Gabriella Jenei: Referential Cohesion in Academic Writing • A descriptive and exploratory theory- and corpus-based study of the text-organizing role of reference in written academic discourse
›
4. RESEARCH DESIGN
›
4.5. Research articles and MA theses: Comparing oranges to apples?
›
4.5.2. Research articles and MA theses

4.5.2. Research articles and MA theses

Jegyzet elhelyezéséhez, kérjük, lépj be.!

Bhatia (1993, 13) suggests that “a major change in the communicative purpose” is a decisive and reliable criterion for distinguishing a specific genre, while “minor changes or modifications” characterize what he calls “sub-genres”. The following discussion of similarities and differences will show that research articles and MA theses are two subgenres of the research paper genre; therefore, the similarities in their structure, content and purpose indeed allow for a meaningful comparison.
 

Jegyzet elhelyezéséhez, kérjük, lépj be.!

Table 11 Comparing RAs and MA theses
Research article
MA thesis
Context of situation
Communicative purpose
a report of the results of research by the author placed in the context of other research in the field (Swales, 1990)
demonstrate the author’s ability to review existing research, report an investigation and argue their own views against an expert of the field
Field
in our present corpus: the specific field of the papers
is applied linguistics
Tenor
novice or expert to readers within a specific discourse community
novice EFL learner to expert readers
Mode
written: a few thousand words:
20,000 – 40,000 n (in the present corpus of RAs)
written: approximately 80,000 n
may contain graphs, tables, figures, etc.
Structure
Abstract
Introduction (sometimes in one section with Background)
Background / Context
Methodology or Method
Findings / Results / Discussion
Summary / Conclusions
Notes
References
Appendices
Certificate of Research / Title Page
Contents
Abstract
Introduction
Review of Literature
Text/Analysis (possible subsections include Research Method, Materials, Procedures, Results),
Conclusions
Notes (if applicable)
References
Appendices/Illustrations (if applicable)
Note: Italicized content is identical in both subgenres.
Some characteristics of research articles in Table 2 (field, mode and structure) are described on the basis of the corpus compiled for the present study.
Information about thesis requirements at ELTE are from the university’s Web page:
http://seas3.elte.hu/seas/studies/graduation/thesis.html
 

Jegyzet elhelyezéséhez, kérjük, lépj be.!

The comparison of the two subgenres in Table 11 concentrates on their communicative purposes and structure. It should be noted that MA theses in our corpus contain papers that follow the requirements for thesis writing provided by the university.

4.5.2.1. Communicative purpose and field

4.5.2.2. Tenor

4.5.2.3. Mode

4.5.2.4. Structure

chevron_left
chevron_right
Tartalomjegyzék navigate_next
Keresés a kiadványban navigate_next
A kereséshez, kérjük, lépj be!
Könyvjelzőim navigate_next
A könyvjelzők használatához
be kell jelentkezned.
Jegyzeteim navigate_next
Jegyzetek létrehozásához
be kell jelentkezned.
    Kiemeléseim navigate_next
    Mutasd a szövegben:
    Szűrés:
    Kiemelések létrehozásához
    MeRSZ+ előfizetés szükséges.
      Útmutató elindítása
      delete
      Kivonat
      fullscreenclose
      printsave