The Rhetorical Organization And Metadiscoursal Features Of Research Article Introductions In The Field Of Computer Science

Academic writing has attracted attention from researchers for over20years, and the foci are on Research Articles. Among them, introductions to research article have been thoroughly studied in terms of both rhetoric structure and lexico-grammatical features.In this paper, the author aims to reveal the integral move-and-step structure of the RAIs in the field of computer science and identify the metadiscoursal features most saliently mapped onto the rhetoric structure to signpost certain moves and steps, following Swales’(1990,2004) widely accepted Create-A-Research-Space model (CARS), and Hyland’s (2005) classification of metadiscourse. This paper employs a qualitative and quantitative approach to investigate the35research articles selected from7leading journals in Computer Science, referred to by China Computer Federation (CCF), an authorized agency aimed at serving professionals in computing. The findings show that the move pattern displays no radical deviation from the M1-M2-M3pattern, and there exist cycling of the M1-M2/M1-M3patterns, and some step combinations to achieve the communicative purpose of each move. The application of Hyland’s classification of metadiscourse revealed a more employment of interactive metadiscourses than interactional ones, with transactions, hedges, endophoric markers, code glosses, and evidential as the top five ranking metadiscourses. It also shows that Move3employs the most metadiscourse, followed by Movel and Move2, partly because of the lengths and cycling of each move. The perfect combination of the two metadiscourse categories helps writers to better guide readers through reading process and present themselves in the wide discipline context while conforming to the politeness conventions of academic writings.This paper has some pedagogical implications in that it provides novice writers and students with a clear idea of rhetoric and social conventions and norms in the field of Computer Science to better their entrance into the disciplinary community.