An Analysis of Moves and Modality in English Engineering

An Analysis oI Moves and Modality in English Engineering Abstracts
NIDA Language and Communication Journal / 2006

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A An n A An na al ly ys si is s o oI I M Mo ov ve es s a an nd d M Mo od da al li it ty y i in n E En ng gl li is sh h E En ng gi in ne ee er ri in ng g
A Ab bs st tr ra ac ct ts s
by
Piyakarn Promsin
M.A. student
School oI Language and Communication
National Institute oI Development Administration, Thailand
Abstract
This study examines 40 English engineering abstracts Irom the research theses written
by Thai students studying at both Thai and international universities in Thailand to investigate
whether the structural components are compatible with Swales` (1990) pattern oI introduction
moves or CARS model and Bhatia`s (1993) abstract move structure. I also investigate the use
oI modality as hedges in this abstract genre. The Iirst stage oI the study is to identiIy the overall
structural components oI the abstracts, Iollowing the Swales` (1990) pattern oI introduction
moves and Bhatia`s (1993) abstract move structure. Then, the common structural components
maniIested by Thai students in both groups oI abstracts are presented. Secondly, I study the
Irequency oI hedging items in the corpus: identiIying modal verbs, lexical or reporting verbs
and others. In the data analysis, I Iound that the moves oI engineering abstracts in my corpus
seem to diIIer in both communities: AIT abstracts tend to use all three moves in the CARS
model whereas CU abstracts tend to be compatible with Bhatia`s (1993) move structure.
However, I Iound some divergences Irom these two models in my corpus. For example, Step 1:
Claiming Centralitv and Move 2: Establishing a niche seem to be optional rather than crucial
elements Ior Thai students, as well as the redundancy oI Move 1, Step 2: Topic generali:ation
and Move 3, Step 1A Outlining purposes. Moreover, based on Bhatia`s (1993) move structure,
it is likely that Engineering abstracts tend to omit Move 4, Presenting conclusion and normally
begin with Move 1, Introducing purpose in the phrase such as 'The objective oI this study
is. and 'This thesis proposes..
Introduction
Abstract has become an important aspect amongst research genres in proIessional
academic settings. Yet, this academic genre is still neglected by many scholars (Swales,
1990:181). This is especially the case in the journal oI science and technology, which tends to
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be considered most important among the scientiIic discourse community. (Swales, 1990 cited
in Pupipat, 1998). The study oI the abstract genre is becoming increasingly important due to
the growing number oI journals in academia. According to Thomson ScientiIic Website (2006),
the estimated number oI science and technology journals around the world is 12,485 in only
this research area. This is problematic iI one needs to pursue particular inIormation that lies in
research articles which contain large amounts oI inIormation. A clear abstract is needed to help
those scholars, as well as novice researchers or students in the Iield, in deciding whether they
should consult the Iull text oI the research article (Cremmins, 1929:4). In addition, the
advances in inIormation technology systems have recently made enormous contributions to the
retrieval oI inIormation, including abstracts.
According to Dudley-Evan & St. John (1998:51), in written academic settings,
especially the science and technology Iield, there are diIIerences among genres within the
discipline.
'We Ieel that text analysis has shown that all academic disciplines share a common-
core oI language and discoursal Ieatures, and that the most signiIicant diIIerences lie
at the genre level. Each broad disciplinary area, such as engineering, medicine or law,
makes use oI a number oI genres. The set oI genres varies Irom one disciplinary area
to another and the actual Ieatures oI given genres may well also vary.
While there has been some work examining the abstract genre in the Iield oI medicine,
biochemistry, and other social sciences (e.g., Salager-Meyer, 1992; Martin, 2003;
Kanoksilapatham, 2005; Samraj, 2005), studies oI abstracts in physical science are extremely
scarce. In addition, many studies oI research article genre are centered on the micro level in
terms oI their adjectives, collocation, lexical Irequency (e.g., Gledhill, 2000; Soler, 2002;
Mudraya, 2006). Very little research has examined the macro-organization oI this genre as to
their rhetorical moves as the strategic use.
