A Comparative Genre Analysis of the Results Section of Research Articles and Postgraduate Theses in Applied Linguistics

Following Swale’s pioneering contribution to the field of genre analysis, researchers interested in this area have conducted numerous studies analyzing different academic and non-academic texts for micro and macro linguisticorganizations. Most studies, however, have often focused on research articles or theses in isolation. Motivated by thisand focusing on the results section, this study compares two groups of texts, namely, research articles and theses inapplied linguistics. To this aim, 40 samples of results sections from published journal articles and 40 samples ofmasters’ theses in Applied Linguistics were selected to investigate how professional and novice researchers treat reporting the results and commenting on the results, as two major moves, in their research. In so doing, a bottom upapproach was deployed for the analysis as it was aimed to develop a description of these moves and to explore probabledifferences in the writings of the authors of published research articles as professionals and the writings of masters’theses as novices. The findings of this qualitative and quantitative study revealed differences in the frequency of reporting the results and commenting on the results as well as the way professionals and novices evaluated and compared the results with literature, as two steps in commenting on the results move. Furthermore, it was found that professionals, compared to novices, moved from reporting the results to commenting on the results employing sometransitions or introductory phrases. The findings of the present study not only equip novice researchers with the standards of writing the results section of their studies but also can be taken as guidelines for EAP instructors in designing relevant teaching materials

Keywords:

Genre analysis , Results section , Reporting the results , Commenting on results , Research articles , Theses