Research Article Introductions: Sub-disciplinary Variations in Applied Linguistics

Abstract

The present study aimed to investigate the generic organization of research article introductions in local Iranian and international journals in English for Specific Purposes, English for General Purposes, and Discourse Analysis. Overall, 120 published articles were selected from the established journals representing the above subdisciplines. Each subdiscipline was represented by 20 local and 20 international articles. Following Swales' (2004) new Create A Research Space (CARS) model, the researcher analyzed the articles for their specific generic patterns. Findings demonstrated that despite some consistency in the international corpus, there emerged marked differences in utilizing second and third moves in international articles. Also, intra-subdisciplinary analysis revealed divergent generic organization in EGP and DA in local and international data. Results suggested insufficient awareness of some Iranian RA writers regarding the generic structure of introduction. The findings of the study have implications for RA writers to improve their RA introductions.