Abstract
A research article (RA) abstract provides an overview or summary of the whole research. It is one of the most important sections in an RA since it is the first section researchers read to decide if the article is relevant to their research or not. Researchers need to know the intradisciplinary (within the same discipline) variations and similarities in the choice of Theme and thematic progression (TP) patterns in RA abstracts in their discipline. Several studies have investigated variations and similarities in the use of Theme across disciplines. To the best of our knowledge, there is a lack of studies investigating intradisciplinary variations in the use of Theme in RA abstracts of dentistry subdisciplines. As epistemological differences exist between the various dentistry subdisciplines, it is pertinent to examine if there are intradisciplinary variations in the construction of Theme in the subfields of dentistry. The present study aims to investigate if there are any intradisciplinary variations and similarities in the use of Theme and TP patterns across seven dentistry subdisciplines: oral sciences, periodontics, endodontics, operative dentistry, prosthodontics, oral and maxillofacial surgery, and orthodontics. The study is framed by Halliday’s systemic functional linguistics’ approach to language and Daneš’s model for TP patterns. The findings revealed intradisciplinary significant differences between the subfields of dentistry in terms of the use of Theme types at p < .05 (p-value=0.0294), while there were no significant differences in the use of TP patterns and thematic markedness. Various interesting linguistic features characterizing the subdisciplines were found, although no significant interdisciplinary differences were found between dentistry RA abstracts and the findings reported in the literature of other disciplines. Finally, implications for novice dental researchers attempting to write an RA abstract are presented.
Highlights
Analysis of the thematic organization of discourse reveals the way texts are created and organized coherently, thereby facilitating the smooth readability of texts
(1) “We suggest that it is used when discussing surgical outcomes, taking consent from newly-diagnosed patients, and when calculating the costs of head and neck oncological surgery.”/ “We evaluated the degree of autophagy and cytoplasmic HMGB1 in radioresistant oral squamous cell carcinoma.”/ “In this prospective study, [Theme] we meticulously searched for more examples using both formalin-fixed cadavers and neck dissections. [Rheme]”/ “We retrospectively reviewed the impact of repair of cleft lip on marriage in adult patients in our institution by questioning a group of patients treated from July 2009-June 2017.” (British Journal of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, 2019)
Several studies have conducted interdisciplinary investigations on variations and similarities in the thematic organization of research article (RA) abstracts across a range of disciplines; similar investigations of RA abstracts of dentistry subdisciplines are lacking
Summary
Analysis of the thematic organization of discourse reveals the way texts are created and organized coherently, thereby facilitating the smooth readability of texts. The application of this analysis to the research article (RA) abstract is necessary since the findings may provide invaluable insights for writers of an RA abstract. As epistemologies (or demands) are unique to each dentistry subdiscipline (or dental specialty), it is essential to investigate if there are intradisciplinary (within the same discipline) variations in the use of Theme in RA abstracts of various subfields of dentistry. To the best of our knowledge, there is a lack of studies investigating intradisciplinary variations in the construction of Theme in RA abstracts of dentistry subdisciplines
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