The Structure of Academic Research Articles ELT/Applied Linguistics (Social Sciences)

The purpose(s) of academic research –To contribute to knowledge (to “make” knowledge) –To (possibly) correct previous mistakes (usually of other scholars [or, less frequently, one’s own mistakes]) –To get promotion/tenure/fame/fortune (the latter is unlikely, though)

The basic format of an academic research article (RA) Methods Results Procedure Discussion Introduction general particular general

The introduction –Move one: Establishing a territory step 1: claiming centrality (significance) and/or step 2: making topic generalizations (gen. statements about phenomena or about knowledge of practice) and/or step 3: reviewing items of previous research (see page 586 in sample article) specification of previous findings attribution to previous researchers stance toward that research

The introduction –Move two: Establishing a niche step 1A: counter-claiming or step 1B: indicating a gap or step 1C: question-raising or step 1D: continuing a tradition

The introduction –Move three: Occupying the niche step 1A: outlining purposes or step 1B: announcing present research step 2: announcing principal findings step 3: indicating RA structure (See page 586 of sample article)

Methods –RA describes how research will be carried out Purposes: to show how research was done; to defend validity of findings; to allow others to replicate findings See page 587 in sample article

Results, Discussion, Conclusions –statement of results ( in sample article) –(un)expected outcomes –reference (comparison) to previous research –explanation (esp. of unexpected outcomes) –deduction/hypothesis about generalizability of results –recommendations for further research

Source –Swales, John. Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings. Cambridge Applied Linguistics. New York: Cambridge UP, 1990.