Move analysis of abstracts in applied linguistics research: The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) perspective
Roy Randy Y. Briones · Asian Journal of English Language Studies · 2018
The research article abstract is one of the most important sections of any journal article, but conventions on how it is written may vary in accordance with the contexts that surround them.This study analyzes the moves that occur among a corpus of 29 semi-randomly selected online research article abstracts taken from three Middle East and North Africa (MENA)-based journals in applied linguistics.Using Hyland's (2000) Introduction-Purpose-Methods-Product-Conclusion (I-P-M-Pr-C) move structure as framework and as a result of the analysis of the corpora, it can be surmised that the Purpose (P), Method (M), and Product (Pr) moves are the most prevalent across the corpora of two of the three journals.In addition, only three abstracts out of 29 feature the complete and sequenced I-P-M-Pr-C structure that Hyland (2000) developed.These results suggest the following: Hyland's move structure may be individually evident across the corpus, but it is not sequenced in the order that Hyland's structure is originally presented.This study also posits the influence of journal-writing conventions, such as abstract lengths, on how writers compose their abstracts and thus results in the foregrounding of some moves (e.g., Purpose, Method, Product), the backgrounding of others (e.g., Introduction, Conclusion), and the existence of mixed moves.Lastly, implications for the teaching of writing and other directions of related research are provided.