Final

Introduction

Introductions play an important role in academic articles because it will give the audience a clear clue about the topic and structure of the paper. Therefore, the question "What structure should an introduction follow" has drawn much attention by linguists. Corpus had been investigated in a variety of disciplines and some models were proposed. For example, Swales put forward CARS (Create A Research Space) model and revised it in 2004, breaking down introductions into three moves: establishing the area of research, establishing the gap in knowledge, and filling this gap. This model was frequently examined and researchers found out that most introductions in all kinds of discipline follow it well.

After CARS model had been revised and accepted as useful, it was widely applied to analysis in introductions of research articles. Especially in recent years, several papers were proposed each year discussing about the rhetorical element, crosslinguistic expression or other aspects of introductions. However, during such a long time only a few researchers paid close attention to the structural difference between introductions and other elements of research articles when applying CARS model (Riley, 1991; Samraj, 2005; Pho, 2008), while these other elements such as abstracts and conclusions are structurally similar to introductions. For example, abstracts also require a brief generalization of the context of the article, mentioning the research process and result which is similar to the Move 3 of introductions regarding CARS model. Therefore, question arises that "Do other parts of research article follow CARS model as introductions and why are they structurally different in a certain discipline?" The goal of this research is to find what is the structural difference between introductions and abstracts, and what factor causes such difference. The result will help authors to better understand how to write introduction.

Methodology

Introduction and abstracts are similar. They both serve as a summary, indicating the reason, the topic and maybe to some extent the result of the article. In order to compare them, a corpus of 12 research articles is adopted. The articles should be chosen in a variety of sources, from conference papers to students' dissertation in biomedical engineering field, with different length as a possible factor affecting the structure of introductions and abstracts. In this paper, the sources are journals, conferences, and dissertations. Each has 4 articles, written in recent years. Another possible factor is the purpose of the article, including to create a literature review of the area, to implement an algorithm, or to present a experimental finding. Such differences in purposes are also considered to be taken into account during the setup of the corpus.

Since CARS model is reliable and widely used, each introduction is analyzed under this model to see which moves it has. And then, to contrast with the introduction, the corresponding abstract is examined by CARS model. The research focus is counted as move one or two, while the methods used and findings are move three. The length of each move is also examined in a standard that moves less than 1/4 of the section are counted as "short", and those longer than 1/2 are counted as "long"; move length in between is "medium". Afterward contrast is made to see whether they are coherent with introductions, and why they differ if the two parts have the same structure.

Result

It turns out that most abstracts have similar structure of the corresponding introduction. The portion of the length of each move is similar in both parts. If a move in the abstract is "long", then the one in the introduction is also "long" or at least "medium". And if one is short, the corresponding one is often short or even absent. 7 out of 11 articles follow this pattern. For example, in LV Segmentation and Motion Analysis from 4D Cardiac Images (Yun Zhu, 2010), move one of the abstract is "medium" whereas that of the introduction is "short"; move two of the abstract have only one sentence while that of the introduction has just a few; both move threes are long. Another example is A Model-based Self-adaptive Approach to Image Processing (Jim Nichols & Ted Bapty, 2004). This article lacks move one in both abstract and introduction, and move two and three are weighed relatively equal. Another point is if there is a short or no abstract, then the introduction is usually short, like in Spotlights in Biomedical Imaging (Andrew F. Laine, 2009), where there is no abstract and the introduction has only two sentences.

Concerning the purpose of the articles, there is not much characteristic revealed except that 4 out of 4 articles with purpose of developing an algorithm have long move three in abstracts. The fact is that 7 out of 11 abstracts has long move three but no obvious trend of introductions.

Discussion

From the above analysis of the result we can see that authors tend to write in the same structure of abstracts and introductions. Usually abstracts are the shorten version of an introduction and they are often about the conclusion.

 Since abstracts and introductions are similar in structure, linguists may consider to develop a general model for the two parts. 

Final -- discussion

From the above analysis of the result we can see that authors tend to write in the same structure of abstracts and introductions. Usually abstracts are the shorten version of an introduction and they are often about the conclusion.
 Since abstracts and introductions are similar in structure, linguists may consider to develop a general model for the two parts.

