Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
SEMESTER 2, 2018/2019
GROUP ASSIGNMENT
SECTION 4
PREPARED FOR:
BETHY LEE
PREPARED BY:
NO. NAME MATRIX NUMBER SIGNATURE
SUBMISSION DATE:
Page
Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Abstract
The introduction section in a journal article is said to be a crucial rhetorical function that
justifies the study being reported (Samraj, 2005). The aim of writing an introduction in a research
article is to give readers the perspective they need to understand the specific information coming
in the next few sections. As we compare the introduction section of two different disciplines;
discipline A: applied science; environmental science and discipline B: social science; economic
science. A total of 12 articles from two disciplines namely economics study and environmental
science study were collected. In each discipline there are two journal articles and three research
articles were collected from each journal articles. These articles were selected from a website
called science direct.com respectively to the disciplines. Only articles that were published in 2019
and are related to the two disciplines chosen had to be selected. Some articles have a high or
low frequency of the information element concerned. There are also similarities found between
the two articles in terms of the frequencies of the information element concerned. Unfortunately,
there are limitations while doing our research such as less amount of sample articles and limited
knowledge on the articles. Due to these limitations, it is suggested that more articles should be
compared on the elements and that we should fully understand the articles picked for significant
results.
i
1. Introduction
research study that he or she has concluded (Weissberg and Buker, 2005). Over the last 20 years,
numerous studies on academic writing have been dedicated to the research article, specifically
its structure, social construction and historical evolution (Samraj, 2002). Studies have shown that
the structure of a research article begins with an introduction (e.g Swales, 1981, Swales, 1990,
Swales and Najjar, 1987) followed by methods (e.g. Bruce, 1983, Swales, 1990), results (e.g.
Brett, 1994, Thompsom, 1993), discussions (Hopkins & Dudley-Evans, 1988) and even the
abstracts (Salager-Meyer, 1990, Salager-Meyer, 1992). One aspect of the research articles that
Coincidentally, the focus of this research is on the introduction section of research articles.
The elements in an introduction can be split into five parts; general statements, specific statement
about of the aspect of the problem, statement that indicate the need for more investigation, very
specific statements giving the purpose of the study and an optional statement that gives a value
for carrying out the study (Weissberg and Buker, 2005). The aim of writing an introduction in a
research article is to give readers the perspective they need to understand the specific information
coming in the next few sections. Introductions provide a first impression, builds credibility with
your readers and prepare your readers for the research article’s content. According to a previous
study by Samraj (2005), he proposed that “studies of introductions in research articles have made
it clear that a crucial rhetorical function of introductions is to justify the study being reported”.
The purpose of this research is to compare the introduction section, particularly the gap
indication, research questions and purpose statements of two different disciplines; discipline A:
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applied science; environmental science and discipline B: social science; economics and examine
the amount of each elements appearing in the introduction section of the articles in both
physical and information sciences to the study of the environment while economics studies the
production, distribution and consumption of goods and services. Comparing the introduction
section of these two articles from two different disciplines enable us to explore how much these
To date, there are no specific studies that compare the introduction section of these two
disciplines. This research also aims to find the similarities and differences between the article
introductions between environmental science and economics. After analyzing the introduction
part of both disciplines, the results of our analysis reveal similarities in terms of the gap indication
and the purpose statement. Research questions in the article introductions of both disciplines are
hardly found.
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2. Methodology
A total of 12 articles from two disciplines namely economics study and environmental
science study were collected. In each discipline there are two journal articles and three research
articles were collected from each journal articles. These journal articles were selected from a
website called science direct.com respectively to the disciplines. The two journals selected for this
study, namely International journal of production economics and Journal of Asian economics for
social science course of economics, meanwhile Journal of Marine Policy and Journal of Marine
Pollution Bulletin for course of environmental science. Selection criteria of these articles included
that they were published in 2019, related to the two disciplines chosen and followed the IRMD
structure.
Twelve articles were extracted from both of the disciplines studied. Next, those articles
were analyzed based on three elements which are gap indication, purpose statement and research
question. All these data were collected and tabulated in respect to the three elements mentioned;
table 1 shows the frequency and the percentage of texts containing gap indications, purpose
statements and research questions in the articles on Economics and Environmental Science and
Table 2 shows the example of information elements in the research articles related to Economics
and Environmental Science; respected to specific field of study. This is to see the distinct
difference between applied science research articles and social science research articles based on
the three elements, namely gap indication, purpose statement and research question.