Some researchers in English Ior SpeciIic Purposes have explored the variation oI
abstract genres across various disciplines (e.g., Samraj, 2005). Others have studied abstracts in
speciIic discipline such as Salager-Meyer, 1992; Anthony, 1999; Kanoksilapatham, 2005. On
the other hand, regarding the growing signiIicance oI English in international journals, many
studies oI this genre have tended to investigate abstract writing by non-native English
researchers or students (e.g., Martin, 2003).
In Thailand, there are some studies related to rhetorical moves but these studies
Iocused on the business context (e.g., Chakorn, 2002; Prachumpat & Thonthong, 2004). The
45
Iocus in other studies such as Vongvanit (2000); Phanthama (2000), however, Iocuses on the
linguistics and medical abstracts respectively and not on the structure oI the abstracts in
physical science as in engineering. The study oI abstract in this Iield is important in Thailand
because most research articles or theses at master degree level require writing in English at
least Ior writing the abstract. Additionally, among the Iive sections oI a scientiIic paper;
abstract, introduction, materials and methods, results and discussion, Thai students perceive
abstract as being one oI the most diIIicult sections among introduction and discussion.
(Pupipat, 1998)
The study reported here, examines the rhetorical moves used in the Iaculty oI
engineering abstracts oI research theses written by Thai students in both Thai and
international universities in Thailand. The analysis was mainly based on the Swales`
(1990) introduction model and Bhatia`s (1993) pattern on moves. My goal is to speciIy
the rhetorical preIerences that characterize the styles oI Thai engineering students.
Previous Studies on Move Analysis
According to Chan and Foo (2004: 101), abstract studies became interesting to ESP
practitioners, who had to teach science and technical subjects in English. One oI them was
Graetz (1985). Her intention was to investigate abstracts based on a learner-centered grammar
approach. Later there was a shiIt Irom a grammar based approach to genre analysis which was
initiated by Swales (1990). Swales (1990) Iirstly analyzed the introduction section oI research
articles by identiIying its moves and steps which led to his so-called CARS` (Create A
Research Space) model. Later on abstracts in various disciplines were analyzed through the use
oI the CARS model, such as in the medical Iield by Salager-Meyer (1990). Those studies
aimed to discover and investigate the conventional rhetorical structure oI abstracts in order to
help second language learners.
Subsequently, inIormation system technology has been advanced, thus leading to the
inIormation interchange via the Internet. The abstract has been chosen to be registered as an
important data instead oI the whole research article. Chan and Foo (2004) present an important
discussion oI the impact oI technology inIormation retrieval to the abstract genre. In this
article, two types oI abstracts have been characterized: inIormative and indicative. They
suggest that inIormative abstracts would be more speciIic than indicative abstracts. Also the
result and conclusion sections are oIten included in inIormative abstracts to which science and
technology are preIerred.
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Chan and Foo (2004) studied the abstracts in perspective oI inIormation system (IS)
proIessionals in discussion with a group oI seven specialist inIormants who are the highly
reputable proIessors responsible Ior courses in inIormation and technology science
departments. They Iound that electronic abstracts should be concerned about the provision oI
key words because they are an important tool Ior inIormation retrieval system. The writers
should not only produce understandable abstracts, but also try to respond to the readers or end-
users needs, i.e., to make abstracts easy to read and comprehend.
In this important Iinding, they also stated that generic structure and qualities oI
abstracts may be aIIected by the technology oI inIormation systems; however, this article
would have been more persuasive iI the authors had more related the Iindings to previous
works oI rhetorical structure analysis in order to Iacilitate the pedagogical application.
Anthony (1999) examined the CARS model in terms oI how well this model can be
applied to the introduction in soItware engineering research articles. According to Anthony
(1999: 39), there are three reasons Ior which CARS model is used in the examination are:
First, 'the model has been through several revisions since its conception in 1981|17|,
incorporating the Iindings oI Cooper |18|, who applied it in electrical and electronic
engineering, and Crookes |19| who applied it in both the 'hard and 'social sciences. As such,
the model can be considered one oI the stronger descriptions oI text structure to date.
