs. Moves can be attributed to Swales (1990)
CARS (Create A Research Space) who presented the move structure of article
their paper.
research article served as the corpora understudy where different moves and steps and
10
linguistic features such as cohesion were identified. In the IMRAD structure of Swales
answering research question (Campbell, 2010). It is when, where, and how was the
study done and what materials were used or who was included in the study groups.
(Sollaci and Pereira, 2004). Method section often functions as a thread that binds (1) a
particular research method with previous research procedures, or (2) the section itself
with other key sections, especially the Introduction and Results. Without a sound
Method section enables the writer to convince the readership of the validity of the
discourse that stems from links among its surface elements, as when words in one
sentence are repeated in another, and especially from the fact that some words or
phrases depend for their interpretation upon material in preceding or following text. It
refers to relations of meaning that exists within the text, and that define it as a text
in the field of linguistics and rhetoric. This, according to Hyland (2002) and Hyon (1996),
has prompted certain scholars to describe the study of genre in terms of a number of
Bazerman (1988), Martin (1984), Miller (1984) and Swales (1990, 2004)
recognized genre as a social phenomenon, with texts with specific genres having
intended audience.
activity in which speakers engage as members of their culture. Miller (1984) also
and which occurs in a specific discourse community. She argued that rhetorically sound
definition of genre must be centered not on the substance or the form of discourse but
on the action it is used to accomplish. This action, according to her, must involve
Swales (1990), accepted as the leader in genre and move analysis of English for
genrethat has become the basis in shaping the schematic structure of discourse and
share some set of communicative purposes. Most often it is highly structured and
positioning, form, and functional value. These constraints however are often exploitedby
the expert members of the discourse community to achieve private intentions within the
genre.
Bhatia (1993), following Swales definition, made a further elaboration and stated
and Bloor (1993) also delineated genre as a specific product of a social practice which
can be described and taught because of several formal characteristics they have.
Other definitions where given by Jogthong (2001) and Richards and Schmidt
distinctive by its purpose and the discourse community for which it is intended.
Richards and Schmidt (2002) further delineated it as a type of discourse that occurs in a
particular setting, that has distinctive and recognizable patterns and normsof
organization and structure and that has particular and distinctive communicative
functions.
research schools. These were North American New Rhetoric (NANR), Australian
Systemic Functional Linguistics, and English for Specific Purposes (ESP). NANR
studies, on one hand, focus on the social and ideological significance of genres.
Australian Functional Linguistics, on the other hand, investigates the broad genres of
teaching and learning, and emphasizes social context and function are as important as
text and form. ESP is interested in the theoretical and pedagogical aspects of language
13
which made genres. In ESP, both written and spoken discourses are important and non-
For years, genre has been in the limelight of applied linguistics studies. It has
and L2 instruction (Hyon, 1996). Hyland (2002) stated that genre approached had a
considerable impact on the ways one will understand discourse and in transforming
literacy education in different contexts around the world. He further stated that the
desire to study about genres is based on two reasons; to understand the relationship
between language and its context of use and to employ this knowledge in the service of
According to Swales (1990), genre analysis is the study of how language isused
the study of specialist areas of language. Henry and Roseberry (2001) stated that the
general aim of genre analysis is to identify the moves and strategies ofa genre, the
allowable order of the moves, and the key linguistic features. The nextstep is to explain
why these features were chosen by expert users of the genre toachieve their
communicative purpose.
psychology, or linguistics.
14
defines organizes and finally communicates social reality. This aspect of genre analysis
emphasizes that text by itself is not a complete object possessing meaning on its own; it
prerequisites, and even cultural constraints. Moreover, the sociological aspect of genre
question, Why do members of what sociologists call secondary cultures write the way
they do?. Miller (1984) and Kress (1985) were two of those researchers who used the
the cognitive structure of genres and strategies chosen by the writers to make their
writing more effective. These strategies might not conform to the conventional rules of
genres, but do not alter the main communicative purposes of the genres (Bhatia, 1993).
