Schematic Structure of Literature Review in Research Articles: A Cross-disciplinary Investigation

Abstract This article scrutinizes a schematic analysis of integrated Literature Review (LR) sections drawn from Research Articles (RAs) across two disciplines. The analysis mainly focuses on the schematic structure, namely the constituent moves and steps. The structure of LR in these articles is explored via coding and genre analysis. Manual move analysis is used to identify similarities and differences between these two groups of articles. To this end, 30 published integrated LRs from two disciplines of Neuroscience and Neurology (all published in high indexed journals) are selected randomly. Manual coding procedures are accomplished through two different move models proposed by Fryer (2012) and Nwogu (1997). Both models are composed of 3 Moves with several sub-moves. The results compare and contrast the prototypical move patterns of each discipline. A new model is proposed in this study and the significance of integrated LRs is discussed. This study discusses pedagogical implications for the practitioners in ESP and EAP fields. The move structures proposed in this study may help students and novice writers be better able to deal with the structuring difficulties they face in writing LRs. Furthermore, the findings of this article may assist novice researchers and article writers to cope with the hardships of high indexed journal submission.