IntroductionGenres in academic writingYour first decision when faced with a new piece of academic writing is to decide which genre family you are expected to write.1. Essays2. Reports3. Case Studies4. Research proposals5. Book reviews6. Brief research reports7. Literature reviews8. Reflective writing9. Introductions10. Research methods11. Research results12. Research discussions13. Writing conclusions14. Research abstracts15. Research dissertations & theses

Genres in academic writing: Writing introductionsResearch Report Introductions (Theses/Dissertations)1. Establish a research territoryshow that the general research area is important, central, interesting, problematic, or relevant in some way.introduce and review items of previous research in the area.

2. Establishing a nicheindicate a gap in the previous research by raising a question about it, or extending previous knowledge in some way.

3. Occupying the nicheoutline purposes or stating the nature of the present research.indicate the structure of the RP.

http://www.uefap.com/writing/writframgenre.htmMove 1: Establishing a research territoryNote particularly the language used in the first two sentences to express Move la. The increasing interest in ... has heightened the need for .... Of particular interest and complexity are .... Recently, there has been growing interest in .... The development of ... has led to the hope that.... The ... has become a favourite topic for analysis .... The study of ... has become an important aspect of .... A central issue in ... is .... The ... has been extensively studied in recent years. Many recent studies have focused on ...Move 2: Establishing a nicheIn many ways, Move 2 is the key move in Introductions. It connects Move 1 (what has been done) to Move 3 (what the present research will do). Move 2 thus establishes the reason for the study. By the end of Move 2, the reader should have a good idea of what is going to come in Move 3.Move 2s establish a niche by indicating a gap. Probably the most common way to indicate a gap is to use a "negative" subject. Presumably, negative subjects are chosen because they signal immediately to the reader that Move 1 has come to an end. Note the following uses oflittleandfew: However, little information/attention/work/data/research .... However, few studies/investigations/researchers/attempts ....Of course, not all RP Introductions express Move 2 by indicating an obvious gap. You may prefer, for various reasons, to avoid negative comment altogether. In such cases, a useful alternative is to use a contrastive statement. The research has tended to focus on ...,rather than on .... These studies have emphasised ...,as opposed to .... Although considerable research has been devoted to ... , rather less attention has been paid to .... The previous research ... has concentrated on .... Most studies have been content to .... So far, investigations have been confined to ...Move 3: Occupying the NicheThe third and final step is to show you want to fill the gap (or answer the question) that has been created in Move 2. The purpose of this paper is to ... The purpose of this investigation is to ... The aim of this paper is to ... This paper reports on the results obtained .... This study was designed to ... In this paper, we give results of ... In this paper, we argue that .... This paper argues that .... We have organise the rest of this paper in the following way .... This paper is structured as follows .... The remainder of this paper is divided into five sections ...Genres in academic writing: Report abstractsWriting an abstractThe abstract is the first section of the report. It usually comes after the title and before the introduction. In some subject areas,this section may be titled "summary". The abstract provides an overview of the study based on information from the other sections of the report. The reader can read the abstract to obtainenough information about the study to decide if they want toread the complete report. Because it contains elements from the whole report, it is usually written last.1. Ordering Your InformationAbstracts from almost all fields of study are written in a very similar way. The types of information included and their order are very conventional. The box that follows shows the typical information format of an abstract (Weissberg & Buker, 1990, p. 186):IntroductionIntroduce the study by describing the contextExplain why the subject is important

PurposeDescribe the purpose of the study

MethodsReport how the study was undertaken

ResultsReport the results that were found.

EvaluationBriefly evaluate the results

ConclusionConclude brieflyExplain what is important and why

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Genres in academic writing: Writing conclusionsThe main purpose of the conclusion is to show that the main purpose of the piece of writing has been achieved.a. It should recall the issues raised in the introduction - what was the purpose of the piece of writing?

b. and draw together the points made in the main body of the piece of writing

c. and come to a clear conclusion.

It should clearly signal to the reader that the writing is finished and leave a clear impression that the purpose has been achieved.LanguageIn short,In a word,In brief,To sum up,To conclude,To summariseIn conclusion,On the whole,Altogether,In all,..

It isgenerallywidelyacceptedarguedheldbelievedthat .

Therefore,Thus,On this basis,Given this,itcanmaybeconcludeddeducedinferredthat .

FromTable 1itcanmaybeseenconcludedshownestimatedcalculatedinferredthat .

thetablefiguresdataresultsinformation

In conclusion,Finallywe/may sayit can/may be saidthat .