Secondly, this model has been accepted among writing scholars, and there are various
text books whose authors quote Irom it, and third, Swales himselI, whose many concepts and
techniques are developed using by many genre analysts throughout the discipline, especially in
the rhetorical structure oI research article introduction
Anthony (1999) collected data with reIerence to the Best Paper` award in the Iield oI
soItware engineering. In her view, a corpus oI 48 articles Irom diIIerent Iields used in
Swales`1981 study was unsubstantiated (the average is 3.4 articles per discipline). For this
reason, she selected 12 articles Irom a single, high-proIile journal concerned with soItware
engineering.
In the analysis, aIter using the Swales` move analysis, the results were discussed with
Iour specialists in the soItware engineering Iield to avoid misinterpretations. One oI her
Iindings revealed that there is a divergence Irom the CARS model, particularly in Move 3, thus
causing the development oI the CARS model. The article by Anthony (1999) made an eIIort to
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apply the CARS model in a particular discipline. Especially noteworthy was the Iinding that
supports the concept oI variation among disciplines. According to Anthony (1999: 41),
'Even within a single Iield such as engineering, there may be considerable variations
between its associated sub-disciplines. Cooper (1985), Ior example, Iound that
electrical and electronic engineering articles showed Iew examples oI Step 1-3, with
the number oI citations in the introductions and articles as a whole averaging only 7.6
and 17.6, respectively.
Martin (2003) compares the structure moves used in English language abstracts and
Spanish language abstracts oI the research article in the Iield oI experimental social science.
Martin (2003) believes that most graduate students have diIIiculties in writing the scientiIic
genre leading to imitation oI the previous writers` style. Meanwhile most research articles were
usually published in the international journals in English. For Iear that misinterpretations may
have occurred while transIerring the rhetorical structure between two cultures, Martin (2003)
conducted this study to discover the variation oI English and Spanish abstracts structure. He
Iurther emphasizes that abstracts play an important role as a time-saving tool. Consequently,
one who is a novice in this academic genre, at least has to acquire some oI those rhetorical rules
and linguistics Ieatures in order to successIully accomplish an assignment.
In his corpus, 160 abstracts were randomly selected Irom English and Spanish
journals, 80 English abstracts Irom two leading international journals in the Iield oI
experimental psychology, likewise, the Spanish abstracts, Irom two existing journals,
published in Spanish, in the same discipline, were randomly selected. With this larger
corpus size, Martin (2005) believes that the results could obtain a higher degree oI
reliability than previous studies.
The analysis oI the data was conducted by both preliminary and co-analysis
stages. In the Iirst stage, the overall text was thoroughly examined in terms oI their
rhetorical structure Iollowed by the macro structure oI the abstracts, in addition to
Swales` (1990) CARS model. The second analysis was aimed to validate the Iindings
by co-analysts, who are specialists in linguistics and psychology, in order to reach the
agreement based on the content criteria.
The Iinding revealed that there are more English abstracts with Iour move-basic
structures than Spanish. While Move 2 Step indicating a gap` is signiIicantly used higher in
English (41.77 ) than Spanish (15 ). According to Martin (2003), non-native English
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speakers have their own conventions oI writing within their communities. This socio-cultural
Iactors yield to the structural variations. However, he notices that cultural diIIerences do occur
to a considerable extent even in smaller scale oI discourse community such as variation among
hard science Iield and soIt knowledge Iield.
Samraj (2005) compared the generic structure oI two related genres, research article
introductions and abstracts, as a genre set, and then analyzed their relationships in one
discipline compared to another. The two closely related disciplines selected to investigate their
relationship among a genre set were wildliIe behavior, and conservation biology. Both
disciplines are sub-disciplines in interdisciplinary Iields. The corpus is made up oI 48 texts
Irom two journals oI these Iields: Animal Behavior and Conversation Biology. Twenty Iour
abstracts (twelve abstracts per journal) were randomly selected. Likewise were the research
article introductions. Analytic Irameworks used in this study are Swales (1990) Ior article
introductions and Bhatia (1993) Ior abstracts. Firstly, abstracts were analyzed by both
Irameworks and then the introductions are examined by Swales` (1990) CARS model.
