ACADEMIC PROSE

Situational analysis and genre

perspective
 On Midterm
Date – 5th April

1. Theoretical questions/ definitions of the key terms:

- Biber and Conrad (2009) – Chapters 1,2,3 and 5
- Bhatia V.K. (2013). p. 280 – 308. – know and be able to
identify the the structural moves/ language features of
newspaper language

2. Practice: register/genre analysis of a short text, or a

comparison of two texts.

3. Open question: Lithuanian approach to stylistics/

Prague school or British contextualism?
 Outline
• Defining situational characteristics

• Genre perspective: the Anglo-Saxon position

• Practice: analysis of English and Lithuanian

abstracts and introductions; academic vs
student writing
 Situational characteristics of academic prose
Biber, D., and Conrad, D. 2009. (p. 109-141)

• Addressor – singular, plural, institutional; often adult

trained professional/ student
• Addressee – group (other professionals in the academic
field, students)
• No direct interaction among participants
• Channel – writing, oriented, some on-line
• Production – time for planning, revising, editing
• Setting – no shared time or place
• Place of communication – public
• Time period – contemporary
• Communicative purposes – inform/ explain/ interpret/
explanatory/ factual with interpretation/overt stance
 Research articles from a genre perspective
Structure
1. Abstract

2. Introduction – Describes what is known so far about this area of

research and what additional information this study will add.

3. Methods – Reports the data, techniques, and procedures used in

the study.

4. Results – Reports the findings of the analysis.

5. Discussion – Interprets the results and argues what their

significance is, referring back to what was previously known about
this area of research.
https://www.google.lt/search?q=%27structural+division+of+a+book%27&biw=1368&bih=643&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjPxeDD2_LNAhUC3iwKHYnJBGI
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Title Research paper
Abstract

Keywords

1. Introduction

2. Theoretical background

2.1 Subsection

2.2 Subsection

2.3 Subsection

3. Methods

4. Results

4.1 Subsection

4.2 Subsection

4.3 Subsection

5. Discussion with
concluding remarks

Acknowledgements

Appendices

References
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LTV3vLNAhXGdpoKHZ_6BcIQ_AUIBigB#tbm=isch&q=%27strcuture+of+research+paper%27&imgrc=DbIGYjNlaQNQtM%3A
 Genre markers
• All five components are expected to occur in
the text, and always in the same order.

• Research articles have particular genre

markers: the labels of each section
(Introduction, Methods, etc.)
 Bhatia, V. K. 1998. Analysing Genre. London/ New York:Longman, p. 76-99
sub-genre analysis of academic prose

• ABSTRACTS vs INTRODUCTIONS

• They are associated with the same research setting; use the same written
mode or channel of communication; share similar participant relations
and the level of formality.

• These two seemingly similar genres are very different in their

communicative purposes. READ 2 EXAMPLES p. 76-77.

• As the two genres have different communicative purposes, they should

display different cognitive structuring.

• Abstract is meant to tell all the important aspects of a lengthier report,

whereas introduction is meant to ‘motivate’ the present research and to
‘justify’ its publication.
 Research article abstracts

• The American National Standards Institute

defines abstract as follows:

“An abstract is an abbreviated, accurate

representation of the contents of a document,
preferably prepared by its author(s) for
publication with it.” (ANSI, 1979: 1)
 Length
• Most journals seem to ask between 150- 200
words for traditional abstracts.

• Dissertation abstracts – 350 words

 Functions
• Accoding to Huckin (2001) abstract has
various functions, some of which are:
– Give readers a short summary of a study‘s topic,
methodology and main findings

– Help readers decide if they want to read the

whole article

– Giving the readers a road-map/ preview of the

whole article, etc.
 Research article abstracts: structure
(example p. 78)

• What the author did

• How the author did it
• What the author found
• What the author concluded

• These four questions can be reorganized into

the four moves
 Research article abstracts: structure
1. INTRODUCING PURPOSE: gives precise indication of the author’s
intention, thesis or hypothesis which forms the basis of the
research being reported. It may also include the goals or
objectives of research or the problem that the author wishes to
tackle.

2. DESCRIBING METHODOLOGY: experimental design, data,

procedures or methods, scope of research.

3. SUMMARIZING THE RESULTS: observations and findings,

suggested solutions to the problem posed in the first move.

4. PRESENTED CONCLUSIONS: interprets results and draws

inferences; indication of the implications and applications of the
present findings.
 ACTIVITY
• Analyze the given abstracts and identify the
four moves, if any. Perspectives:

– Lithuanian vs English

– Different disciplines within one language:

translation studies, history, sociology, etc.
(Vertimo studijos, Darbai ir dienos, Kauno istorijos
metraštis, etc.)
 Research article introductions
(based on Swales 1981, 1985)
• Move 1: establishing field
– Showing centrality
– Stating current knowledge
– Ascribing key characteristics

• Move 2: summarizing previous research (e.g. several studies have shown)

– Strong author-orientation
– Weak author-orientation
– Subject orientation

• Move 3 preparing for present research (no studies, however, have been…)
– Indicating a gap
– Question-raising
– Extending a finding

• Move 4: introducing present research (in this study, we examined…)

– Giving the purpose
– Describing present research
 A revised version of the structure of
research article introductions (Swales 1990)
• MOVE 1 (combines the first two moves of the earlier
version) – Establish a territory (by claiming centrality
of the issue, making topic generalizations, and
reviewing previous research).

• MOVE 2 – Establish a niche (by giving counter claims,

or indicating a gap, or raising questions, or explaining
how the study continues a tradition).

• MOVE 3 – Occupy the niche (by outlining the purpose

of the study, and announcing (optionally) the research
findings and indicating the structure of the article).
 Evaluation of the two models
• In this case, even the introduction of a research article
can be regarded as a well-defined genre, with a
conventional structure for how the ‘text’ should begin
and end. SEE example text p. 84.

• Bhatia (1998) criticizes Swales’ (1990) revised

structure, arguing that the two moves shouldn’t have
been merged into one i.e. literature overview should
have individual status as a step. It is rather problematic
sometimes too distinguish between the moves/ they
can be embedded into each other. SEE EXAMPLE p. 80.
 Introductions in student academic writings
(Dudley-Evans 1989)

• Move 1: Introducing the field

• Move 2: Introducing the general topic within the field
• Move 3: Introducing the particular topic within the general topic
• Move 4: Defining the scope of the particular topic by
– Introducing research parameters
– Summarizing previous research
• Move 5: Preparing for present research by:
– Indicating a gap in previous research
– Indicating a possible extension of previous research
• Move 6: Introducing present research by
– Stating the aim of the research or
– Describing briefly the work carried out
– Justifying the research
 Comparison of introductions in
academic and student writing
• The most significant difference between
Dudley-Evans’ (1989) and four-move Swales’
(1990) structure is the more elaborate
attempt in dissertations to establish field.

• SEE example p. 99.

• Swales’ move “establishing a field” is three

separate moves in Dudley-Evans classification.
 ACTIVITY
• Analyze MA introductions and requirements
of our department; identify the moves

• Analyze MA introductions of other

departments/ universities; identify the moves
 HOMEWORK
1. Genre perspective: the Lithuanian position.
Find several examples of MA thesis writing
requirements in different Lithuanian
universities. Focus on the introduction
writing. Compare with the requirements of
our department.

2. Read Chapter 5 (parts of academic writing)