All the analyzed texts in our corpora were divided into 6 subsections (Abstract, Introduction, etc.), as listed in Figure 15. New chains are those that have a presupposed item in the relevant text segment, extended chains point back to a previous section.

 

 

Figure 15 shows the ratio of new and extended chains within the particular sections in percentages, with 100% being the total number of chains in the given section. As the figure shows, there is no difference between the two corpora in the Abstract, Introduction and Results section. In the description of the methods, MA theses are more detailed, which explains the slightly higher proportion of new chains in the Methods section. The greatest difference between the two sets of papers in this respect is in the Summary or Conclusions. This section has a much higher ratio of new chains than MA theses. Closer observation of the texts revealed that the reason behind this is that authors of RAs do not necessarily restrict their conclusions to the actual findings based on the empirical study in their article, but they also lay heavy emphasis on advertising their study by placing it in the context of similar research in the given field. While placing their study in context is also expected from MA thesis writers, in the thesis requirements at ELTE, it is only emphasized for the Review of the Literature section of the papers. On the whole, the Summary of RAs is more of a self-contained unit than that of MA theses; it is easier to interpret it on its own, without reading the full text of the article. The distribution of merging and splitting in chains in the various text sections supports the idea that these phenomena are alike in reflecting the complexity of chains; the frequency of their occurrences (shown in Figure 16) is very similar in both corpora. Comparing the two corpora, it can be concluded that the Introduction and Summary sections differ most, while the remaining sections are similar in the number of merges and splits they contain.

 

 

The introduction in research articles is relatively short, and it contains a very dense summary of the examined problems, questions and hypotheses, information about the participants, in addition to some of the expected results. This is reflected in the highly complex chains used by RA writers. In contrast, MA theses have a very general introductory section which often focuses more on how the rest of the paper is organized than on the details of the study itself. Thesis introductions frequently contain a description of what personal experience motivated the thesis writer to choose the particular topic they are writing about. Occasionally, they also define some of the terms used in the paper in this section. In conclusion, the introduction sections of RAs and MA theses differ in a number of ways.