How do Writers Present Their Work in Introduction Sections? A Genre-based Investigation into Qualitative and Quantitative Research Articles

Research articles have received a wide interest in discourse studies over the last few decades. A vast number of studies have been centered on identifying the organizational patterns of research articles in various fields. Although Introduction section has enjoyed a lot of attention, very few studies have focused on rhetorical structure of qualitative and quantitative research articles. This genre-based investigation reports on a study of the Introduction sections of 15 qualitative and 15 quantitative research articles (RAs) in Applied Linguistics (AL) from five high impact journals published from 2008-2012. Based on Swales’ (2004) move structure model, the present study focuses on Move 3 (introducing the present work) and examines how qualitative and quantitative research article writers introduce their work in Introduction section. The analysis revealed that there were similarities in the overall presence and use of steps in both groups. However, some differences in the overall presence and frequency of directive determinants were obvious which could be attributed to the different nature of these research designs. The findings reveal which options are available to the writers for presenting their own work in introduction sections of these two types of articles. By making explicit the norms and conventions of the community, which are normally implicit, the findings of this paper and similar genre studies can facilitate the participation of novice members in their discourse community. This, in turn, can lead to a successful academic writing.