Final--Result

It turns out that most abstracts have similar structure of the corresponding introduction. The portion of the length of each move is similar in both parts. If a move in the abstract is "long", then the one in the introduction is also "long" or at least "medium". And if one is short, the corresponding one is often short or even absent. 7 out of 11 articles follow this pattern. For example, in LV Segmentation and Motion Analysis from 4D Cardiac Images (Yun Zhu, 2010), move one of the abstract is "medium" whereas that of the introduction is "short"; move two of the abstract have only one sentence while that of the introduction has just a few; both move threes are long. Another example is A Model-based Self-adaptive Approach to Image Processing (Jim Nichols & Ted Bapty, 2004). This article lacks move one in both abstract and introduction, and move two and three are weighed relatively equal. Another point is if there is a short or no abstract, then the introduction is usually short, like in Spotlights in Biomedical Imaging (Andrew F. Laine, 2009), where there is no abstract and the introduction has only two sentences.
Concerning the purpose of the articles, there is not much characteristic revealed except that 4 out of 4 articles with purpose of developing an algorithm have long move three in abstracts. The fact is that 7 out of 11 abstracts has long move three but no obvious trend of introductions.

Hedging in Data Commentaries

Dear Professor,
I'm writing you a data commentary of the makeup exam.

Table 16: A Comparison of the Regular and Makeup Exam

	Regular exam	Makeup exam
Average score (out of 100) Time administered Difficulty of questions Number of students Proctor Board examples Room environment	86 Wednesday, 7:00 p.m. average 125 professor yes about 20C	72 Friday, 4:00 p.m. average 25 teaching assistant no (not considered necessary) about 28C

First of all,  the table shows that the difficulty of questions is on average in both exams, so the difference between the average scores may be caused by some other objective factors. For example, there are only 25 students who attended the makeup exam, and statistics based on this small portion sample can lead distortion to the result. Students who took the makeup exam may just did not learn very well. Another factor might be the lack of board examples, but since it is not very necessary in exams, I do not consider it main causation of the score difference. Moreover, the room temperature during the make up exam is 28 C, which is much warmer than during the regular exam, so students may become sleepy in such environment. In a word, text question level is not the causation of difference between the two exams and result from the makeup exam can reflect the knowledge level of the students as the regular exam does.

Best regards,
teaching assistant

Sentences rewriting

Original:

The story of King Lear and his daughters was a popular one during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. At least a dozen available books offered the story to anyone wishing to read it, by the time Elizabeth died. The characters were undeveloped in most of these stories, however, making the story a simple narrative that stated an obvious moral. When he began work on Lear, perhaps his greatest tragedy, Shakespeare must have had several version of this story available to him. He turned the characters into credible human beings with complex motives, however, even though they were based on the stock figures of legend.  

Rewrite: 

During the reign of Queen Elizabeth one popular story was that of King Lear and his daughters. By the time Elizabeth died, the story was offered to anyone withing to read it in at least a dozen available books. However, in most of these stories the characters were undeveloped, making the story a simple narrative that stated an obvious moral. Several version of this story must have been heard by Shakespeare when he began work on perhaps his greatest tragedy Lear. Even though the characters were based on the stock figures of legend, Shakespeare turned them into credible human beings with complex motives.

Chart Discription

This chart shows the average usage condition of DC Metro during a day. At a time, the number of people using DC Metro is from about 100 to 400. Starting at 6:00 a.m., the number continues to rise, reaching a peak at 7:00, and then decrease to below 200. Subsequently the number rises slowly to a plateau at 12:00, with the number around 300. Afterward there is a dip at 16:00 reaching to the lowest usage amount. Following is another spike around 18:00, which is the second rush hour in a day. After 20:00 the number becomes relatively stable, with only slight fluctuation.