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There are no special equipment needed during the analyzing process of 12 articles as all
the data obtained were done manually. Firstly, we started by reading and understanding the 12
research articles. Next, we examine the three elements, particularly the gap indication, purpose
statement and the research question that are found in the introduction section of the 12 articles.
of two disciplines. Once we have identified the three elements found in the introduction section,
we analyzed the frequencies and calculated the percentages of texts containing the three
elements and tabulated the data into two different disciplines. The two tables obtained from the
analyzed data will be discussed further in the result and discussion sections of this report.
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3. Results
The elements that appear in all or most of the articles in each discipline is the purpose
statement (100%) as shown in table 1. This element is important to introduce the reader to the
importance of the topic being studied. Other than that, the purpose statement exposes the goal
The research question is rarely used in the articles of each discipline. This may be due to
the article being descriptive. 50% of the articles include the information element concerned in
each discipline. Some articles have a high or low frequency of the information element concerned,
for example, the purpose statement. This is because the writer may have more than one purpose
for writing the journal while some writers only have one purpose.
The similarities found between the two articles in terms of the frequencies of the
information element concerned is the purpose statement. As seen in table 1, both journal articles
have a percentage of 100% for purpose statement. Meanwhile, the differences found between
the two articles would be the research question. The journal articles of environmental science has
a percentage of 0% for its research question while the journal articles of economics has 16.7%.
differences in the availability of the research question could be ascribed to some features about
the two disciplines. Environmental Science is an applied science while Economics is a social
science. The writing style in the applied sciences seeks to explain complex phenomena in clear ,
straightforward text that minimizes authorial bias. In the social sciences, the research questions
establishes the means by which some readers should answer the “So What?” question. Some of
writing style in the social sciences are not very straightforward and would use the research
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Discipline A: Applied Science (Environmental Science)
Frequency Gap indication Purpose statement Research question
RA 1 1 4 0
RA 2 1 1 0
RA 3 0 3 0
RA 4 0 2 0
RA 5 2 2 0
RA 6 0 4 0
RAs 1-6 4 16 0
No. of articles 3 6 0
Percentage of articles (%) 50.0 100.0 0
Discipline B: Social Science (Economics)
Frequency Gap Indication Purpose Statement Research Question
RA 7 1 2 0
RA 8 1 1 0
RA 9 0 1 0
RA 10 0 2 0
RA 11 0 2 1
RA 12 1 1 0
RAs 7-12 3 9 1
No. of articles 3 6 1
Percentage of articles (%) 50.0 100.0 16.7
Table 1: Frequencies and percentages of texts containing gap indicators, purpose statements
and research questions in the articles on Economics and Environmental Science.
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Information Discipline Instance
Element/ stage
Gap indication Economics However, as stated by Tiwary et al. (2015), these initiatives
have largely focused on investment in new technology, in
developing energy-efficient equipment and facilities while the
reduction that could be achieved from a supply chainand
logistics perspective has been subject to less attention.
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Table 2 shows two examples of each elements found in the article introductions of two
different disciplines. These examples were obtained from the twelve articles after analyzing the
data. There are keywords found in the information elements that can help in determining the
elements found in the article introductions. For instance, gap indication will usually use words
that describe the distinction between variables or factors. As seen in the Economics’ discipline,
the words and sentences like “…results have not been satisfactory enough…” explains the
distinction and the gap between the variables. Moving on to the next element, the purpose
statement. Purpose statement is one of the most appeared element in every research articles
where it indicates the aim and the purpose of the research articles. Words like “The aim of
this study…", “The purpose of the study…” describes the element. The last element
concerned is the research question. Based on the tabulated data, research questions are rarely
found especially in the Environmental Science study. It is easy to determine a research question
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Discussion
The research aims to compare the introduction section, particularly the gap indication,
research questions and purpose statements of two different disciplines; discipline A: applied
science; environmental science and discipline B: social science; economic science and to examine
the amount of each elements appearing in the introduction section of the articles in both
disciplines. Fortunately, the objective of this paper has been achieved. We were able to find
significant results after comparing the article introductions of both disciplines. It was found that
the major findings of this study is the purpose statement which were found in all the twelve
articles. It is also an important information element found in the articles of the two disciplines
because it states the aim of why the study is conducted. In the other hand, the research question
Our second objective of this paper which is to find the similarities and differences between
the article introductions between environmental science and economics has also been achieved.
