ABSTRACT

The abstract of academic paper is an abbreviated, accurate representation of a paper. The abstract contains the main information of the paper and helps reader to determine whether to read the whole academic paper or not in shortest time. In recent years, the research on abstract of academic paper has aroused great attention of researchers. Swales established the CARS (Create a Research Space) theory to analyze abstract; Bhatia put forward the IMRD (Introduction-Method-Result- Discussion) four moves structure. With the increasing of international academic communication, the research on abstract of academic paper has become more important.

This research tries to analyze the move features of Chinese and English abstract based on Bhatia’s IMRD four moves theory by collecting data from 10 English abstracts and 10 Chinese abstracts respectively. After careful analysis, we find that:

(1) The abstract of Chinese paper usually adopts the Method-Result two-move structure; the sequence of move is less flexible; there are many compound moves.

(2) The abstract of English paper usually adopts the Introduction-Method-Result-

Discussion four-move structure; the sequence of move is more flexible; few compound moves can be found in abstract of English academic paper.-

(3) Compared with Chinese abstract, English abstract have a balanced distribution of four moves; English abstract is longer than Chinese abstract; the sequence of move is more flexible; fewer compound moves can be found in the abstract of English academic paper. 

We believe that the nature of the two languages can explain the difference of abstract structure. This research can provide some instructions to the abstract writing and translation teaching.

Key words: abstract; genre; moves

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ABSTRACT

摘要

Chapter One-1

INTRODUCTION-1

Chapter Two-3

LITERATURE REVIEW-3

2.1 Previous Studies on Genre Analysis-3

2.1.1 About Foreign Scholar’s Genre Analysis-3

2.1.2 About Chinese Scholar’s Genre Analysis-4

2.2 Previous Studies on Abstract-5

2.2.1 About Chinese scholars’ research on abstract-5

2.2.2About English scholars’ research on abstract-5

2.3 Summary-6

Chapter Three-7

RESEARCH DESIGN-7

3.1 Research Questions-7

3.2 Research Data-7

3.3 Research Method-8

3.4 Research Procedure-8

3.5 Summary-9

Chapter Four-10

DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS-10

4.1 IMRD Moves-10

4.2 The regularity of move-11

4.3 Moves in Chinese academic paper abstracts-13

4.3.1 Move structure in Chinese academic paper abstracts-13

4.3.2 The regularity of move of Chinese abstracts-14

4.4 Moves in English academic paper abstracts-15

4.4.1 Move structure in English academic paper abstracts-15

4.4.2 The regularity of move of English abstracts-16

4.5 Comparison of Chinese and English abstracts-17

4.6 Findings-18

Chapter Five-19

CONCLUSION-19

REFERENCES-21

APPENDIXⅠ-23