A genre analysis of empirical research articles on economics
Academic writers need to attain a reasonably high level of competency in order to effectively share specialised knowledge and gain acceptance into an international discourse community. To this end, most academicians have considered the research article as one of the main channels for such scholar...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2012
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/19742/1/A%20genre%20analysis%20of%20empirical%20research.pdf https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/19742/ |
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| Summary: | Academic writers need to attain a reasonably high level of competency in order to
effectively share specialised knowledge and gain acceptance into an international
discourse community. To this end, most academicians have considered the
research article as one of the main channels for such scholarly communication to
take place. To assist novice writers in writing their research reports, it is necessary
to examine the work of expert writers to discover the rhetorical and linguistic
strategies used by established members of the discourse community. One of the
most powerful descriptions of language is genre analysis, but to date, there have
been limited studies which have applied genre analysis to examine research articles
on economics. This study investigates writers' rhetorical strategies in empirical
economics research reports to identify a workable generic structure and the
linguistic mechanisms used by economics researchers to achieve their
communicative intentions. It employed a genre-based analytical framework based
on Swales' (1990, 2004) move-step analysis to study empirical economics research
reports, and the textual analysis was supported by detailed spoken data elicited
from eight specialist informants. The results indicate that empirical economics
research articles generally do not adhere strictly to the prevalent 'Introduction Method-
Results-Discussion' (‘IMRD’) macrostructure; however, a total of 13
rhetorical moves and 38 constituent steps have been identified in relation to their
different linguistic features. Specific rhetorical shifts have been found to be salient,
and they illustrate how communicative functions are strategically linked by
economics researchers. The results of this study are important and useful not only
to the development of applied English linguistics, but also to language practitioners
in the field of English for Specific Purposes. |
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