Criticism On RST Discourse Structure Of"Discussion" Of Master Theses In Applied Linguistics

Although more and more Research Articles written by Chinese scholars are published in international publications, it is still a weak point for them writing English Research Articles (Zhao,2010). What’s more, a variety of problems, such as linguistic deficiency, lack of academic writing strategies, often exist in masters’academic English writing (Lu,2007; Xiong,2012).Based on Rhetorical Structure Theory (RST), this study employs a mixed research method to analyze the macro and micro rhetorical features of English-major masters’theses’"Discussion". First, for constructing analysis framework, this study generalizes the macro rhetorical structure and the micro rhetorical relations distribution of "Discussion" of Research Articles in Applied Linguistics by analyzing20pieces of Research Articles’"Discussion" in leading international journals in Applied Linguistics. Second, taking these results as reference, this study tries to make a critical analysis on the macro rhetorical structure and micro rhetorical relations usage of20pieces of English-major masters’"Discussion" in Applied Linguistics. Third,163cases of deficiencies are collected, which can be generalized into7categories:(1) Inappropriateness in Organization of Discussion,(2) Irrelevance in Statement,(3) Insufficiency in Discussion,(4) Inappropriateness in Organization of Elementary Discourse Units,(5) Misuse of Relations,(6) Illogical Elementary Discourse Units, and (7) Inappropriateness in Topic Shift between Elementary Discourse Units. Fourth, this study explores3reasons accounting for these deficiencies:negative native language transfer, different thinking patterns between Chinese and Westerners, and weak domestic academic writing instructions.