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Having studied the introduction section of research papers, Swales (1990) summarized their typical structure in three moves. These moves, shown in the table below, became known as the create-a-research-space (or CARS) model.
| Moves in Research Paper Introductions |
|---|
| Move 1 Establishing a research territory |
| a. by showing that the general research area is important, central, interesting, problematic, or relevant in some way (optional) |
| b. by introducing and reviewing items of previous research in the area (obligatory) |
| Move 2 Establishing a niche* |
| by indicating a gap in the previous research, or by extending previous knowledge in some way. (obligatory) |
| Move 3 Occupying the niche |
| a. by outlining purposes or stating the nature of the present research (obligatory) |
| b. by listing research questions or hypotheses (PlSF**) |
| c. by announcing principal findings (PlSF) |
| d. by stating the value of the present research (PlSF) |
| e. by indicating the structure of the RP (PISF) |
* In ecology, a niche is a particular microenvironment where a particular organism can thrive.
In our case, a niche is a context where a particular piece of research makes particularly good sense.
** PISF = probable in some fields, but rare in others.
Source: SWALES, J. & FEAK, C. Academic Writing for Graduate Students: essential skills and tasks. 3rd Edition. Michigan ELT, 2012, p. 331.
Consider the model to analyze the introduction of Thierfeld and Stapleton’s article below.
[1] Instruction in many classrooms, particularly in contexts where traditional approaches predominate, tends to be based on an oral delivery by a teacher that is received and largely understood by an audience of students. [2] However, students who are deaf do not have full access to instruction provided orally due to their hearing loss, and this, along with other influencing linguistic factors, can have a significant impact on their progress in school. [3] A disproportionate number of deaf students struggle academically compared to their hearing counterparts, especially in school subjects related to language development. [4] Deaf students in Hong Kong, the context for the present study, are no exception to this worldwide situation. [5] In addition to this, while deaf students in English-speaking countries are typically only required to learn to read and write English, those in Hong Kong must learn both written Chinese and English in order to gain access to higher education. [6] This poses an additional challenge for them. [7] Presently, relatively little is known about the linguistic challenges these students face in acquiring literacy in their second written language, English, which is essentially their third language after Hong Kong Sign Language (HKSL) and written Chinese. [8] In the present study, via an exploratory analysis of the written English of five deaf adults in Hong Kong, patterns of errors are investigated in an effort to build a better picture of what specific difficulties they face in learning to write a foreign language.
THIERFELDER, P.; & STAPLETON, P. Errors in the written English of native users of sign language: An exploratory case study of Hong Kong deaf students.
Choose the correct alternative. Note: the sentences were numbered (1 to 8) for the analysis.