Final -- Methodology

Introduction and abstracts are similar. They both serve as a summary, indicating the reason, the topic and maybe to some extent the result of the article. In order to compare them, a corpus of 12 research articles is adopted. The articles should be chosen in a variety of sources, from conference papers to students' dissertation in biomedical engineering field, with different length as a possible factor affecting the structure of introductions and abstracts. In this paper, the sources are journals, conferences, and dissertations. Each has 4 articles, written in recent years. Another possible factor is the purpose of the article, including to create a literature review of the area, to implement an algorithm, or to present a experimental finding. Such differences in purposes are also considered to be taken into account during the setup of the corpus.
Since CARS model is reliable and widely used, each introduction is analyzed under this model to see which moves it has. And then, to contrast with the introduction, the corresponding abstract is examined by CARS model. The research focus is counted as move one or two, while the methods used and findings are move three. The length of each move is also examined in a standard that moves less than 1/4 of the section are counted as "short", and those longer than 1/2 are counted as "long"; move length in between is "medium". Afterward contrast is made to see whether they are coherent with introductions, and why they differ if the two parts have the same structure.

Methodology

In order to get the most truthful statements of feelings and experiences from family members, face-to-face interview method, which is usually quickly approved, was adopted. This method was applied to ten people willing to be interviewed in the local Chinese community. Although there were not enough subjects for statistical analysis,  data from ten persons is enough for a small-scale pilot study. Within the study, one-hour interviews were carried out on each person, using whatever language the interviewees were most comfortable with-- Mandarin, Taiwanese, or English so that they could express their feelings accurately. The interview was semi-structured, i.e. there was not a fixed lit of questions.

Final -- introduction

Introductions play an important role in academic articles because it will give the audience a clear clue about the topic and structure of the paper. Therefore, the question "What structure should an introduction follow" has drawn much attention by linguists. Corpus had been investigated in a variety of disciplines and some models were proposed. For example, Swales put forward CARS (Create A Research Space) model and revised it in 2004, breaking down introductions into three moves: establishing the area of research, establishing the gap in knowledge, and filling this gap. This model was frequently examined and researchers found out that most introductions in all kinds of discipline follow it well.

After CARS model had been revised and accepted as useful, it was widely applied to analysis in introductions of research articles. Especially in recent years, several papers were proposed each year discussing about the rhetorical element, crosslinguistic expression or other aspects of introductions. However, during such a long time only a few researchers paid close attention to the structural difference between introductions and other elements of research articles when applying CARS model (Riley, 1991; Samraj, 2005; Pho, 2008), while these other elements such as abstracts and conclusions are structurally similar to introductions. For example, abstracts also require a brief generalization of the context of the article, mentioning the research process and result which is similar to the Move 3 of introductions regarding CARS model. Therefore, question arises that "Do other parts of research article follow CARS model as introductions and why are they structurally different in a certain discipline?" The goal of this research is to find what is the structural difference between introductions and abstracts, and what factor causes such difference. The result will help authors to better understand how to write introduction.

Move 1b--literature review

      Citations are widely recognized as being an important and distinctive property of academic texts. As a consequence, the presence or absence of citations allows the casual reader to get an immediate sense of whether a text is an "academic" or "popular" one. Because citation is such an obvious surface phenomenon, it has been much discussed in the academic world. Indeed, there are several theories about the role and purpose of citations in academic texts. Some theories consider citation as tool for the authors themselves, either serving to create a research space (Swales, 1990) or to demonstrate expertise (Bavelas, 1978) and convince the authority of his or her article (Gilbert, 1977). Many theories, however, consider from the angle of previous writers. For example, Ravetz (1971) argued that citations operate as mutual reward, a form of "payment" to other authors. The main idea of these theories is that citations are used to show respect to the previous scholars and acknowledge their works.

