Writing Research Introductions in Economics: A Genre-Based Inquiry

Abstract

Researchers in the field of economics have acknowledged that they often encounter difficulties in handling the language needed in academic discourse. This partly explains why the academic language of economists has attracted the interest of numerous linguists in the last few decades. An important academic ‘part-genre’ in economics that has presented much difficulty is the research article introduction. Using the latest Swalesian move-step analytical model, this study aims to identify the major rhetorical categories and organisation patterns of the introductions of economics research reports. Our textual analysis was triangulated by a qualitative analysis of the spoken data elicited from eight specialist informants in the discipline of economics. The results indicate that even though research introductions in economics follow a distinct rhetorical structure consisting of three principal moves, the frequencies of their constituent steps differ notably from those in other disciplines. The findings of this study have pedagogical significance not only in the development of the Swalesian model, but also in the design of teaching materials for language practitioners in English for Academic Purposes and novice writers in the highly specialised field of economics.