Authorial Stance in Research Articles This page intentionally left blank Authorial Stance in Research Articles Examples from Applied Linguistics and Educational Technology Phuong Dzung Pho Vietnam National University – Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Monash University, Australia © Phuong Dzung Pho 2013 Foreword © Keith Allan 2013 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6 –1 0 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2013 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978– 1– 137– 03277– 5 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. Typeset by MPS Limited, Chennai, India. Contents List of Figures vi List of Tables viii Foreword ix Acknowledgments xi Part I Rhetorical Structure and Authorial Stance Introduction 3 1 Approaches to Genre Analysis 10 2 Authorial Stance 21 3 A Model for the Analysis of Move Structure and Authorial Stance 29 Part II Variations in Structure 4 Variations in Move Structure 45 Part III Variations in Stance 5 Evaluating Other Studies 99 6 Introducing One’s Own Study 109 7 Commenting on One’s Own Study 115 8 Presenting Facts 126 9 Variations across Disciplines and within Disciplines 142 Part IV Conclusion and Implications 10 Concluding Remarks 153 11 Pedagogical Implications 160 Appendices 164 References 235 Index 246 v List of Figures 3.1 Coding scheme for move structures of the Abstract and the main research article 31 3.2 Framework for the coding of that- complement structures 37 3.3 Codes for controlling word types in the corpus 38 3.4 Codes for source types in the corpus 39 3.5 Distribution of linguistic features across moves in the two disciplines 41 4.1 Move structure of the Abstract 46 4.2 Frequency of moves in the Abstract 46 4.3 Move structure of the Introduction section 54 4.4 Frequencies of moves in the Introduction section 55 4.5 Frequencies of steps in Move 6 Establishing a territory 59 4.6 Frequencies of steps in Move 7 Establishing a niche 61 4.7 Frequencies of steps in Move 8 Presenting the present work 62 4.8 Move structure of the Methods section 65 4.9 Frequencies of moves in the Methods section 66 4.10 Frequencies of steps in Move 9 Describing the data and data collection procedure 68 4.11 Frequencies of steps in Move 10 Describing the data analysis procedure 69 4.12 Move structure of the Results section 72 4.13 Frequencies of moves in the Results section 73 4.14 Frequencies of steps in Move 11 Preparing for the presentation of the Results section 75 4.15 Frequencies of steps in Move 13 Commenting on specific results 78 4.16 Move structure of the D iscussion– Conclusions section 81 4.17 Frequencies of moves in the Discussion– Conclusions section 82 vi List of Figures vii 4.18 Frequencies of steps in Move 15 Preparing for the presentation of the Discussion section 85 4.19 Frequencies of steps in Move 18 Discussing the findings of the study 86 4.20 Frequencies of steps in Move 20 Evaluating the study 87 4.21 Frequencies of steps in Move 21 Deductions from the research 88 4.22 Frequencies of moves in the Results– Discussion section 90 4.23 Frequencies of steps in Move 11 Preparing for the presentation of the Results section of the combined Results– Discussion section 91 4.24 Frequencies of steps in Move 13 Commenting on specific results of the combined Results– Discussion section 91 4.25 Frequencies of moves in the Conclusions section 92 4.26 Frequencies of moves in the Abstract (STR – DTR) and in the main research article (EST – DER) in the two disciplines 93 4.27 Summary of prototypical moves in the two disciplines 94 6.1 Concordance of we in the Presenting the present work move of the Introduction section 112 7.1 Concordance of obligation/necessity modal verbs in Move 20 Evaluating the study of the D iscussion– Conclusions section 122 8.1 Normalized frequencies of combinations of source and controlling word types in Move 4 Summarizing the findings 134 List of Tables 3.1 Total number of words in each move 40 5.1 Summary of significant features of authorial stance in situating research and indicating gaps 107 6.1 Summary of significant features of authorial stance in introducing one’s own study 114 7.1 Summary of significant features of authorial stance in commenting on one’s own study 124 8.1 Summary of significant features of authorial stance in presenting facts 139 9.1 Significant linguistic realizations of authorial stance in AL 143 9.2 Significant linguistic realizations of authorial stance in ET 144 viii Foreword Authorial Stance in Research Articles is an insightful work of careful scholarship that is the refinement of research originally undertaken for Dr Pho’s PhD thesis at Monash University. Building on the foundational work of scholars such as John M. Swales, Pho has constructed a far more extensive and comprehensive model that deserves to become the standard reference for studies of academic writing in research articles and perhaps for analyses of academic texts in general. Pho demonstrates that the principal component of such texts is the move. Consequently the text is viewed as a dynamic construct rather than a static array of constituent parts. Pho examines the linguistic markers of different moves from her corpus of 40 research articles (randomly selected from a total of 134). Her subtle analysis identifies a more complex set of steps in the develop- ment of each move than is commonly found in the literature, which allows Pho much greater analytical precision. She finds, for example, that linguistic features vary across moves and not just between sections (Abstract, Introduction, Results, etc.). Moves that serve similar functions in the different sections of an article or in different genres of reported research often have similar linguistic features. It is the identification of moves within an article that identify its discourse structure better than its division into sections – whether these sections are proposed by the author or a discourse analyst. Moves that are conventional in one genre may be optional in another, so that a genre is largely identified by the set of moves normal to that genre. In presenting a move, the academic author takes a certain stance with respect to the text being created. Roughly speaking, stance is the way writers present themselves to the reader and the way their judgments, opinions, and commitments are conveyed. The authorial stance adopted is a communicative function that in part determines the character of the move being made. In other words, a move expresses authorial stance, such that a given move has the same characteristics across genres. As the final chapter makes clear, one aim of this book is to provide the novice researcher with a move structure enabling the construction of a research article that has a good chance of being published in a repu- table journal. The acknowledged limitation is that only two genres are examined in the book, applied linguistics and educational technology. ix

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