Introduction

Genres in academic writing

Your first decision when faced with a new piece of academic writing is to decide which genre family
you are expected to write.

1. Essays
2. Reports
3. Case Studies
4. Research proposals
5. Book reviews
6. Brief research reports
7. Literature reviews
8. Reflective writing
9. Introductions
10.Research methods
11. Research results
12.Research discussions
13.Writing conclusions
14.Research abstracts
15.Research dissertations & theses

Genres in academic writing: Writing introductions

Research Report Introductions (Theses/Dissertations)
1. Establish a research territory
show that the general research area is important, central, interesting, problematic, or

relevant in some way.

introduce and review items of previous research in the area.

2. Establishing a niche
indicate a gap in the previous research by raising a question about it, or extending
previous knowledge in some way.

3. Occupying the niche

outline purposes or stating the nature of the present research.
indicate the structure of the RP.
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Move 1: Establishing a research territory
Note particularly the language used in the first two sentences to express Move la.

The increasing interest in ... has heightened the need for ....

Of particular interest and complexity are ....

Recently, there has been growing interest in ....

The development of ... has led to the hope that....

The ... has become a favourite topic for analysis ....

The study of ... has become an important aspect of ....

A central issue in ... is ....

The ... has been extensively studied in recent years.

Many recent studies have focused on ...

Move 2: Establishing a niche

In many ways, Move 2 is the key move in Introductions. It connects Move 1 (what has been done) to
Move 3 (what the present research will do). Move 2 thus establishes the reason for the study. By the
end of Move 2, the reader should have a good idea of what is going to come in Move 3.

Move 2s establish a niche by indicating a gap. Probably the most common way to indicate a gap is to
use a "negative" subject. Presumably, negative subjects are chosen because they signal immediately
to the reader that Move 1 has come to an end. Note the following uses of little and few:

However, little information/attention/work/data/research ....

However, few studies/investigations/researchers/attempts ....

Of course, not all RP Introductions express Move 2 by indicating an obvious gap. You may prefer, for
various reasons, to avoid negative comment altogether. In such cases, a useful alternative is to use a
contrastive statement.

The research has tended to focus on ...,rather than on ....

These studies have emphasised ...,as opposed to ....

Although considerable research has been devoted to ... , rather less attention has been
paid to ....

The previous research ... has concentrated on ....

Most studies have been content to ....

So far, investigations have been confined to ...

Move 3: Occupying the Niche

The third and final step is to show you want to fill the gap (or answer the question) that has been
created in Move 2.
The purpose of this paper is to ...

The purpose of this investigation is to ...

The aim of this paper is to ...

This paper reports on the results obtained ....

This study was designed to ...

In this paper, we give results of ...

In this paper, we argue that ....

This paper argues that ....

We have organise the rest of this paper in the following way ....

This paper is structured as follows ....

The remainder of this paper is divided into five sections ...

Genres in academic writing: Report abstracts

Writing an abstract
The abstract is the first section of the report. It usually comes after the title and before the
introduction. In some subject areas, this section may be titled "summary". The abstract provides an
overview of the study based on information from the other sections of the report. The reader can read
the abstract to obtain enough information about the study to decide if they want to read the complete
report. Because it contains elements from the whole report, it is usually written last.
1. Ordering Your Information
Abstracts from almost all fields of study are written in a very similar way. The types of information
included and their order are very conventional. The box that follows shows the typical information
format of an abstract (Weissberg & Buker, 1990, p. 186):

Introduction
Introduce the study by describing the context
Explain why the subject is important

Purpose
Describe the purpose of the study

Methods
Report how the study was undertaken

Results
Report the results that were found.

Evaluation
Briefly evaluate the results

Conclusion
Conclude briefly
Explain what is important and why

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Genres in academic writing: Writing conclusions

The main purpose of the conclusion is to show that the main purpose of the piece of writing has been
achieved.

a. It should recall the issues raised in the introduction - what was the purpose of the piece of writing?

b. and draw together the points made in the main body of the piece of writing

c. and come to a clear conclusion.

It should clearly signal to the reader that the writing is finished and leave a clear impression that the
purpose has been achieved.
Language
..
In short,
In a word,
In brief,
To sum up,
To conclude,
To summarise

In conclusion,
On the whole,
Altogether,
In all,

It is

accepted
argued
held
believed

generally
widely

Therefore,
Thus,
On this basis,
Given this,

that .

can
may

it

be

concluded
deduced
inferred

that .

Table 1

From
the

In conclusion,
Finally

table
figures
data
results
information

we/may say
it can/may be said

it

can
may

be

that .

seen
concluded
shown
estimated
calculated
inferred

that .