variation in genres. This includes register analysis, the study of lexical and grammatical
features in the texts, and rhetorical and discursive analysis. Scholars who have worked
on this area focused on different aspects of genre analysis. Barber (1962), Halliday,
McIntosh and Strevens (1964), Huddleston (1971), Gustafsson (1975), and Crystal and
Davy (1969) have worked on register or stylistic analysis, while Selinker, Lackstrom and
15
Trimble (1972), Swales (1981) and Bhatia (1982) have studied rhetorical and discourse
One that has drawn great attention in the study of genre is English for Specific
Purposes or ESP genre analysis of written and spoken discourse in academic and
professional setting. Within ESP genre approaches, the aims of genre analysis have
generally been to examine what a discourse communitys goals are and how genre
features (structurally and lexico-grammatically) embody and help its members carry out
that both gives rise to and provides the rationale for a genre, and shapes its internal
structure. It is communicative purpose that often serves as a starting point for ESP
genre analyses, which then proceed toward an analysis of a genres rhetorical moves
and steps, then to textual and linguistic features that carry out the moves and steps.
Swales (1981, 1990) and Bhatia (1993, 1997) represented ESP genre analysis. It
began with Swales pioneering works (Swales,1981, 1990) on the Introduction section of
RAs, and manyresearchers have used structural move analysis to explore the generic
patterns in genres such as academic RAs (Hopkins & Dudley-Evans, 1988) magazines
concerning genre focuses on the reading and writing needs of non-native speakers of
16
English (NNES) in higher education (Holmes 1997; Hopkins & Dudley-Evans 1988;
Kanoksilapatham 2005; Peng 1987).The research article (RA) genre in particular has
drawn tremendous attention from researchers, with many studies of the rhetorical
structures or moves ,i.e. segments of text that express certain communicative functions,
of various sections of the research article (Stoller and Robinson, 2012; Swales, 2004).
Moreover, a lot of researchers made an effort to report the discourse structure of RAs
verbal elements, usually limited to a few thousand words that reports on some
investigations carried out by its author/s. In addition, the RA will usually relate the
finding within it to those of others and may also examine issues of theoryand/or
Studies of RAs tend to concentrate on two main areas. One is on the global
organizational structure or move structure of the research article, mainly following the
English for Specific Purpose (ESP) approach in particular Swales (1990) Create a
Research Space (CARS) model. Studies of the structure of research articles have
tended to concentrate on only one or two individual sections of the research article,
especially on the introduction (Ozturk, 2007; Samraj, 2002, 2008; Swales, 1981) and to
a lesser extent, on the discussion (Holmes, 1997; Peacock, 2002). A few studies
investigate the organizational structure of other sections of the research article, for
17
example, the methods section (Lim, 2006) and the results section (Brett, 1994) or of the
research article as a whole (Kanosilapatham, 2005). Most of the studies on the structure
stylistic features of the research article such as the use of passive and active voice (e.g.
Tarone, Dwyer, Gillette, and Icke, 1998), Tenses ( e.g. Malcolm, 1987), reporting verbs
(e.g. Thompson and Ye, 1991), and personal pronouns (e.g. Kuo, 1999. These studies
have provided significant knowledge of the research article genre. The linguistic
features investigated in most previous studies, however, tend to be scattered and there
are no empirical studies on how linguistic features are distributed across the moves of
linguistics; second language acquisition and second language writing research. Samraj
Holmes (1997) analyzed the discussion section of History, Political Science, and
Sociology RAs. His findings showed no completely obligatory move. Also based on his
findings, he developed his modified Dudley-Evans (1988) model and developed his
Lim (2006) examined the methods section of RAs from major business
management journals. The findings revealed that 3 moves and 12 steps were found in
18
the RAs methods section. He also took the following references to identify the move
boundaries: linguistic features in the text to indicate the internal boundaries, more
obvious markers such as typographical features. With this, Lim is the only one in the
field who provided a very detailed move-and-step analysis linked to linguistic features,
Brett (1994) in his study of the results section of sociology RAs using Swales
model identified three moves: metatextual, presentation and comment moves. These
moves were further described by him in terms of function and lexical and grammatical
forms.
