Cohesion Patterns; the case of Introduction and Discussion sections of Local and International Research Articles

Communicative moves and lexical cohesion patterns (LCPs), as mountingevidence shows, are two important indicators in writing and publishing theRAs. However, the interaction between these two crucial elements and thecontribution of this interaction to the failure or success of the RAs have notbeen given due attention to date. Having this in mind and based on a soundtheoretical framework, attempt was made to find the possible interactionbetween the generic moves and LCPs centralized within such moves. To thisend, Swale's (1990) and Kanoksilapatham (2007) move analytical models andHoey's (1991) LCPs model were drawn upon in the analysis of 40 local RAswritten by Iranian writers and 40 RAs written in international journals acrosssub-disciplines of Applied Linguistics. Results of the move analysis showedno significant differences regarding the obligatory moves of Introductionsection across the two corpora; however, significant differences in Discussionsection were revealed. Findings of the interaction between moves and LCPsindicated that there are significant differences between local and internationalRAs in the use of M1 of Introduction as well as M2 and M4 of Discussionsections and the way LCPs are manipulated within these moves. As long asthe interaction of these two linguistic and rhetorical features were concerned,at least four possibilities were observed across local and internationaljournals which are thought to determine, among other factors, where theseacademic genres might be different; similar moves, similar LCPs; differentmoves, different LCPs; similar moves, different LCPs; and different moves, similar LCPs.