Metadiscourse in the introductions of PhD theses and research articles

By Tomoyuki Kawase. 2015

118 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract Previous studies have indicated that the introductions of PhD theses and research articles are similar in their rhetorical features. In contrast, it has been suggested that metadiscourse as a rhetorical device is constructed in a different manner in these texts. However, very few studies have sought to empirically validate this assumption. This paper investigates how research writers construct metadiscourse in the introductions of their PhD theses and subsequently published research articles. The analysis shows that the majority of the writers make greater use of metadiscourse in their article introductions. The most significant changes include greater use of phrases referring to previous research, less reference to other parts of the text, and still less use of phrases signalling authorial presence. Close examination reveals that these variations derive from genre-specific features, including that writers of PhD thesis introductions present previews of the subsequent chapters. This paper closes by arguing that the variations can also be ascribed to the nature of the PhD thesis as an educational genre and that of research articles as a professional genre in which writers need to survive severe competition to get their manuscripts published.

Subfields: Education, History and Philosophy of Science, Literature and Literary Theory

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/ade5abc0bd9ad0760cbf3f4b8e31b888bfc3ba3a

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Education

In History and Philosophy of Science

In Literature and Literary Theory

Citations in the corpus

“In this paper we suggest”: Changing patterns of disciplinary metadiscourse (2018, background): “In one genre comparison, for example, Kawase (2015) found the different purposes and characteristics of the two genres mean that writers use far more metadiscourse in the article introductions than in the PhD theses they are based on, with less reference to other parts of the text and to authorial…”
Phrasal complexity in academic writing: A comparison of abstracts written by graduate students and expert writers in applied linguistics (2018, background): “Kawase (2015) categorizes theses as belonging to an “educational genre” while RAs are classified as part of a “professional genre” (p. 114); In spite of this, both can be said to represent academic prose.”
Metadiscourse: What is it and where is it going? (2017, result): “In one genre comparison study, for example, Kawase (2015) found interesting differences between the ways writers employ metadiscourse in the introductions of their PhD theses compared with the subsequently published articles based on those theses.”