Overall, Samraj`s (2005) Iindings on the variation among disciplines are
correspondent with Anthony (1999). Especially interesting is the notion that a gap between
disciplines, the short or long time established disciplines and the nature oI disciplines could be
the key Iactors responsible Ior persuasive element`, i.e. requiring the moves that perIorm a
persuasive Iunction, in some abstracts. Another Iinding, a common result oI both disciplines, is
that wildliIe behavior and conservation biology share the same traditional abstract moves in
which the method part seem to be absent. The article Iurther states that the abstract genre is not
merely a simple summary oI the Iull length article. In addition, abstracts should contain the
Iour important moves.
Based on Swales` move analysis, Kanoksilapatham (2005) conducted the study oI
rhetorical structure oI research articles in the biochemistry Iield to present a complete guided
model oI this particular discipline. FiIteen moves consisted oI three moves Ior the introduction
section and other twelve moves Irom the method, result and discussion sections were
investigated in a relatively large corpus oI sixty biochemistry research articles. According to
Kanoksilapatham (2005), this study is an important contribution to those interested in the Iield
who could apply this model to organize their own research article written; especially, non-
native speakers oI English who need to publish the article in an international journal. One oI
her Iindings indicates that there was little use oI Move Two, to prepare for the present studv.
This is possibly because Iirst, the conducting study is similar with the previous studies in the
approach, thus there has not been a gap to indicate. Second, Taylor and Chen (1991) cited in
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Kanoksilapatham (2005) state that this move may be deIined as a Iault Iinding strategy which
could lead to Iace-threatening in one culture. ThereIore, apart Irom variation among disciplines,
there is also the variation among cultures that plays a crucial role in the rhetorical moves
selected by the writers.
To contribute to the pedagogy oI English Ior Science Technology (EST), Pupipat
(1998) examined the scientiIic article written by Thai scientists in English and then interviewed
both ESP specialists or editors and scientists to explore their perceptions. He Iinds that the
eIIective strategies that Thai scientists employed in their research articles are, Ior example,
using graphics as an outline, revising, writing the literature review in Thai language to avoid
plagiarism. Other ineIIicient strategies are, Ior example, writing with a rigid linear sequence,
using cut-and-paste technique in draIting and revising. Apart Irom grammatical diIIiculties
which are the main problem, how to write in each section oI research articles such as the
discussion, abstract and introduction is respectively perceived the most diIIicult genre Ior Thai
scientists. According to Pupipat (1998), these three sections should be given priority in the EST
pedagogical system Ior Thai scientists.
Previous studies on modality
Void (2006) has conducted a comparison study oI the use oI hedges among research
articles written in three diIIerent languages (English, French and Norwegian) across two
disciplines (i.e., linguistics and medicine). Epistemic modality markers were explored by using
statistical analyses. The result has shown that Norwegian and English writers use more hedges
than French-speaking writers. As opposed to previously published articles, disciplinary
variation is unlikely to occur; however, it should be noted that there are still variation oI the
type oI markers used between disciplines. Void (2006) states in his conclusion that
misunderstanding could occur in academic writing oI diIIerent styles such as English and
French iI people have not been aware oI these diIIerences oI hedges.
Gosden (1992), analyzing marked themes in each section oI research article discourse,
covering three broad disciplines oI the hard sciences (i.e., physics, chemistry, biological
sciences), Iinds that the Irequency oI occurrence oI marked sentence-initial elements (e.g.,
however, in this studv) within Iour sections oI research article discourse i.e. introduction,
method, results, and discussions is based on the communicative purposes or rhetorical goals
lied in its section. For example, however and although are most likely to be Iound in
Introduction corresponding with the explanation oI the CARS model as a writer aims to
achieve the purpose by creating a research niche and then to occupy it.
