Abstract
This study examined 90 research article abstracts in three applied linguistics journals (i.e., TESOL Quarterly, Applied Linguistics, and Language Learning) from two dimensions: the move structure features and the verb tense of each move. The results showed that the abstracts analyzed tended to take a four-move structure instead of a five-move one as proposed in literature. In addition, since some publishers have word limits on abstract length, authors would usually follow the publisher’s guideline accordingly, thus there existing some differences concerning the move structure features among the abstracts in the three journals. In terms of the verb tense in each move, the preferred pattern was as follows: the present tense usually occurred in the first, second, and fifth move, while the past tense was often used in the third and fourth moves. It was also found that there were some variations between the abstracts written by native speakers and nonnative speakers of English. It is hoped that with detailed analyses of abstracts, the results of this study may serve as a complement to the guidelines for novice writers to construct a proper research article abstract in applied linguistics.
Highlights
In academic prose, abstracts have become an essential and inalienable part of research articles
This study examined 90 research article abstracts in three applied linguistics journals (i.e., TESOL Quarterly, Applied Linguistics, and Language Learning) from two dimensions: the move structure features and the verb tense of each move
The results of the five move distribution of abstracts are shown in Table 3, which demonstrates that three moves seemed to be obligatory in these applied linguistics abstracts
Summary
Abstracts have become an essential and inalienable part of research articles. If presented in a structured format (note 1), abstracts are easier to read, search and recall, and often contain more information than the traditional ones (Hartley, Sydes & Blurton, 1996; Hartley & Sydes, 1997; Hartley & Benjamin, 1998). Given their important roles and functions in research communities, abstracts, a specific genre in its own right (Lorés, 2004), have received considerable attention and have been examined from different perspectives in recent years
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