Table Of ContentAuthorial Stance in Research Articles
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Authorial Stance in
Research Articles
Examples from Applied Linguistics
and Educational Technology
Phuong Dzung Pho
Vietnam National University – Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Monash University, Australia
© Phuong Dzung Pho 2013
Foreword © Keith Allan 2013
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First published 2013 by
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Contents
List of Figures vi
List of Tables viii
Foreword ix
Acknowledgments xi
Part I Rhetorical Structure and Authorial Stance
Introduction 3
1 Approaches to Genre Analysis 10
2 Authorial Stance 21
3 A Model for the Analysis of Move Structure
and Authorial Stance 29
Part II Variations in Structure
4 Variations in Move Structure 45
Part III Variations in Stance
5 Evaluating Other Studies 99
6 Introducing One’s Own Study 109
7 Commenting on One’s Own Study 115
8 Presenting Facts 126
9 Variations across Disciplines and within Disciplines 142
Part IV Conclusion and Implications
10 Concluding Remarks 153
11 Pedagogical Implications 160
Appendices 164
References 235
Index 246
v
List of Figures
3.1 Coding scheme for move structures of the Abstract and the
main research article 31
3.2 Framework for the coding of that- complement structures 37
3.3 Codes for controlling word types in the corpus 38
3.4 Codes for source types in the corpus 39
3.5 Distribution of linguistic features across moves in the two
disciplines 41
4.1 Move structure of the Abstract 46
4.2 Frequency of moves in the Abstract 46
4.3 Move structure of the Introduction section 54
4.4 Frequencies of moves in the Introduction section 55
4.5 Frequencies of steps in Move 6 Establishing a territory <EST> 59
4.6 Frequencies of steps in Move 7 Establishing a niche <ESN> 61
4.7 Frequencies of steps in Move 8 Presenting the present
work <PPW> 62
4.8 Move structure of the Methods section 65
4.9 Frequencies of moves in the Methods section 66
4.10 Frequencies of steps in Move 9 Describing the data and
data collection procedure <DCP> 68
4.11 Frequencies of steps in Move 10 Describing the data
analysis procedure <DAP> 69
4.12 Move structure of the Results section 72
4.13 Frequencies of moves in the Results section 73
4.14 Frequencies of steps in Move 11 Preparing for the presentation
of the Results section <PPR> 75
4.15 Frequencies of steps in Move 13 Commenting on specific
results <COR> 78
4.16 Move structure of the D iscussion– Conclusions section 81
4.17 Frequencies of moves in the Discussion– Conclusions section 82
vi
List of Figures vii
4.18 Frequencies of steps in Move 15 Preparing for the presentation
of the Discussion section <PPD> 85
4.19 Frequencies of steps in Move 18 Discussing the findings of
the study <DFS> 86
4.20 Frequencies of steps in Move 20 Evaluating the study <EVS> 87
4.21 Frequencies of steps in Move 21 Deductions from the
research <DER> 88
4.22 Frequencies of moves in the Results– Discussion section 90
4.23 Frequencies of steps in Move 11 Preparing for the
presentation of the Results section <PPR> of the combined
Results– Discussion section 91
4.24 Frequencies of steps in Move 13 Commenting on specific
results <COR> of the combined Results– Discussion section 91
4.25 Frequencies of moves in the Conclusions section 92
4.26 Frequencies of moves in the Abstract (STR – DTR) and in
the main research article (EST – DER) in the two disciplines 93
4.27 Summary of prototypical moves in the two disciplines 94
6.1 Concordance of we in the Presenting the present work <PPW>
move of the Introduction section 112
7.1 Concordance of obligation/necessity modal verbs in
Move 20 Evaluating the study of the D iscussion– Conclusions
section 122
8.1 Normalized frequencies of combinations of source and
controlling word types in Move 4 Summarizing the findings 134
List of Tables
3.1 Total number of words in each move 40
5.1 Summary of significant features of authorial stance in
situating research and indicating gaps 107
6.1 Summary of significant features of authorial stance in
introducing one’s own study 114
7.1 Summary of significant features of authorial stance in
commenting on one’s own study 124
8.1 Summary of significant features of authorial stance in
presenting facts 139
9.1 Significant linguistic realizations of authorial stance in AL 143
9.2 Significant linguistic realizations of authorial stance in ET 144
viii
Foreword
Authorial Stance in Research Articles is an insightful work of careful
scholarship that is the refinement of research originally undertaken for
Dr Pho’s PhD thesis at Monash University. Building on the foundational
work of scholars such as John M. Swales, Pho has constructed a far
more extensive and comprehensive model that deserves to become the
standard reference for studies of academic writing in research articles
and perhaps for analyses of academic texts in general. Pho demonstrates
that the principal component of such texts is the move. Consequently
the text is viewed as a dynamic construct rather than a static array of
constituent parts.
Pho examines the linguistic markers of different moves from her cor-
pus of 40 research articles (randomly selected from a total of 134). Her
subtle analysis identifies a more complex set of steps in the develop-
ment of each move than is commonly found in the literature, which
allows Pho much greater analytical precision. She finds, for example,
that linguistic features vary across moves and not just between sections
(Abstract, Introduction, Results, etc.). Moves that serve similar functions
in the different sections of an article or in different genres of reported
research often have similar linguistic features. It is the identification of
moves within an article that identify its discourse structure better than
its division into sections – whether these sections are proposed by the
author or a discourse analyst. Moves that are conventional in one genre
may be optional in another, so that a genre is largely identified by the set
of moves normal to that genre.
In presenting a move, the academic author takes a certain stance with
respect to the text being created. Roughly speaking, stance is the way
writers present themselves to the reader and the way their judgments,
opinions, and commitments are conveyed. The authorial stance adopted
is a communicative function that in part determines the character of the
move being made. In other words, a move expresses authorial stance,
such that a given move has the same characteristics across genres.
As the final chapter makes clear, one aim of this book is to provide
the novice researcher with a move structure enabling the construction
of a research article that has a good chance of being published in a repu-
table journal. The acknowledged limitation is that only two genres are
examined in the book, applied linguistics and educational technology.
ix
Description:Research on academic writing in general, and on the research article genre in particular, has investigated the generic structure of the Abstract, or of the Introduction section of the research article, with little attention being paid to other sections (Methods, Results, Discussion and Conclusions).