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Data Collection
Regarding the purpose oI this study, the Iirst criterion in the selection oI my corpus is
trying to speciIy what sub-discipline oI engineering will be studied. One interesting sub-
discipline is telecommunications; aIIiliated in electrical engineering. This area covers a wide
variety oI research ranging Irom modeling, analysis oI wire line and wireless systems to
application and protocol development. The second criterion deals with the selection oI
universities with which the student`s theses are aIIiliated. To reduce the possibility oI errors or
the potential problems oI analyzing nonnative speaker writing, I chose to collect abstracts Irom
two high-proIile universities in Thailand. Forty abstracts were selected Irom School oI
Engineering and Technology, the Asian Institute oI Technology (an international university),
and Faculty oI Engineering, Chulalongkorn University (a Thai university).
My corpus consists oI 40 abstracts in telecommunications written in English Irom two
sources; that is; 20 abstracts by Thai students at Chulalongkorn University (CU) and 20
abstracts by Thai students at the Asian Institute oI Technology (AIT). The abstracts were
written by diIIerent writers, most oI whom are male. Although I could not trace the
whereabouts oI the authors oI the abstracts, I tried to select abstracts Irom diIIerent advisers in
order to obtain a variation oI the data. Most abstracts were submitted in the years 1999 to 2002.
These abstracts were obtained by the data retrieval means Irom Internet system. I careIully
chose abstracts Irom both communities with concerning the similar content in the Iield oI
telecommunications.
Data Analysis
The analysis oI the data was carried out in two main stages. In the Iirst stage oI the
study; rhetorical structure or move analysis abstracts were examined to identiIy the overall
structural components oI the abstracts, Iollowing Bhatia`s (1993) Iour basic moves and Swales`
(1990) pattern oI introduction moves. In the second stage, I continued to analyze in more
details with the use oI modality as hedges in the abstracts.
Swales` (1990) move structure in the introduction research articles
In order to see whether Swales` (1990) pattern oI introduction moves can be applied to
the Engineering abstracts in my corpus, I thoroughly analysed all the moves in each abstract.
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The results are shown in Figure 1:
Figure 1 Move structure in AIT and CU abstracts
Figure 1 shows that the number oI abstracts that contains the rhetorical moves based
on Swales (1990). As can be seen, the AIT abstracts tend to use all three moves. Move 3,
Occupving the niche is the most Irequent and is an obligatory element in abstracts oI both
groups. On the other hand, in the CU group, Move 1, Establishing a territorv and Move 2,
Establishing a niche are Iound less than the AIT group, especially Step 1, Claiming Centralitv
and Step 2, Making topic generali:ation. However, Move 2 occurs inIrequently in both groups.
According to my result, Step 1, Claiming Centralitv and Move 2, Establishing a niche are
considered an option than crucial Ior Thai students. This results support Swales` notion on Step
1 that 'it also seems quite widely distributed across various disciplinary areas, although
exercised somewhat less in the physical sciences.
Bhatia`s (1993) move structure
Following the other purpose oI this study to see whether the corpus is compatible with
the traditional Iour-move structure oI abstracts, I examined the engineering abstracts based on
Bhatia`s (1993) move structure. The results are shown in Figure 2:
Moves Steps realizing the moves
No. Rate No. Rate
Move 1 Step 1
Establising a territory Centrality claims 11 55 1 5
Step 2
Topic generalization 15 75 3 15
Step 3
Review previous 6 30 5 25
Move 2 Step 1B
Establising a niche Indicating a gap 9 45 4 20
Step 1D
Continuing a tradition 6 30 1 5
Move 3 Step 1A
Occupying the niche Outlining purposes 11 55 15 75
Step 1B
Announcing research 18 90 16 80
Step 2
Principal Iinding 19 95 18 90
Step 3
Indicating structure 1 5 0 0
AIT CU
Abstracts containing move/step
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Figure 2 Move structure oI AIT and CU abstracts
Figure 2 presents the numbers oI abstracts utilizing Iour-move structure in my corpus
and indicates that abstracts Irom both groups generally contain these moves: Move 1,
Introducing purpose, Move 2, Describing methodologv and Move 3, Summari:ing results. It
should be noted that Move 1 and Move 3 are the most Irequent and are considered as the
obligatory elements in both groups oI abstracts. In addition, there is a similarity in the numbers
oI Move 3, oI both Swales and Bhatia`s pattern. However, it is interesting to see that there is a
tendency to omit Move 4, Presenting conclusion. This discrepancy indicates the contradiction
between my results and Bhatia`s Iindings. According to Bhatia (1993), the research article
abstract is perceived as the synopsis containing all oI the important elements oI the whole
research paper and Move 4, is also crucial and meant to interpret results and draw inIerences. In
my data this move seems to be optional since it is rare in both groups.
