Moves and Steps in the IMRD Sections of Medical Research Articles

Richard Hill Davis

Taiwan International ESP Journal ; 11卷1期 (2020/08/01); p23-39

DOI: 10.6706/TIESPJ.202008_11(1).0002

This discussion examines the full texts of a corpus of 250 medical research articles (MRAs) published in English between 2001-2011 in order to identify changes in or additions to the moves specified in the earlier framework identified in 1997 by Nwogu. That time span was chosen to reflect the rapid growth in and greatly increased pressure on non-native English medical personnel across the world publishing in English in international journals. Examining frameworks for genre analysis can help teachers develop ways for student writers to transfer knowledge and skills to new contexts of academic or professional writing. The study grew out of earlier research by Davis (2015) which examines moves and associated steps throughout this MRA corpus, using Swales’ socio-rhetorical framework for genre analysis (Swales, 1990, 2004). It hopes to contribute to studies of practices in types of medical writing across the field and range of specialties of medicine, the analysis of which can be used by writing instructors, editors, and material and course developers.

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