Very few researchers studied the complete rhetorical moves of RAs. Nwogu
RAs from different medical research journals. The findings revealed an eleven move
schema in RAs. Further, each schema was found to embody constituent elements and
Yang and Allison (2003) also worked on presenting the main lines of genre
analysis of the macrostructures of RAs, though his focus was on Applied Linguistics
sections tend torelate to one another. Altogether, 20 moves were identified in their
framework: 6moves for the Results section, 7 moves for the Discussion section, 3
moves for theConclusion section and 4 moves for the Pedagogic Implications section.
The findingsshowed that the format of RAs in applied linguistics is different from the
conventionalIMRD framework.
19
whole structure ofbiochemistry RAs using Swales (1990): 3 moves forthe Introduction
section, 4 for the Method section, 4 for the Results section, and 4 forthe Discussion
section. On the basis of her move analysis,a two-level rhetorical structure, moves and
articles which are made up of distinct sections. Each section can be subdivided into
moves and each move can be broken into steps (Kanoksilaptham, 2005). Its goal is to
units within the text according to their communicative purposes or rhetorical moves.
function. Each move not only has its own purpose but also contributes to the overall
Swales, constitute the rationale for the genre, which in turn shapes the schematic
structure of the discourse and influences and constrains choice of content and style,
with texts in a genre exhibiting various patterns of similarity in terms of structure, style,
content, and intended audience. In other words, Swales move-step model aims to
choices, and studies of these aspects have focused largely on the Introduction or the
Results and Discussion sections, but less attention has been given to Method sections.
Lim (2006) pointed out that investigations into the Method section are important
in that often functions as a thread that binds a particular research method with previous
research procedures or the section itself with other sections, especially the Introduction
and Results. He further stressed that without a sound Method section, writers will not be
able to convince the readership of the validity of the means employed to obtain findings.
Writers may use the Method section to strengthen the credibility of their findings to be
expected challenges to their research designs,and to ward off possible doubts about
While only a few authors seem to have investigated the move structure of RA
methods sections, their results are important regarding this study because of their
focus. Each author looked at a fairly small number of RAs from just one discipline. They
are Brett (1994), 20 sociology RAs; Nwogu (1997), 15 medicine RAs; Lim (2006), 20
chemistry. It is also significant to note that most of these studies employed Swales
(1990) model providing valuable insights into the rhetorical structure of individual
Brett (1994) pointed out that the Method sections in his corpus appeared to have
three rhetorical moves. These are: to describe how the data have been obtained, to
21
explain how the concepts and variables of the research work, and to state but not to
medical research identified three moves with their constituent elements. These moves
describing data analysis procedures. Further, in Lims (2006) study on the management
research articles Method section, he also identified three major moves: describing data
The results of studies of Brett (1994), Nwogu (1997) and Lim (2006) for the first
three disciplines, sociology, medicine and management were almost identical: the
Wood (1982) in his study of chemistry articles managed to show that there was a
typical rhetorical structure follow and, moreover, that there are even specific linguistic
who studied the whole structure of biochemistry research articles identified 15 moves.
Four of these moves were from the Method section; two moves are conventional and
the other two are optional. These moves were: describing materials, describing
noteworthy, and led to wonder if the same applies acrossa broaderrange of disciplines,
sections.
Swales (2004) adds that Method sections in science they are heavily clipped,
explaining that this may happen because authors assume their readers already possess
sufficient knowledge. Regarding the humanities, Swales (1990) claims they have a
shorteris limited because they are based on looking at relatively few RAs.
sectionsmay show that writing them is relatively uncomplicated, but this is not thecase
(Swales, 2004). This may beparticularly true for non-native speakers (NNS)(Paltridge,
1993; Wood, 2001), and if so NNS will have real difficulties publishing within their
discourse communities.
