An analysis of moves, hedges, and boosters in applied linguistics research article abstracts of Thai international journals
A well-crafted research article abstract (RAA) can persuade journal editors to consider publishing the research by effectively highlighting the significance and quality of the study. Although existing studies have examined the rhetorical structure and metadiscourse devices in RAAs, integrated analys...
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| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Elsevier
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Social Sciences and Humanities Open |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S259029112500124X |
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| Summary: | A well-crafted research article abstract (RAA) can persuade journal editors to consider publishing the research by effectively highlighting the significance and quality of the study. Although existing studies have examined the rhetorical structure and metadiscourse devices in RAAs, integrated analyses of both have been scant. This paper examines the types of abstracts and move structures of applied linguistics RAAs from three Thai international journals and the variations of hedges and boosters used across the moves. Drawing upon the corpus of 90 abstracts (30 from each journal), the results indicate that the informative abstract type was preferred, followed by the combinatory type. Both types of abstracts followed a similar move pattern. In the informative abstract, the most dominant move sequence was Purpose (P) - Method (M) - Product (Pr) - Conclusion (C). For the combinatory type, the most prevalent sequence was Outlining the research field (O) - Justifying the research study (J) - Introducing the paper (I) - Highlighting the outcomes (H). Despite different terms, used sequences served similar communicative functions and highlighted the necessity of purpose, method, and results moves as obligatory elements. Regarding hedges and boosters, both devices were found across moves. However, hedges were more commonly used, particularly in the conclusion move, while boosters were predominantly applied in the results move. The hedges functioned to express humbleness in interpreting the data, whereas the boosters helped assert confidence in presenting the findings. Our study offers insights to benefit writers of research articles in applied linguistics. |
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| ISSN: | 2590-2911 |