Data analysis of the structural components
Figure 3 Numbers oI structural units in abstracts
Moves
No. Rate No. Rate
Move 1
Introducing purpose 20 100 20 100
Move 2
Describing methodology 19 95 20 100
Move 3
Summarizing results 19 95 17 85
Move 4
Presenting conclusions 7 35 5 25
AIT CU
Abstracts containing move
AIT CU Total AIT CU Total
(N40) (N40)
4 units 6 4 10
3 units 13 5 18 3 units 13 14 27
2 units 5 2 17 2 units 1 2 3
1 unit 2 13 15 1 unit 0 0 0
Swales' move structure Bhatia's moves
(N20) (N20)
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Following Swales` CARS model, Irom Figure 3, it is interesting that the abstracts
which are considered to be more complete, i.e., containing three structural units, are those
written by AIT group (13 oI 20 abstracts), whereas only 5 oI 20 abstracts written by CU group,
had all three moves. This is also a signiIicant statistical diIIerence. In my corpus, the AIT
abstracts are compatible with the Swales` model; however, some interesting diIIerences can be
seen in the two minor divergences. First, the occurrence oI Move 1, Step 2 Topic
generali:ation and Move 3, Step 1A, Outlining purposes is redundant. The latter is Iound
embedded in one sentence oI Move 1, Step 2 at the beginning oI the abstracts to introduce the
research. The most common signal oI purposive statement is the verb 'use to and the
prepositional phrase 'in order to. Second, the prevalence oI the methods move is prominent
and Irequently Iound aIter Move 3, Step 1B Announcing research. To demonstrate, the AIT
abstract can be outlined as Iollows:
Note: Para. Paragraph, S Sentence
Figure 4 AIT abstract outline structure
From the above demonstration, it was obvious that this abstract Iollowed the CARS
model apart Irom the exclusion oI the Indicating structure (Move 3 Step 3) which was rather
identiIied as the important move in the research article introduction, it was organized in the
same manner with the exception oI two points, that is; it began with Topic generali:ation
(Move1, Step 2) but Iollowed promptly by pointing to the purpose (Move 3, step 1A) within
Move-Step Signals (mv corpus)
Para.1 1-2
(embeded
3-1A)
(S1) The Wideband Code Division Multiple Access(WCDMA)
has been selected as the main air inerIace standard used
to...
2-1B (S2) The main problem oI this technology is.
1-3 (S3)
In the search Ior suitable MUD solutions most emphasis
has been placed on.
2-1B (S4) The question oI. has not been fullv explored.
3-1B (S5/6) In this thesis , the perIormance oI. has been evaluated.
Para. 2
methods
move
(S7/8/9) The performance is analvsed under..
Para. 3 3-2 (S10~16) Simulation results show that.
(AIT # 05)
(AIT # 05)
(AIT # 05)
(AIT # 05)
(AIT # 05)
(AIT # 05)
(AIT # 05)
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one sentence. This is perhaps the result oI space constraints. Interestingly, aIter announcing
research, the methods are brieIly indicated.
Let us move on to consider the abstracts in CU group which is rather, on the other
hand, more compatible with Bhatia`s (1993) move structure than AIT group. As shown in
Figure 3, while the abstracts Irom these two communities are similar in the number oI
structural components, 13 abstracts in AIT and 14 abstracts in CU group have three moves.
There is clearly diIIerence related to the sequence and structure oI the abstracts. To
demonstrate, the CU abstract can be outlined as Iollow:
Note: S Sentence
Figure 5 CU abstract outline structure
In CU group, the abstract is relatively short as the outline shows. Based on Bhatia`s
(1993) move structure, this abstract begins with Move 1, the most common signal oI Move 1
Introducing purposes is the phrase 'The objective oI this study is and 'This thesis proposes.