Structure of Introductions in Academic Papers

First article:
DN: Database Name
CSA Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts
TI: Title
Elements of Metalanguage in Students' Academic Texts
OT: Original Title
Metakalbos elementai akademiniuose studentu tekstuose
AU: Author
Alauniene, Zita; Valskys, Vidas
AF: Affiliation
Vilniaus pedagoginis u [mailto:zalauniene@gmail.com]
SO: Source
Zmogus ir Zodis, 2009, 11, 1, 5-12
IS: ISSN 1392-8600
DE: Descriptors
*Instructions (36360); *Academic Writing (00072); *Language for Special Purposes (42550); *Language Textbooks (44300); *Metalanguage (53150); *Writing Strategies (98780); *Writing Ability (98560)
AB: Abstract
Academic texts contain a certain kind of specific speaking --metalanguage, which is deployed by the author in order to explain the language of the text to the reader, to call attention to the more
important details of the research and to help better understand its structure. The article is a discussion of the instructions provided in
methodological publications for students on how elements of
metalanguage are expected to be used in their academic texts,
especially in final papers. The analysis performed on students' works
(mostly related to social sciences and humanities) indicates that
metalanguage elements are the most abundant in their introductory
parts -- the preface and the introduction. Metalanguage is usually
deployed as a means to define the object of the work, the relevance of
the subject, the aims and objectives of the work, as well as to
describe the composition of the work, materials used, and research
methods applied. Sometimes a hypothesis is provided additionally. The
issue of the research is formulated rather seldom. Apparently, more
efforts are made to include all the attributes (elements) that are
mandatory for introductory sections than to address the specific way
of metaspeaking, textual composition and cohesion instruments.
Metalanguage-related notes that would call the readers' interest are
particularly scarce. Nonetheless, the metalanguage elements applied
disclose students' ability to pay more attention to the essence and
completeness of the work, to structure text and to make descriptions
properly. Adapted from the source document
UD: Update 200910
LA: Language Lithuanian
JV: Journal Volume 11
PT: Publication Type Journal Article (aja)
JP: Journal Pages 5-12
JI: Journal Issue 1
PY: Publication Year 2009
KW: Keywords
academic texts, metalanguage, textual structure, methodical
AN: Accession Number 200916981
CP: Country of Publication Lithuania
CL: Classification
4121 applied linguistics; writing: instruction, acquisition, processes, and testing


Second Article:

DN: Database Name
CSA Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts
TI: Title
The schematic structure of Spanish PhD thesis introductions
AU: Author
Carbonell-Olivares, Maria; Gil-Salom, Luz; Soler-Monreal, Carmen
SO: Source
Spanish in Context, 2009, 6, 2, 151-175
IS: ISSN
1571-0718
DE: Descriptors
*Spanish (81800); *Academic Writing (00072); *Discourse/Text Genres
(19280); *Text Structure (89200); *Text Analysis (89100); *Corpus
Analysis (15664)
AB: Abstract
Since the 1990s written academic genres have received considerable
attention in discourse and rhetorical studies, especially texts
written in English. Although few studies describe PhD theses as a
genre, some work has been carried out on their macrostructure and the
rhetorical moves of certain sections. In the Spanish literature, genre
studies on academic writing are scarce relative to those in English,
especially in the case of doctoral theses. We analyse the
introductions of 21 doctoral theses in computing written in Spanish
using Bunton's model (2002) for thesis introductions in English. The
results indicate that most of the steps in this model are applicable
to our corpus, but several new steps and sub-steps have been
distinguished to account for the observed moves of Spanish PhD thesis
introductions. The complexity of the thesis introduction is related to
the scope and depth of the research carried out for a doctoral thesis,
the need to display extensive knowledge of the field and to justify
the relevance of the research. Adapted from the source document
UD: Update
201002
LA: Language
English
JV: Journal Volume
6
PT: Publication Type
Journal Article (aja)
JP: Journal Pages
151-175
JI: Journal Issue
2
PY: Publication Year
2009
AN: Accession Number
201003647
CP: Country of Publication
Netherlands
CL: Classification
4611 discourse analysis/text linguistics; text linguistics

Make a time schedule

Graduate students have more time to do things other than attending classes, especially in engineering field. They can spent 4 days a week doing research on their own computer without going to school. But with the fact of far away from parents' concern, they can also spend time at any thing they are interested in. There are always parties, games, and other activities that needs a lot of time. The problem is, many graduate students still lack the capability in balancing study and playing. Some of them just hang up online or go shopping all days until before the deadline of the assignments. They finish the task in a hurry with low quality. The reason is that they often feel there is much time left so there is no problem if they do something less important first. But when they realize that they should spend some time on study, the day has passed. And they think, "Well, I can do it tomorrow." But situation continues the next day. One way to help is to set up a time schedule and follow it every day. When there is no class, do homework first and place activities in evening, shopping only on weekends, and so on. One benefit of such a time schedule is that it will ensure students to study and finish homework on time with higher quality. By following it, there will be no need to worry about tomorrow's deadline when hanging out with friends.

