A Genre-based Study Of Research Proposals By Chinese Non-English Major Doctoral Students

The recent few years have witnessed an emerging interest in exploring English academic writing. Yet research proposal, as an important genre of academic writing, has received much less research attention than other academic genres. The present study, therefore, aims to investigate how well advanced Chinese EFL learners (i.e., doctoral students) can write research proposals. Forty research proposals written by Chinese doctoral students for applying overseas funds were randomly chosen, and genre analysis was applied to identify patterns and problems in these sample proposals.Based on previous research findings, a Move-Step analysis model was developed as the framework for text analysis. Moves and steps in each text were coded and identified. Frequencies of the moves and steps were calculated. Then, move patterns and step patterns were examined.Text analysis has yielded the following findings:1. Most texts included the three moves required of a research proposal, i.e., Justifying a research need (Move1), Describing means to meet the research need (Move2), and Claiming potential contributions (Move3). All the three moves showed a fairly high frequency of occurrence in the sample texts, though quite a few proposals did not have Move3. Analysis of the move patterns revealed that most of the student writers adopted incomplete and recursive patterns other than the linear pattern, which conforms to the rhetorical norm of a research proposal, thus resulting in various problems in the overall structure.2. Analysis of the steps under each move further showed that some important steps (e.g., Previous Research, Achievements, and Benefits) were not found in the student texts and consequently some moves were not effectively realized. In terms of the step pattern under each move, various problems emerged in the sample texts. For Move1(Justifying a research need), most proposals were either incomplete or illogical in the arrangement of the steps. For Move2(Describing means to meet the research need), a majority of the proposals employed the correct linear pattern while a few of them either reversed the order of the two steps or lacked a certain step. For Move3(Claiming potential contributions), most of the proposals included only one step.The above results indicate that most Chinese doctoral students lack genre knowledge and genre awareness of research proposals. Therefore, it is suggested that a genre-based approach be introduced to the EAP (English for Academic Purposes) writing classroom. Rhetorical conventions required for various academic genres can be taught explicitly to the L2learners, so as to enhance their genre knowledge and genre awareness and to improve their writing skills.