An interesting point to note is the absence oI Move 4 Conclusion may be due to the Iact that the
authors do not Iollow the IMRD (Introduction, Method, Result and Conclusion) move structure
and the diIIiculties in distinguishing between the Results and Conclusion moves as Martin
(2003:39) notes 'This indicate that the division between the Results and Conclusion units is not
always very clear, and this is especially so in the case oI abstracts which have no headings that
serve as lexical clues to identiIy the diIIerent units.
Modality analysis
The purpose oI this section is to investigate the use oI hedging devices in the abstract.
In this section, I study the Irequency oI hedging items in the corpus. My Iinding on modality is
shown in the Figure below:
Move Signals (mv corpus)
Paragraph.1 1 Purposes (S1) The obfective of this studv is to improve borrowing
channel allocation oI the TDMA cellular mobile telephone
system in order to .
2 Methods (S2~S6) This method can be implemented bv.
3 Results (S7~9) Results of the simulation show that.
(CU # 01)
(CU # 01)
(CU # 01)
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Figure 6: The Irequency oI occurrence oI modal items
A total oI 74 modals were recorded in my sample. They constitute less than one word
in every 100 in my corpus. Modals, especially can, should, mav, must have been used more
Irequently as hedging device than the other grammatical Iorms to indicate the degree oI
certainty. As shown in Figure 6, can represents 83.78 oI the total modal verbs expressing
hedging. Interestingly, this Irequency oI occurrence does not diIIer in both AIT and CU groups:
86 in AIT versus 91 in CU. Some examples oI can, mav, should used as hedge Irom my
corpus are presented below to illustrate this result.
Example (1)
The proposed algorithm can estimate the propagation delays and DOAs in
the situation that the number oI incoming signals is greater than the number
oI antennas. (AIT#01)
Example (2)
Analytical and simulation results are then compared and Iactors that may
have inIluence on the bound are investigated. (AIT#14)
Example (3)
To avoid changes oI ATM switch conIiguration, buIIering at base station
(BS) should be utilized. (AIT#15)
6.76%
83.78%
4.05%
5.41%
Can
Should
May
Must
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It should be noted that, Iirst, can which is used to express possibility or uncertainty
normally appeared in the result move oI the last paragraph oI abstracts in my corpus. Yet, Ior
Thais, this highest Irequency oI occurrence could stem Irom the diIIerent meaning oI the modal
verb, can, and also it may be diIIicult to distinguish and decide whether can represents a Iact or
possibility or uncertainty in my corpus. Second, mav, which is the modal oI highest Irequency
in general scientiIic writing (Salager-Meyer, 1992:105), is rare in my corpus and Iound in the
methods and result moves oI abstracts. In addition, should is also extremely rare, they are
Iound in both the introducing move and methods move.
Apart Irom these modal verbs, hedging devices can be expressed in the Iorm oI
reporting verbs. The most common verbs used as hedging in my corpus was show which is the
reporting verb that shows high degree oI possibility or writer`s commitment, occurs Iar
more oIten than other verbs such as offer, introduce, indicate, propose, as well as, reporting
verbs that show low degree oI possibility or writer`s commitment as tend to.
Some examples oI this occurrence are shown as Iollows:
Example (4)
The simulation results show that the Iirst and second proposed schemes give
lower blocking probability oI new voice calls than the variable rate based and
the power control based CACs proposed by other researches. (CU#07)
Example (5)
Furthermore, the introduced method offers the advantage oI better
perIormance, especially in situations where the incoming signals
are highly correlated. (AIT#01)
Example (6)
By comparison with the Shortest Path Routing Algorithm, the proposed
algorithm has introduced better perIormance in both higher in P(success) by
94 percentage and lower in delay by 44 percentage at node density more than
50 nodes and using Gaussian Distribution.(AIT#16)
Example (7)
Moreover, the new improving intracell handover method is introduced in the
proposed algorithm too. (CU#02)
57
Example (8)
However, perIormance gained when multiplexing two streams with high
Hurst values (H 0.8 and 0.9) tends to be the same as when aggregating two
stream with H 0.9. (AIT#03)
Additionally, we can see Irom my corpus that some modal nouns, adjectives, adverbs
and lexical phrases have been used as hedges. The Iollowings are some examples oI modals
showing high degree oI possibility or writer`s commitment.