Research writing is not easy for native speakers(NS) either. These difficulties will
be even more acute if, as Vassileva (1997) asserts,NNS research writers tend to be
While it is suggested that NNS and NSresearch writers need toknow the move structure
of methods sections, few studies have investigated theirstructure, and they examined
only a small number of RAs from a few disciplines.Other authors describe function or
Therehave recently been calls for further research; Lim (2006) asserts that
methods sectionsare crucial and that it is a need to look at their generic structure, which
has been neglected in the sciences. Kanoksilapatham (2005), referring to all disciplines,
states thatthere is still no clear model because methods sections have received scant
attention.
needed,and that such research should use larger corpora to assess variation across a
widerange of disciplines. The findings may tell much about the true nature of
constituent steps, and to discover how individual moves and constituent steps are
realized in lexical and syntactic choices. These management RAs which were chosen
so as to represent a range of authors, issues, and subject areas were examined using
Lims findings revealed that Most Method sections in the corpuscontain three
procedures.
Describing the sample which includes describing the location of the sample, describing
the size of the sample/population, describing the characteristics of the sample, and
defining variables, and describing methods of measuring variables; and 3. Justifying the
recounting) data analysis procedure/s; 2. Justifying the data analysis procedure/s; and
3.Previewing results.
Research Articles, identified 15 rhetorical moves three in the Introduction section, four
in the Methods section, four in the Results section, and four in the Discussion section.
These moves were numbered 115, reflecting the order inwhich they most often
appeared in the corpus. The model does not claim that thesemoves only occurred
25
linearly in these positions; in fact, Move 4 and Move 5, Move 8and Move 9, and Move
There are four moves identified in the biochemistry corpus: two moves are
conventional and the other are optional. The first move in the Method section is
describing materials which covers which includes the following steps: 1. Listing
materials explicitly itemizing materials or substances used in the study; 2. Detailing the
source of the materials identifying how these items are obtained; 3. Providingthe
materials.
methods and techniques usually protocoled. This move has three variations or steps.
replication. Move 5can also be realized by Step 3: Providing the background of the
regarding the setting of the apparatus used for a particular task in an experiment, the
26
information crucial for future research replication. The last move found in Method
These moves were coded from moves 1 to 11. Based on the result of her analysis, it
was found out some new steps have been found that some of the steps proposed by
Nwogu (1997) and/or CollGarca (2002) and other previous researches have not
appeared in the corpus. As pointed out, this may be theresult of the different disciplinary
nature of the RAs analysed by Nwogu (1997) and the onesanalysed in the corpus and
the general character of Coll Garcas (2002) sequence which is positedas applicable to
a wide range of elds. Rather than outlining steps grouped under movesas Nwogu
(1997) and Coll Garca (2002) do, only steps are outlined in relation to thebusiness
management RAs analysed. This is a result of not perceiving that steps are regularly
encompassed under a superordinate move. The steps that have appeared at some
point in the Methods sections of the business management RAs in the comparable
section.
27
Cohesion
linguistic elements and structure. In their famous cohesion in English, Halliday and
conjunction and lexical cohesion. According to Halliday and Hasan (1976;13), these
explicit clues make a text a text. Cohesion occurs when the interpretation of some
Reference: two linguistic elements are related in what they refer to.
All the children had an ice cream today. Eva chose strawberry. Arthur has orange and Wilhem
too.
Why does this little boy wringgle all the time? Girls dont wringgle
central issues in research writing. For Carstens (1995), research on textual aspects had
been put into limelight in the early 1980s. Halliday, and hassans cohesion in English
28
(1976) had inspired studies such as De Beeuagrande and Dressler (1981), Azzouz
preoccupied researchesfor quite some time; they have considered the utilization of
academic writing.
Hence, Aside from move analysis, Discourse analysis also includes analysis of
the linguistic features such as cohesion that contribute to the realization of move and
As for Brown and Yule (1989), text is a verbal record of a communicative event.
added that two of these conventions which is cohesion and coherence are textual in
nature. Morgan and Selner (1980) also shared that cohesive devices which are present
Halliday and Hassan (1976) disputed that the quality of coherence in a text is the
upshot of cohesive ties which exist in a text. They both explain coherence relations and
cohesive devices as linguistic mean that enables the writers achieve coherent texts.
