Genre analysis in progress a comparative study of master and doctoral dissertations’ abstracts
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Date
2020
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Oum-El-Bouaghi
Abstract
Abstract sections are a growing area of study in the field of English for academic purposes (EAP). From a discourse-analytic standpoint, researchers increasingly aspire to scrutinize and understand these multifunctional texts. It may be unlikely to make a research paper appear more valuable than it actually is, however, it is probable to appear worse. Therefore, the quality of the original work and the continuation of its reading process tend to be determined by the abstract form and content. The argument for investigating master and doctoral dissertations' abstracts was that they have a special position in the establishment of their research field of expertise. Comparative genre-based studies of the abstract section belonging to Algerian EFL learners have, yet, been almost minuscule with barely any reference to. The main aims of the present study were to carry out an analysis of the abstract sections' rhetorical organization and communicative purposes progress from master to doctoral levels written by Algerian EFL postgraduates and to distinguish their level of awareness and employment of Bitchener's (2010) abstract writing model. The rhetorical move-analysis was carried out on 30 abstracts, which were divided into two corpora, belonging to 15 researchers based on Bitchener's (2010) five-move pattern model. Accordingly, the study proceeded by examining each of the abstract samples solely then comparing them to one another only at a macroscopic level. The findings of the study provided practical and detailed description of the abstracts' structures of the two corpora. A disparity in implementing the rhetorical moves, sub-moves and move order of abstract writing was marked aside with an advancement in using Bitchener's (2010) model from master thesis abstracts to doctoral thesis abstracts. Finally, based on the outcomes of the investigation, implications that might urge material designers to develop adequate materials for academic genre writings, thus, assist learners for an effective participation in international academic discourse communities were brought about.
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Keywords
Abstract, Genre-based, Move-analysis, Rhetorical move