A Proposed Theoretical Framework for the Analysis of Research Articles

Abstract

This research is taken from a thesis that examines the rhetoric of accounts of methodology in English and Arabic research articles (henceforth RAs) (Tawalbeh, 2019). Genre analysts have focused on using Swales’ move analysis approach to investigate the discourse units of the sections conventionally found in an RA: introduction, methods results and discussion. This research suggests a wider perspective for analysing RA sections. It argues for the desirability of employing both top-down and bottom-up processing to make more sense of the texts analysed. It also suggests employing the perspective of tacit knowledge to identify the assumed shared knowledge between writers and readers of RAs. The use of these different approaches may be helpful in making a detailed analysis, the results of which may benefit beginner academic writers.