A Genre Analysis Of Research Article English Abstracts Written By Native English Writers And Chinese Writers

Research article abstract is a faithful and factual summary of the whole article. It canprovide readers with an advance and accurate information of the whole research article.Nowadays it has attracted increasing number of scholars from the academic field to study it.The present paper is meant to conduct a genre analysis of English abstracts written by nativeEnglish writers and Chinese writers. It tries to explore the similarities and differences ofcomponential moves and rhetorical structures between English abstracts written by nativeEnglish writers and Chinese writers.A total of200English abstracts are collected and analyzed. Among them,100Englishabstracts written by native English writers are selected from American academic journals andthe other100English abstracts written by Chinese writers are selected from Chinese academicjournals. Based on Bhatia s (1993) four-move model (PMRC), English abstracts in presentpaper are studied in two levels: componential moves and rhetorical structures. Eachcomponential move of English abstracts is analyzed in terms of its frequency of occurrence,linguistic features and move embedding. Chi-square test is used to find out whether there is asignificant difference in the use of each componential move and rhetorical structure betweenEnglish abstracts written by native English writers and Chinese writers.Through observation and analysis of componential moves of English abstracts, it isfound that four componential moves (Purpose, Method, Result and Conclusion) are present tosome degree in English abstracts written by both native English writers and Chinese writers.Among four moves, the Purpose move, the Method move and the Result move are theconventional moves and the Conclusion move is the optional move in two kinds of Englishabstracts. Chi-square test shows that native English writers and Chinese writers show asignificant difference in the use of the Purpose move (X2=13.085, P=.000<.005). Chi-squaretests also show that native English writers and Chinese writers do not show any significantdifference in the use of the Method move (X2=.205, P=.651>.005), the Result move (X2=2.369, P=.124>.005) and the Conclusion move (X2=.757, P=.384>.005). Linguistic featuresof English abstracts such as lexical signals, voice, that-complement clause are used todifferent extent by both native English writers and Chinese writers to make a reference to a certain move. Three Move embeddings of P+M, M+R, R+C are found in two kinds of Englishabstracts and they are used by more Chinese writers than native English writers. Throughobservation and analysis of rhetorical structures of English abstracts written by native Englishwriters and Chinese writers, it is found that the rhetorical structures of P-M-R and P-M-R-Care the first and second choice for both native English writers and Chinese writers to constructEnglish abstracts. Chi-square test shows that native English writers and Chinese writers don tshow any significant difference in the use of the rhetorical structure of P-M-R (X2=1.640,P=.200>.005). Both native English writers and Chinese writers use the rhetorical structure ofP-M-R-C to construct the same number of English abstracts. The third choice for nativeEnglish writers and Chinese writers to construct English abstracts is the rhetorical structure ofP-M and M-R respectively.Findings from present study indicate that English abstracts should include threeconventional moves: the Purpose move, the Method move and the Result move and theyshould be organized in linear sequence in the English abstract writing. The present study notonly provides writers with a reference to the English abstract writing conventions but alsooffers readers an easy access to the research articles. Pedagogical implications are noted inpresent study as well. Limitations of present study and suggestions for further studies aregiven at the end of this paper.