scholarly journals A contrastive study of grammatical metaphors in abstracts of Chinese MA theses and expert academic writing

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ziou Huang ◽  
Hui Yu
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
First Language ◽  
Research Articles ◽  
Academic English ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Language Differences ◽  
Contrastive Study ◽  
English Academic Writing

Abstract As a significant indicator of College students’ ability in academic English communication, academic papers, especially their condensed abstracts require various writing techniques among which the use of grammatical metaphors (GMs) is typical. To improve the English academic writing level of Chinese postgraduate students, it is significant to compare their use of GMs with that in expert research articles. On the basis of Halliday’s reclassification of GMs, this study aims to compare the characteristics of GMs in abstracts of MA theses and expert research articles (RAs). It is found that there is universal use of nearly all GM types in both groups. The two groups are similar in that they share the top five most frequently used GMs, and there are no significant differences in the use of more than half of the GM types. However, the overall GM frequency of expert RAs is significantly higher than that of MA theses. Significant differences are also found in the use of six GM types. Furthermore, some correlations between certain GM types found in expert RAs are missing in MA theses. Reasons for these differences may include the limited understanding of GM, the underdeveloped cognitive ability, the genre differences and the first language differences. Based on these findings, implications for teaching and learning are discussed.

Using Medical Academic English Corpus for Postgraduates Students Academic Writing Training

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (10) ◽  
pp. 868
Author(s):  
Feng Zhang ◽  
Yuanhua Zheng ◽  
Li Li
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Research Articles ◽  
Academic English ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
The Future ◽  
Do It Yourself

This paper reports on the use of personal do-it-yourself medical academic corpora by postgraduate students for academic writing. Thirty-five graduate students in medicine attended our course in which they learn to build and use their self-compiled corpora of research articles to train themselves in academic writing. At the end of the course, they completed some questionnaires, which asked about their use of corpora in and after class, and six months after the course, they completed some similar email questionnaires, which asked about their corpus use six months later. Some personal interviews were also conducted for users and nonusers. This paper also discusses reasons behind this change in the use of DIY corpora, and advocate some measures should be taken to encourage the long-term use of corpora and some of the challenges to be overcome for more widely use of the approach in the future.

scholarly journals Move Structure of Research Article Abstracts on Management: Contrastive Study (the Case of English and Russian)

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 63-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Zanina
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
Russian Language ◽  
Research Articles ◽  
Linguistic Differences ◽  
Contrastive Study ◽  
Research Article ◽  
Linguistic Research ◽  
Academic Communication

Although a plethora of papers have proved a seminal role of move-based genre analysis in cross-linguistic research of academic communication and EAP/ESP teaching and learning, there is a lack of respective linguistic or pedagogically motivated studies of research articles (RAs) and their parts aimed at comparing English and Russian. Using Hyland’s (2000) 5-move model, the current research seeks to determine the most obvious cross-linguistic differences in the move structure of abstracts of research articles on management for these languages. Based on a move analysis of the English- and Russian-language corpora each comprising 20 unstructured RA abstracts, the research revealed conformity of most English-language abstracts to Hyland’s model, while the Russian abstracts principally displayed a three-move structure containing ‘purpose’, ‘method’ and ‘product’, and included the ‘introduction’ and ‘conclusion’ moves only occasionally. Other significant discrepancies comprised the English-language authors’ tendency to provide precise or detailed indication of research methods and results, in contrast to their brief indication or over-generalized mentioning by Russian writers, as well as greater length of the English-language abstracts and their stricter concordance to standard move sequence than those of the Russian abstracts. Though the research was conducted on relatively small corpora and was descriptive in nature, its findings might be of interest to genre analysts as well as to L2 theorists and practitioners.

scholarly journals Proposed Model to Assist Saudi Postgraduate Students in their English Academic Writing

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 527-542
Author(s):  
Noof Saleh Alharbi
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Written Feedback ◽  
Mixed Methods Design ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Sequential Mixed Methods ◽  
Proposed Model ◽  
Underlying Causes ◽  
English Academic Writing ◽  
Qualitative Phase

