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Article published In:
English Text Construction
Vol. 12:2 (2019) ► pp.235–264

Coherence relations in research article discussions

How are sentences organised to realise genre moves?

| Doshisha University

Constructing a coherent text and achieving genre-specific communicative purposes are crucial aspects of academic writing. However, to date, it remains unclear how coherence and genre are related to each other conceptually. This paper seeks to extend previous research on the influence of genre on coherence relations by examining how writers of applied linguistics research articles (RAs) organise sentences in the discussion section to achieve communicative purposes of the RA discussion genre. The analyses suggest that the writers of the selected discussions might have related sentences to each other differently depending on the purposes they sought to achieve. Possible reasons for relational features are considered in light of the nature of the RA discussion genre and/or the applied linguistics discipline.

Keywords: coherence relations, discussion section, genre analysis, move structure, research articles
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Coherence structure and genre structure
  • 3.Material and methods
    • 3.1Data selection
    • 3.2Data analysis methods
  • 4.Results and discussion
    • 4.1Types of moves that occur in the selected discussions
    • 4.2How writers of RA discussions organise sentences to achieve the discussion moves
      • 4.2.1Types of relations used in the moves
      • 4.2.2The use of Elaboration and Joint or Justify to construct descriptive or argumentative sequences
      • 4.2.3The use of Evaluation in move 4A
      • 4.2.4The use of Background in Move 1
      • 4.2.5The use of Concession in Move 3
      • 4.2.6The use of Additive in Move 5
  • 5.Limitations of the study
  • 6.Concluding remarks
  • References
Published online: 1 October 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/etc.00028.kaw
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