| Literature review (LR for short) is an essential part of thesis or dissertation for it notonly offers a summary on the topic you’ve chosen, but also aims to provide critic viewsfor the justification of your research. As the research in the field of genre analysisprogresses, longer texts such as masters’ theses and doctoral dissertations begin to raiseresearchers’ attention. The previous researches have examined different parts-abstract,introduction, result, discussion. However, there seems to be little concern on LR of thesisor dissertation. Moreover, the available studies mainly focus on English-native speakers’theses or dissertations’ LRs, leaving non-native English speakers’ LRs uncovered.Based on Swales’ genre analysis theory, this paper analyzes the main features of LRsin English masters’ theses by Chinese graduates and American graduates in terms oftextual structure, aiming to find out similarities and differences and also the underlyingreasons for the phenomenon, thus obtaining enlightenment on LR writing.The data consist of two sets of corpora:15LRs by Chinese learners of English (CLRfor short) randomly selected from Fudan University, Xiamen University, ZhejiangUniversity, Hunan University, Zhongshan University;15LRs by American students (ALRfor short) are selected from Massachusetts Institute Technology and Louisiana StateUniversity. All the materials are written in recent three years and they are researches in thefield of linguistics.By randomly selecting two LRs from each corpus, this paper conducts a pilot studyand puts forward the generic structure of LRs after analyzing all samples in terms of movesand steps. Then through quantitative and qualitative analysis, a comparative study based onSwales’ CARS model is presented. The different titles of LRs sections in two corpora arecompared at first. Then the general distributions of each move and move orders areanalyzed. At last, analysis of all moves is studied in details.It turns out that similarities and differences both exist in LRs written by Chinesestudents and American students. The greatest similarities lies in that two corpora are found to have similar overall structure and basic elements, which is attributed to communicativepurposes of LRs. Differences primarily exist in the following aspects:1) Americanstudents have more variations on the title of LR section;2) American students prefer tomake evaluations after reviewing the previous researches, while Chinese students tend tomake a summary after reviewing;3) American speakers usually figure out problems andweaknesses in previous studies, and indicate the contributions and values by otherresearchers. Chinese learners are more likely to point out the research blank in existingfindings when showing critic opinion, or state the relevancy and applicability of thesurveyed terminology and theory to the present research when deliver positive views.Besides, Chinese students are inclined to use introductory and conclusion part thanAmerican counterparts. The paper also seeks to explain the reasons for similarities anddifferences, which are closely related to communicative goals, cultural influence andacademic writing traditions.The present study adds to the existing work on LR of theses and dissertations in theperspective of genre theory. Its pedagogical implications are provided for students as tohow to write academically acceptable LR. Firstly, non-native English speakers shouldstrengthen their understanding of LR. Secondly, non-native English speakers areencouraged to express their own opinions critically. Thirdly, high level skills such assynthesis and evaluation need improving and enhancing. Those suggestions can not onlyhelp students’ writing, but also shed lights on teaching this section. |
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