Promoting Writing Competence of the “Results & Discussion” Section with Genre Analysis Activities in EAP Thesis-Writing Class

Abstract

This study aimed to explore the effect of genre analysis activities in promoting writing competence of the “Results & Discussion” Section (RD) in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) thesis-writing class. At class, a series of genre-based activities were carried out to help students understand and analyze the move/step structure of RD of SSCI journal articles. Students’ academic research articles were collected at the beginning and end of the semester, namely marked as the first versions and the second versions, which were analyzed in two separate corpora. In addition, questionnaires and interviews were conducted to investigate students’ attitudes towards genre analysis activities. Research findings suggested that genre analysis helped enhance students’ writing competence of RD in their thesis writing. This study also contributed to providing guidance for academic writing teaching in postgraduate education.