29
interpretable whole, rather than a set of unconnected sentences. Halliday and Hassan
(1976) emphasized that cohesion occurs where the interpretation of any items in the
discourse. They pointed out that cohesion is a semantic relationship between one
element and another in the text and some other elements that is essential to
interpretation.
They append that as an author develops a theme, an idea, or event, the cohesive
bonds create more than just pairs of linked terms. Each type of repetition of information
forms a chain and the idea within each chain together develop a topic.
They classified 5 categories which can provide a practical means for analyzing
texts. These are references, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction and lexical cohesion, the
first 3 types are categorized into grammatical cohesion. Lexical cohesion refers to
relations between any lexical item and some previously occurring lexical item in the text,
quite independently of the grammatical category of the items in question. Among these,
The first type of cohesions is reference. This cohesion makes up items in the
to make reference to something else for their interpretation (Halliday and Hassan,
1976). The reference of an item can be derived within text such as he in Jose loves
because it shares the same referent as, and refers to, Jose. Moreover, reference
excepts the demonstrative adverbs and some comparative adverbs, function within the
nominal group.
Azzouz (2009) stated that personal pronouns are the most common linguistic
academic writing has been related to writers voice and the writers position in the
academic world.
Hyland (2001) states that the use of impersonality has been proposed by
recognition of this particular writing style. Martin (1995) further comments that writers
choice in announcing their presence in the academic field is viewed as a strategy that is
promoting and gaining accreditation on their claims in research. This is also supported
discourse and Groom (1993) in his analysis of academic writing revealedthat the use of
pronoun indicates the importance of writers textual voice and states that writers should
clearly state their view when they are reporting the voice of an author or stating their
The definite article the has usually been set separately, in English grammar, as
a unique member of a class, its only relative being the indefinite article a. This
happens because no other item in English behaves exactly like the. On the other
hand, it has important similarities with a whole group of other items, so that we need not
hesitate to classify it with the determiners and more specifically, with the specific
determiners, the class which includes the demonstratives and the possessives.
In writing, demonstratives are used when writers tend to use them to qualify
definite article for instance indicates that its noun is a particular one (or ones) specific to
the listener or reader. It may be something that the speaker has already mentioned, or it
may be something uniquely specified or when the noun is specific or particular. The
signals that the noun is definite, that it refers to a particular member of a group while
article a/andenotes that its noun is not a particular one (or ones) identifiable to the
listener. It may be something that the speaker is mentioning for the first time, or its
general statement about any such thing. A" and "an" signal that the noun modified is
phrase like I like the red car but I prefer the blue one.
32
phrase. The presupposing element which denotes the substitution is usually the word
do and its various forms, i.e does,, did, and done like Every child like chocolate and
clause. The most recurrent presupposing element affecting this kind of substitution is
so as in :
In this statement so replaces the whole sentence Jose is not guilty of the
crime.
The third type of lexical device is ellipsis. This pertains to the absence of a word,
a phrase or a clause which is understood within the utterance. In ellipsis cohesion, there
are three types depending on the syntactic category of the presupposed elements.
Ellipsis occurs when words are left out of a text and able to work out from the
surrounding text what is missing (Paltridge 2000). Ellipsis are categorized into three
namely; nominal ellipsis, verbal ellipsis, and clausal ellipsis. Nominal ellipsis occurs
when a noun or a noun phrase is presupposed. For example; These are my two
bracelets. I used to have five. In this example the word bracelets has been omitted and
Clausal ellipsis occurs when both a noun or noun phrase and a verb or at least
In this example, Mary is affirming the entire clause; you are doing your
assignments today?
The 4th type of lexical device is conjunction. This is achieved to have grammatical
cohesion texts which illustrate the relationship between sentences. They are totally
different from other cohesive ties that they reach the meaning by using other features in
between paragraphs are usually expressedby conjunctions (Anderson, J. & Poole, M.,
1994). According to Nunan (1993),conjunctions are used to refer to the other parts of
Conjunction has 4 types- additive, adversative, causal and temporal. Items such
as in other words, however, meanwhile, and thus provide indicators of the relationship
between clauses. Conjunctive cohesion is pervasively used and most extensively dealt
This type of cohesion differences from the other types of cohesive devices since it has
34
no specifiable element in a situational context or text for its interpretation; it has its
inherent meaning.
