Swales’ Cars Model and the Metaphor of Research Space: An illustration with an African Journal

Abstract

John Swales’ Create a Research Space (CARS) model comprising three rhetorical moves; namely, Move 1 (establish a research territory), Move 2 (establish a niche), and Move 3 (occupy the niche) describes the rhetorical strategies that researchers utilize in order to claim research space in their disciplines in a highly competitive research environment. This paper analyzes Moves 1 and 2 of the introductions in Research Articles (RAs) in an African journal in order to examine the space that the contributors to the journal allot to themselves through the linguistic devices used in signalling gap statements, along with the extensiveness of references to previous work as a way of situating and mainstreaming their research. To this end, the introductions of 59 RAs published in the Legon Journal of the Humanities from 2005 to 2010 were analyzed using the CARS model. The findings reveal that the authors of these RAs may perhaps not be exploiting Step 3 (reviewing items of previous research) under Move 1 in order to reinforce the research niche being claimed in Move 2. Keywords: Genre analysis, introductions, Moves, scholarly communication, African journals