Syntactic Complexity in the Discussion Sections of Master's and Doctoral Theses: A Cross-Linguistic Study in Applied Linguistics

The current study investigates syntactic complexity in the discussion sections of master's and doctoral dissertations in applied linguistics. To this end, ۳۰ local Iranian MA theses and ۳۰ local Iranian PhD dissertations in applied linguistics were randomly selected from those published in IranDoc (Iran Document Center). Additionally, an international corpus comprising ۳۰ doctoral dissertations in applied linguistics was randomly selected from research databases such as ProQuest. The data were then analyzed using syntactic complexity variables through both descriptive (frequency) and inferential (chi-square) analyses. Furthermore, eight indices of syntactic complexity were considered as the basis for this comparative study. The findings indicate a significant effect of education on the use of these eight syntactic complexity indices. At the conclusion of this paper, the significance of syntactic complexity in terms of structural writing is discussed, along with the implications of these findings for English for academic purposes writing research and pedagogy. Finally, the results and statistics support the conclusion of meaningful differences and considerable frequency in the use of certain syntactic structures over others. Given its practical implications, further research is necessary to better understand the impact of syntactic complexity on writing quality and development.

Keywords:

academic writing theses , Syntactic complexity , discussion section , academic writing