INTRODUCTORY PASSAGES IN PAKISTANI JOURNALS: A RHETORICAL ANALYSIS OF RESEARCH ARTICLES USING CREATING A RESEARCH SPACE MODEL

Abstract

This paper aims at studying the rhetorical patterns followed by researchers, while writing introductions of research articles in different Pakistani journals. Genre analysis of introductory passages has gained considerable importance. Much data is available to explore the rhetorical structures of introductions of various research articles and MPhil/Ph.D. dissertations (Swales 1990; Bunton 2002; Bhatia 2006; Shehzad 2007; Samraj 2008), however, the research articles published in Pakistani Journals remained unexplored. This study aims to fill this gap in order to help novice researchers to understand the general patterns followed in introduction passages of some of the local Pakistani journals. Swales (1990, 2004) CARS  have been used as framework to study the general moves in the introductory passages of 20 different articles published in  Kashmir Journal of Language Research (KJLR) which is published by University of Azad & Jammu Kashmir in Muzaffarafad, NUML Journal of Critical Inquiry (NUMLJCI), Baluchistan Journal of Linguistics (BJL), Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities published by Allama Iqbal Open University in Islamabad, and International Research Journal of Arts and Humanities (IRJAH) published by University of Sindh in Jamshoroo. CARS (1990 and 2004) have been used widely in research communities to study move structures in introductory passages of research articles, academic genres (Alives 2007) and reviews of books (Babli 2003). This model is flexible and welcomes the modifications according to new practices in genre (Bunton 2002) and application of this model is also noticed in introduction sections of papers presented in conferences across the world (Simpson and Swales 2001). The results showed that Move 1 is the most frequent which implies that ‘Establishing a Niche’ is necessary while writing introductions to be published in these journals. Move 2 was frequent in Kashmir Journal of Research Language, NUML Journal of Critical Inquiry and Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities (AIOU), however, it was found to be optional in Baluchistan Journal of Linguistics and IRJAH. Moreover, Move 3 was present in 85% of the corpus.