Thus, Halliday and Hasan (1976) argued that conjunctive elements are cohesive
not in themselves but indirectly by virtue of the specific meanings; they are not
primarilydevices for reaching out into the preceding text, but they express certain
meanings which presuppose the presence of their components in the discourse. For
example; he took a cup of coffee after he woke up. The word after suggests sequence
that what is expressed in the first clause followed what is expressed in the second one.
result. In other words, relation between the two segments will be one of the reason-
result. Unlike reference, substitution and ellipsis cohesion ties, which are meant to
denote only one phoric relation at a time, conjunctionsopen in the directions at the
same time forward to where the writer intends to go backward to where he has been
The fifth type of cohesive device is lexical cohesion. This type of cohesion plays
the most important form among cohesive ties (Hoey, 1991). He found out in his study
that around forty to fifty percent of cohesive ties of a text are comprised by lexical
cohesion. Lexical cohesion denotes that coherence can also exist without the use of
cohesive conjunction ties as:Young people are impulsive. Old people take their time.
texture, through specific features given to it by the text (Halliday and Hassan 1976). In
Lexical cohesion is the final type of cohesion categorized by Halliday and Hasan
(1976) in Cohesion of English. Among the types of cohesion identified, lexical cohesion
is not associated with ny syntactic classes of elements. It is therefore the most open
ended and least adequately defines of the five kinds. In lexical patterning, successive
realized through the association of lexical items that regularly co-occurs. For example:
Why does this little boy wriggle all the time? Girls dont wriggle.
Using Halliday and Hassans (1976) model in his study of cohesion and
Students writing; found out that conjunctions as a cohesive device are most known by
the learners however most of the conjunction devices are used appropriately.
theses in USEP and found out that the research introductions patterns of numerous
definite articles and pronouns distributed throughout the corpora of the study. The
results further revealed thatAB English program was the most cohesive giving the most
Palestinian College Students results reveal that language transfer is a main factor that
impedes cohesion and coherence particularly by intermediate and low level students.
Students Composition. The results revealed that both conjunctive cohesion density and
Liu and Qi (2010) dealt with A Contrastive Study of Textual Cohesion and
concluded that Chinese and English are surprisingly different in strategies of cohesion
and coherence, and such major cohesive and coherence errors committed repetitively
by most Chinese EFL students are more associated with their cultural transfer by
fossilization.
and Russian learners reported that the reference and conjunction are used pervasively
to discern only between two adjacent sentences. Cohesive links are often established
by grammatical elements that occur in a sequence of sentences that are not adjacent.
The presence of intervening sentences often signals that a writer includes an additional
reference and conjunction is more frequently used than substitution and ellipsis in
argumentative essays. I is assumed that lexical cohesion is more prevalent than the use
Cohesion provides relationship and connectedness between words rather than the
Passivisation
The passive voice allows a writer to depersonalize information hence the
passive voice construction in research methodology is frequently used to allow one omit
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the agent placing the emphasis on the procedure, materials, method and how they were
done out carried out in the study. The use of the passive voice has the effect of
depersonalizing the information and thus making the tone more academic and
professional thus making the statement more objective (Weissberg and Bucker, 2010).
researchers are describing work that has already been completed.The tense usually
used to describe the procedures that have been carried out in a research project.The
materials and methods section describes what you did and how you did that. Here, the
past is more natural because researchers are describing work that is already complete
at the time of writing (Joshi, 2014). Thus, it is simply a description of your actions. There
are however, two possible exceptions to the use of the simple past tense. Existing facts
and standard procedures are written in the simple present tense. e.g. Advanced
software is now available to test the amount of radon emitted. Some disciplines prefer
the use of the simple present tense to describe the methodology. If in doubt,Weissberg
and Bucker (2010) suggested check with your supervisor as he/she will be familiar with
the expectations of your discipline and to find out which style is preferred by your
discipline.
