A Move Analysis of Research Discussion Section in English Articles Published in Thai and International Journals

Abstract

Based on the influential study of Swales in 1990, academic research articles are said to consist of four main sections, namely introduction, methodology, results and discussion. Move analysis studies of academic articles in various disciplines usually concentrate on the introduction, methodology or results section, yet seem to neglect the discussion section. This study, therefore, attempts to fill in the missing piece by analysing moves used in the discussion section of research articles (henceforth RA discussion). Twenty RA discussions from Thai and international journals were collected as data for this move analysis. The analytical framework was adapted and developed based on Jalilifar et al. (2012) and Amnuai and Wannaruk (2013). Findings reveal that the presence of moves in RA discussions in Thai and international journals are not different. In addition, unlike other sections where move patterns could be outlined, this study finds that there is no manifested move pattern of the discussion section. The only disparity is that discussion sections in Thai journals mainly incorporate informative moves, while evaluative moves occur more noticeably in international journals. Therefore, if one considers international journals to be of higher quality than Thai journals, an integration of evaluative moves in the discussion section can be one crucial factor.