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- Title
Rhetorical and Textual Organization of English and Arabic PhD Dissertation Abstracts in Linguistics.
- Authors
AL-Ali, Mohammed N.; Sahawneh, Yara B.
- Abstract
This study compares English and Arabic PhD dissertation abstracts in the field of linguistics in an attempt to study the rhetorical and linguistic variations between the abstracts written in English and those written in Arabic. To this end, we have analyzed the rhetorical components that constitute the macrostructure of fifty English PhD dissertation abstracts written by English native speakers and those underlying fifty Arabic PhD dissertations written by native Arabic speakers following Swales' (1990) CARS model of RA introductions and Bhatia's (1993) IMRD move structure. The results showed differences between the two sets of data in generic structure preferences in terms of the type and frequency of moves and the linguistic realizations of these moves. The rhetorical variations across the two languages are most likely due to socio-cultural and academic expectations. The differences related to certain linguistic realizations such as voice and tense choice are ascribed either to inherent linguistic differences between the two languages or to academic practice. The study highlights the importance of teaching abstracts writing skills to PhD candidates.
- Subjects
LINGUISTICS; ENGLISH language rhetoric; ENGLISH language writing; DOCTOR of philosophy degree; ACADEMIC dissertations; ABSTRACTING
- Publication
SKY Journal of Linguistics, 2011, Vol 24, p7
- ISSN
1456-8438
- Publication type
Article