Analyses of verb tense and voice of research article abstracts in engineering journals

Abstract

This paper seeks to analyze the research article abstracts among native English speakers and non-native (Iranian) speakers in the field of Electronic engineering. The analysis mainly focuses on the rhetorical structure, i.e. the constituent Moves/Sub-Moves. In addition, Verb choices and the voice and tense of the verbs in Move 2 and Move 4 respectively were examined. To this end, 25 published abstracts from each field (a total of 50 abstracts), all appearing in established, ISI journals, were selected. The model proposed by Santos (1996), composed of 5 moves along AntMover software was employed as a general guideline in order to identify Moves/SubMoves. The results compared and contrasted the dominant move patterns of each field, their unique Move/SubMoves, and the typical voice and tense of verbs employed in Move 4. It was also found that there were some variations between the abstracts written by native English speakers and nonnative speakers of English. It is hoped that with detailed analyses of abstracts, the results of this study may serve as a complement to the guidelines for novice writers to construct a proper research article abstract in electronic engineering.