This current research forms part of a broader investigation into the problems Saudi postgraduate students face in English academic writing. The study used the interpretive paradigm to investigate and interpret the perceptions of Saudi postgraduate students and their supervisors in relation to the difficulties they encountered regarding academic writing in English. Therefore, the study adopted a sequential mixed-methods design. The quantitative phase of the research employed a questionnaire whereas the qualitative phase employed semi-structured interviews and document analysis. In total, 275 students completed the prepared questionnaire whilst 15 students, both male and female, and 9 supervisors participated in the semi-structured interviews. The research also used ten samples of written feedback students had received from their supervisors. SPSS descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data quantitatively, and MAXQDA software was used to analyse the data qualitatively. The study identified that Saudi postgraduates encounter a range of difficulties in their academic writing, which were due to several underlying causes. Therefore, to address this issue and to contribute to knowledge in the field, the author of this study devised a theoretical model to assist Saudi postgraduate students overcome their difficulties with English academic writing. The main focus of the current study is to explain this model in detail.

scholarly journals A Discourse Analysis: Cohesion of the Introduction Section of Research Article

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Anis Firdatul Rochma ◽  
Sulis Triyono
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
English Language ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Research Articles ◽  
Semantic Meaning ◽  
Lexical Cohesion ◽  
Research Article ◽  
English Academic Writing ◽  
Writing Competence

<em>As an effort to give contribution to the existing knowledge, it is expected for the undergraduate students to compose an engaging research article in order to convince the readers about the importance of the research article. However, there is only a little attention given to the articles written by the undergraduate students although it is considered very critical to examine whether the exposure of English academic writing has significantly enhances the writing competence of the students. Furthermore, as it is also very crucial to build a meaningful semantic meaning among the sentences in order to disclose the worthiness of the research article, it is essential to analyze the cohesion of the research article written by the undergraduate students. Henceforth, the present research is projected to investigate the cohesion of the research articles written by the undergraduate students of English Language Teaching. As the introduction section of research article is likely to be an area to portray the logical explanation of the research, the present research solely focuses on examining the cohesion of the introduction section of research article. By adopting a qualitative design and involving several steps to analyze the introduction section, it is revealed that the grammatical cohesion is considered to be the most utilized type of cohesion in writing the introduction section. Still, the lexical cohesion is also necessary to build an eloquent semantic meaning about the topic as well the importance of the research article.</em>

scholarly journals Paradigmatic influences on lexical bundles in research articles in the discipline of education

Corpora ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-263
Author(s):  
Duygu Candarli ◽  
Steven Jones
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Structural Characteristics ◽  
Research Articles ◽  
Lexical Bundles ◽  
Research Paradigms ◽  
Quantitative And Qualitative Research ◽  
Writing Research ◽  
Novice Writers ◽  
English Academic Writing

Lexical bundles are pervasive in English academic writing; however, little scholarly attention has been paid to how quantitative and qualitative research paradigms influence the use of lexical bundles in research articles. In order to investigate this, we created two equal-size corpora of research articles in the discipline of education. We examined four-word lexical bundles in terms of their structural characteristics and discourse functions in the quantitative and qualitative research articles published in international English-medium journals. We attribute intra-disciplinary variations in the use of lexical bundles to the knowledge-making practices that are specific to quantitative and qualitative research articles. This paper provides further evidence that the research article is not a unitary construct. The results have implications for academic writing, and corpus building and design in academic discourse. One of the key implications of this study is that L2 novice writers need to take into account the influences of research paradigms on the use of lexical bundles when writing research articles for English-medium journals in the discipline of education.

scholarly journals Proposed Model to Assist Saudi Postgraduate Students in their English Academic Writing

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noof Saleh Alharbi
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Written Feedback ◽  
Mixed Methods Design ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Sequential Mixed Methods ◽  
Proposed Model ◽  
Underlying Causes ◽  
English Academic Writing ◽  
Qualitative Phase

