Genre analysis of abstracts in psychology research articles: A comparative genre-based study

Disciplinary variation in academic writing has been explored for the most part by comparing a particular genre, such as the research article, across different disciplines. In recent years, genre studies have attracted the attention of many researchers. This study investigates the rhetorical organization of English research articles in the field of psychology using Hyland’s (۲۰۰۰) fivemove model of move analysis seeking sub-disciplinary variations across two of the field’s subdivisions, clinical psychology, and educational psychology. To this end, ten research article abstracts in two different sub-disciplines, Educational psychology, and Clinical psychology, were selected. In this study, Hyland’s (۲۰۰۰) five‐move model was used to identify the rhetorical structure of the abstracts. After analyzing each abstract, the main moves were extracted and the frequencies of each one were calculated and compared. Analyzes reveal that a high percentage of these abstracts follow the conventional scheme.

Keywords:

Genre analysis , move , psychology