We were able to find the similarities of the article introductions of both discipline which is the
purpose statement element and the gap indication element. We were also able to find the
differences of the article introductions of both discipline which is the availability of the research
question. Only research articles from the economics study has the research question element
It is unclear at this point if the use of research question is a recent development in the
evolution of research articles in the Environmental Science study. However, in our opinion, we
think that the differences in the availability of the research question could be ascribed to some
features about the two disciplines. Environmental Science is an applied science while Economics
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is a social science. The writing style in the applied sciences seeks to explain complex phenomena
in clear , straightforward text that minimizes authorial bias. In the social sciences, the research
questions establishes the means by which some readers should answer the “So What?” question.
Some of writing style in the social sciences are not very straightforward and would use the
research question instead to give them a clear statement on the literature review.
Unfortunately, there are some limitations when doing our research. One of them being
(1) the selections of only 12 sample articles, the comparison of only 3 elements in an introduction
section and (2) limitations in knowledge on the articles picked. Selecting only 12 sample articles
does give us the results we need to find out. However, the results are not very significant. For
instance, the purpose statement elements and the gap indication elements appearing in the article
introductions of both disciplines have the same percentage which is 100% and 50% respectively.
There are not much differences found between these two disciplines in their article introductions
As for the second limitation, comparing only 3 elements in the article introductions of both
disciplines don’t give very significant results. The 3 elements can be easily found in the 12 articles.
However, it does not show how the two disciplines can greatly differ from each other in terms of
The third limitation is a personal limitation. Since the articles chosen should be articles
related to our field of study, which is Environmental Science and Economics, it is hard to fully
understand the articles of these two fields as the two disciplines uses scientific terms that we
have not learned yet and the usage of difficult words in the articles. This can cause us to overlook
some of the 3 elements found in the articles. Therefore, we have a hard time to find for more
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For future studies, it is recommended to find for more articles to make comparing of the
elements of the introduction section easier. It is also recommended to compare more elements
of the introduction section so that significant differences can be found between the two disciplines.
Besides that, researchers who wants to to do a research regarding this topic should try to
understand the articles that they have picked. Find a more simple research article topics without
hard scientific terms. Bring a dictionary to refer to when stumbling upon difficult words in the
articles picked.
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References
Bailey, S. (2018). Academic Writing: A Handbook for International Students (5th ed.) New York:
Routledge.
Cargill, M., & O’ Connor, P. (2009). Writing Scientific Research Articles: Strategy and Steps, 5-7,
10, 37-40. Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.
Samraj, B. (2005). An Exploration of a Genre Set: Research Article Abstracts and Introduction in
Two Disciplines. English for Specific Purposes 24, 141-56.
Samraj, B. (2001, October 30). Introductions in research articles: Variations across disciplines.
Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0889490600000235.
Swales, John M. (2004). Research Genres: Exploration and Application, 226-234. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Swales, John M. (2017, December 23). Strengthening move analysis methodology towards
bridging the function-form gap. Retrieved from
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0889490617303332.
Weissberg, R., & Buker, S. (2005). Writing up Research: Experimental Research Report Writing
for Students of English. Selangor: Prentice Hall Regents.
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Appendix
Figure 1.0: The two selected journal articles from the Environmental Science field,
Marine Pollution Bulletin (Left) & Marine Policy (Right).
Figure 1.1 The two selected journal articles from the Economics field,
International Journal of Production Economics (left) & Journal of Asian Economics
(right).
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Figure 2.0: The three selected research articles in the Marine Pollution Bulletin journal.
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Figure 2.1: The three selected research articles in the Marine Policy journal.
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Figure 3.0: The three selected research articles in the International Journal of
Production Economics journal.
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Figure 3.1: The three selected research articles in the Journal of Asian Economics
journal.
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