This current research forms part of a broader investigation into the problems Saudi postgraduate students face in English academic writing. The study used the interpretive paradigm to investigate and interpret the perceptions of Saudi postgraduate students and their supervisors in relation to the difficulties they encountered regarding academic writing in English. Therefore, the study adopted a sequential mixed-methods design. The quantitative phase of the research employed a questionnaire whereas the qualitative phase employed semi-structured interviews and document analysis. In total, 275 students completed the prepared questionnaire whilst 15 students, both male and female, and 9 supervisors participated in the semi-structured interviews. The research also used ten samples of written feedback students had received from their supervisors. SPSS descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data quantitatively, and MAXQDA software was used to analyse the data qualitatively. The study identified that Saudi postgraduates encounter a range of difficulties in their academic writing, which were due to several underlying causes. Therefore, to address this issue and to contribute to knowledge in the field, the author of this study devised a theoretical model to assist Saudi postgraduate students overcome their difficulties with English academic writing. The main focus of the current study is to explain this model in detail.

Academic writing essentials: A guide for postgraduate students

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Azlina Murad Sani
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Doctoral Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Review Paper ◽  
First Language ◽  
Case Analysis ◽  
Journal Articles ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Postgraduate Level ◽  
Organizational Features

Academic Writing Essentials is a writing reference for masters and doctoral students whose first language is not English.This book will assist you in adjusting to the expectations of writing in English for a higher degree.It offers guidance on strategies and conventions that apply in most forms of postgraduate-level writing. Features: Planning writing, Developing ideas, Integrating sources,Documenting sources, Synthesizing literature, Writing analytically Highlights: Research proposal, Article review, Case analysis report, Literature review paper. Academic Writing Essentials is designed to facilitate self-study.Annotated examples from journal articles, writing frames and simple explanations help you to understand language, style and organizational features, and to apply the knowledge directly in your own writing.

scholarly journals Advancing Academic Writing in a Mobile Skype-Based Blended Model

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 86
Author(s):  
Jafar Asgari Arani
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Writing Process ◽  
Past Experience ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Course Delivery ◽  
Academic English ◽  
English Writing ◽  
The Media ◽  
Supporting Tool

<p class="Default"><strong>Background</strong>: Web media like Skype, Twitter, WhatsApp, and SMS not only make it viable to deliver, receive and share educational information, but to simplify communication with other people in various skills such as writing, link sharing, and voice or video files. There are three areas addressed to direct the plan and implementation of this survey as main objectives:</p><p>the faculty members' feelings and impression on applying Skype site as a media to teaching and learning academic writing process, the weak and strong points of the Skype site application during the teaching and learning academic writing, and the faculty members' perceptions toward using Skype site as a supporting tool for course delivery based on selected variables: year of teaching, past experience with Skype, and their specialization.</p><p align="left"> </p><p><strong>Method &amp;Material:</strong> The sample consisted of 70 faculty members of Kashan University of Medical sciences, all having problems writing English well by using selective sampling. The study was a descriptive quantitative-qualitative research which a general survey model was used in. The survey questionnaires consist of 30 statements, which were devised in five categories based on Premise Base and Conducive Assumptions to clarify the Skype-based educational utilities and application. The interview item was also applied to explore if the participants affirmed the media-based approach augments their learning of academic English writing process or not.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Finding:</strong> Results related faculty members' perceptions toward using Skype site as a supporting tool for course delivery based on selected variables: their specialization, year of teaching, and past experience with Skype explored that there were no statistically significant differences at (α = 0.05) in the use of Skype units due to faculty members majors. There are statistically significant differences at (α = 0.05) in the use of Skype units due to the year of teaching variable, in favors of, the third and fourth year faculty members. The result also, revealed that there are statistically significant differences at (α = 0.05) in the use of Skype units due to the past experience with Skype variable, in favors of faculty members with no Skype use experience. Also, the calculated mean and Standard Deviations in six areas each having five statements arranged from the highest to the lowest ranking indicate the participants' impressions to Skype-based blended model in teaching academic writing.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Conclusion:</strong> Skype media as an educational media is a beneficial medium to be applied to deliver academic writing materials and support learning. Faculty members not having enough time to participate in classes feel comfortable with the use of the Skype-based methodology in academic writing. They participating in the course expressed their acceptance of this media in learning academic writing.  Skype-based teaching could become a very effective educational medium for learning academic English writing.</p>

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