Verbals
In any type of writing, Participles help course through the meaning intended by
the writer to the understanding of the readers, since participles make clear references
and specification between ideas propounded. This has been affirmed by Granger (1997)
in her study On Identifying the Syntactic and Discourse Features of Participle Clauses in
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Academic English: Native and Non-Native Writers Compared, which revealed that
given text.
the actions s/he describes. It can also be used to when speculating about a possible
from a Science Journalist. Knowing this, the research output from the articles
exemplified a more impersonal tone in writing or has a weak author presence, thus,
methodology since infinitives are discourse structuring devices that set and highlight the
authors thesis (Granger in Aarts, et. al 1997); while maintaining a more impersonal and
In the research articles, gerund is used to name an activity rather than a person
or thing.Gerund facilitates the research writer to encode actions that are vivid, real,
ongoing or completed in the past.It represents the success of the subject of the main
verb(Murcia and Freeman, 2008). Gerund is also used to indicate state of being.
and steps of the method section of research articles of the three flagship courses in the
science. Different research journals from these disciplines selected randomly were
subjected for analysis since there are years that they failed to publish research journals.
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(2005) and Lim (2006) served as the backbone of the analysisgiven that among the
previous researches that examined the method section of research articles; the moves
they identified run parallel to the moves and steps employedin the corpora understudy.
demonstrate moves and steps in presenting research methodology that conform or suit
moves that are not found in previous model were considered as unique move of such
specific discipline. Since, the study only delved in with rhetorical moves and linguistic
features such as cohesion, it did not capture in general anymore the discourse and
some substantial features such as meaning, ideology, content of the corpora that can
markers, expressions, and other linguistic signals that realized the moves and steps.
The analysis did not include other disciplines because the main concern of the study is
just to determine whether moves and steps are employed or evident in the research
methods and not to create models to all disciplines or courses in the university. The
three disciplines understudy just served as materials to reveal the moves, steps and
linguistic features.
supply models of academic and scientific texts for the students, so that they can
produce and tailor those texts appropriately when they engage in academic and
scientific writing.
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Generally, the aim of this pursuit is to describe and analyze the rhetorical moves
in the different sections of research articles particularly the methods section and to
provide more comprehensive account as how it is realized so that readers can easily
get the substance of what this research study intends to pursue. This qualitative
Chapter 1 discusses the background as how this paper comes into shape and
form. It presents the overview of the emergence and importance of genre analysis as a
discipline of discourse analysis. It also includes the research questions which serve as a
guide in the conduct of the study, the theories and models that provide basis for the
analysis of the corpora, the research purpose for conducting the study, the studys
definition of the terms that would provide understanding to readership. This chapter also
reviews all concepts essential in the study such as varied studies on genre analysis and
the findings of other related studies. Each variable in the study is comprehensively
elucidated to provide all details relevant to the study. The literatures written by theorists
and scholars and those conducted by the researchers are presented in order to
establish the relevance and the foundation in reality of the chosen research issue.
With this related literature and studies reviewed, I was provided with valuable
insights and concepts which are helpful in the present investigation. Specifically, the
review offered a better standpoint to the research objectives. Ideas regarding the
students should and various individuals organize their academic and scientific texts.
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Furthermore, the review will provide the framework and implications of the present study
The second chapter describes the methods to be applied in the conduct of study.
It gives vivid picture on the research design that provides shape and form of the study. It
explains the design of the study, the role of the researcher, procedures to be
undertaken for the collection of data and its analysis giving emphasis on the valid
Kanoksilapatham (2005) and Lim (2006) and Cohesion in English by Halliday and
generated after the study was embarked and its implications to pedagogy, further
research and concluding remarks. It shows the foundation of findings based from the
related studies and literature and their divergence to other studies which were carried
___________________________________
A Dissertation
Presented to
The Faculty Graduate School
University of the Immaculate Conception
Davao City
___________________________________
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Doctor of Philosophy in Education
Major in Applied Linguistics
____________________________________
Donnie M. Tulud
March 2015
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