Results sections in sociology and organic chemistry articles: A genre analysis

Abstract

This paper reports a genre study of the Results sections of two samples of 20 research-reporting articles from two disciplines: sociology and organic chemistry. Following the proposal of Bhatia (2004) that genre knowledge needs to be investigated from two perspectives, an ethnographic perspective and a textual perspective, the Results sections are analysed in terms of the social genre/cognitive genre model of Bruce (2008b). The ethnographic dimension of the investigation involves a semi-structured interview with a sociologist and an organic chemist, revealing significant differences between the two disciplines in terms of social genre elements of context, epistemology and writer stance in reporting the Results of research. The textual investigation involves rater analysis of two samples of 20 Results sections from three nominated journals to which the two interviewees frequently refer. The texts are analysed in relation to the cognitive genre model, the analysis revealing consistent differences in the textual resources employed in each subject, with sociology Results sections mainly employing the cognitive genre termed Report and organic chemistry Result s sections employing the Explanation cognitive genre.