Comparison of Academic and Informal Writing

Audience

   Dahl's paper: intended audiences are scholars looking for an academic point of view in some disciplines. They are supposed to know the background of this paper and be familiar with this field. When reading, audiences expected to get better understanding of the issue. The paper itself didn't indicate the intended audience, but from the type of the article (thesis) and the beginning part (abstract) we can get the idea of what kind of audience will be reading this article.

    Azuma's: This article aims at new graduate students coming to a computer science school. The audiences are supposed to know nothing about what will be discussed in the article. After reading, they should get more living information. Intended audience is directly indicated in the description.

Tone

    The tone of Azuma is relaxed and ready to help, with jokes and examples, while Dahl is using a more formal voice, avoiding personal emotion.

Authority

    Azuma's authority is established by indicating that he had such experience. And Dahl stated that he had study on the topic and gave analyzed data as support.

Rhetorical Structure

      Dahl's paper has a clear structure that is common in academic papers, including abstract, introduction, argument, experiential results and conclusion, because the reader may concern only a certain part of the paper and they need to quickly locate where to find what they need. Meanwhile, Azuma follows his own structure, using subtitles to make it clear to which part the article goes, because readers are supposed to read from the beginning.

Argument

    When put forward a statement, Dahl use much evidence (like data, experimental result, etc.) to support. On the other side, Azuma makes a claim based on only his own experience.

Scope
    Azuma's text has a wider scope of topic, referring to all kinds of aspects in life. Dahl's is more focused on an academic topic. The factor of audience decided such a difference. Audience of Azuma's are willing to know more on every aspects of life while those of Dahl's are only looking at an explanation of a certain issue, care no other aspects.

Sentence Mechanics and Grammar

     Dahl is using normalized grammar and complicated and integrated sentences while Azuma often uses short sentences and does not care much about grammar. For example, sentence "The bottom line: realize that ..." in Azuma's text is an informal expression in written paper.

Style

    Azuma uses informal format with colloquialisms . For example, in Azuma's text "Why the hell am I doing this" is a very casual expression, and he uses "I repeat: ..." which will hardly appear in a paper like Dahl's, which prefer to use sentences like "I suggested in section 2 that ..." so that the paper is not commanding the audience.

Reference to Others’ Ideas

    When there is a reference, Dahl will give full information about the author, publication time, brief description, etc.. The purpose of citation is to use others' conclusion to support his own opinion. In Azuma's writing, there are quotation marks when sentences are cited. these citations are often used as background or explanation. It is which kind the writing belongs to that decides the style of citations. One must have normalized format, and the other is more informal.

Vocabulary

     Vocabulary in Dahl's article is more specialized and specific. For example, in his paper, there is a paragraph:

     "This was the case for aim, article,11 claim, conclude, conclusion, contribution, demonstrate, goal, indicate, maintain and purpose. Three search words (two of them pronoun variants) turned out to be common (here defined somewhat arbitrarily as more than 10 occurrences) in both disciplines, viz. I, we and paper, while others, not unexpectedly, displayed disciplinary differences: find, show and result were common in economics12 and rare in linguistics, while argue and suggest were common in linguistics and rare in economics."

     We can see that some words are stressed as specific definition in the process.

     But in Azuma's article, use of vocabulary is more colloquial. For example, in the sentence "If you do not have an acceptable answer to this question, then don't get a Ph.D. I repeat: if you do not have a rock-solid reason for getting the Ph.D., then it is better that you leave with a Master's." It is like Azuma is talking to someone.