Example (9)
ThereIore, it has a good potential Ior providing a sign language closed
captioning service. (CU#08)
Example (10)
The simulation results clearly illustrate that the proposed algorithm perIorms
under the situation that the incoming signals having either the value oI delays
or DOAs closely to the others. (AIT#01)
Example (11)
As a result it is reasonable to conclude that allowing Mobile Agent to return
to the previously passed node does not cause signiIicant impact on the
overall system costs. (CU#17)
Example (12)
OI these Iour indices, the position oI the state oI polarization on the Poincare
sphere has proven to be the most accurate and reliable approach Ior
identiIying the growth states oI each individual species and classiIying the
three species Irom one another. (CU#19)
On the other hand, the examples below show modal adjectives, adverbs and lexical
phrases that indicate the lower degree oI possibility or writer`s commitment.
Example (13)
It is Iound that the perIormance, both in BER and convergent rate aspects, oI
the proposed receiver and the MOEBAPIC receiver, in an asynchronous
channel, at high level oI number oI users are almost the same. (CU#14)
58
Example (14)
From the simulation results, it can be seen that the perIormance degrades in
the case oI multiple users. (AIT#04)
Example (15)
Simulation results show that the SIC and PIC detector has nearly the same
BER perIormance and their perIormance are near to the single user bound
when the number oI stage increased. (AIT#05)
In sum, as reported above in this section, my Iindings on modality seem to reveal that
a writer Iollows the convention when writing an abstract. This convention diIIers Irom diIIerent
academic cultures including the language itselI. Thai language may have diIIerent language
strategies as to hedging devices. According to my result, the Irequency oI hedging occurrence
does not reach statistical signiIicance. However, this is partly due to the Iact that, nature oI this
research (i.e. student`s abstracts in theses) does not allow the author to make strong claims
when writing this type oI abstract genre.
Conclusion
As Ior move analysis, in order to see whether the structural components oI
engineering abstracts utilized Swales` (1990) pattern on introduction, my Iindings on the
rhetorical moves reveal that AIT abstracts tend to use all three moves in the CARS model
diIIering Irom CU abstracts. Perhaps, this could result Irom some institutionally speciIic
writing patterns.
I also investigate the use oI hedging devices in the engineering abstracts which
are seldom Iound in my corpus. Hedging is oIten in the Iorm oI modals; especially can which
have been used more Irequently than the other grammatical Iorms to mitigate the degree oI
certainty. It is interesting that this occurrence does not diIIer in both groups oI abstracts. This
could be a maniIestation oI the culture-speciIic concept oI hedging use in the abstract genre.
According to my analysis and discussion oI the Iindings, it can be concluded that
although I Iound the similarities oI structural components in compatible with either Swales`
(1990) or Bhatia`s (1993) pattern in both group, it seems to me that, writers in each
communities tend to base their structural components, including other linguistic Ieatures, on the
conventional pattern within the community.
59
At present, there are very Iew studies on technical or academic writing oI
research articles in Thailand. This study is a small-scale case study with an aim to shed light on
the rhetoric oI engineering abstracts, which is a type oI text commonly Iound in the inIormation
system. Furthermore, the implications oI the study oI moves and other linguistic Ieatures in
abstracts involve the pedagogical system. This knowledge can raise the student`s awareness in
the technical or academic writing classroom in employing the appropriate strategies. Also this
can Iacilitate the development process oI the advanced material to be more eIIective. However,
to understand the nature oI this genre, whether abstracts should be viewed as the synopsis oI
the whole research article or they should represent the strategies used in research article
introduction to persuade readers, Iurther research is needed. To determine the deIinite pattern
oI moves in students` engineering abstracts, more research needs to be conducted in a larger
corpus to ensure high accuracy and reliability, as well as with the involvement oI specialists in
the IieldEngineering Science) to ensure the validity oI the initial analysis.
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