A Comparative Study On Results,discussions And Conclusions Of English Journal Articles In Engineering

Academic writing is a main approach for researchers to present their research findings and gain a place in research fields.The publication of research articles(RAs)has become a prerequisite for promotion or the successful completion of studies.Many genre researchers conduct studies on abstracts,introductions of RAs and some others also examine the closing sections of RAs.However,little research has explored the relationship among results,discussions and conclusions of RAs.Hence,this study collects 48 published RAs randomly from 4 international academic research journals in engineering to find out the similarities and differences among results,discussions and conclusions in terms of their generic structures and lexical bundles through qualitative and quantitative analysis.The key findings of this study are summarized below:1.Some moves/steps co-exist in results,discussions and conclusions but the frequency of these overlapping moves/steps differs.For example,reporting results co-occurs in results and discussions but it is completely obligatory in results.Moreover,results sections also make comments on results but the percentage of this move is much lower than that in discussions.Actually,the frequency of commenting on results is pretty high in discussions.Especially this step,accounting for results whose frequency accounts for over 80% in discussions.Besides,discussions and conclusions share some identical moves/steps like indicating limitations,indicating significance and recommending further research.In addition,several distinct moves exist in results,discussions and conclusions respectively.Results involve indicating structure and restating hypothesis.Discussions contain background information,indicating a gap and making suggestions.Conclusions has its unique move,summarizing the study.All in all,the key functions of results are to present results and denote how and why the data were obtained.Discussions pay more attention to making comments on results.Conclusions aim to offer a brief account of the overall study and display the integrated results.2.The great majority of retrieved lexical bundles are noun phrases plus of fragments(e.g.a summary/results of the).Verb phrases are also widespread,in the form of a passive verb with a prepositional fragments(e.g.are illustrated in figure).Verbal bundles indicate data depicted in tables/figures or identify an assertion.On the other hand,the most dominant discourse function is that of text-oriented bundles,which subsume three subcategories: framing,structuring and resultative signals.Framing signals set conditions(e.g.in the case of),specify limitations(e.g.with the exception of)and build up connections(e.g.as a function of)respectively.Structuring signals present ancillary data like figures(e.g.as shown in Fig.3)or tables(e.g.as shown in Table 7)to readers.Resultative signals highlight cause-and-effect relationships(e.g.is due to the)and draw conclusions(e.g.it is clear that).Besides,most of participant-oriented bundles are stance markers which indicate possibility(e.g.it is possible to),probability(e.g.it is likely that)and necessity(e.g.it is necessary to).3.Lexical bundles in moves among results,discussions and conclusions mainly perform three functions: triggers,complements and indicators.Some bundles(e.g.the paper introduces a)are located at the beginning of sentences,deemed as triggers to start moves or steps.Other lexical bundles,existing in the middle of sentences,act as complements to complete the clauses,such as would be helpful to.Except triggers and complements,some bundles which emerge at the beginning or in the middle of sentences(e.g.is due to the,the results suggest that),are considered as indicators,serving to denote the communicative purposes of moves/steps.This study expands the research scope of academic writing and pushes forward the development of move and lexical bundle theories to a certain degree.Meanwhile,it also provides teachers and students in engineering with some pedagogical implications and academic writing instruction respectively.