Rhetorical Moves in Applied Language Research Article Introductions of Moroccan L2 writers of English: A Generic Move Analysis

Abstract

The current study addresses the under-explored area of rhetorical move analysis in research article introductions authored by Moroccan L2 English writers, using Swales’ Create-a-Research-Space (CARS) model as a framework. As such, corpus of 27 research article introductions was collected from three open-access journals and analysed according to Swales’ (2004) CARS model. The results indicated substantial discrepancies between the observed move structures and Swales’ CARS model. This was characterised by unusual findings such as the omission of Move 2, the presence introductions with Move 1 only, and stretches of text not explained by Swales’ model. The study highlights the need for further research so as to unravel the reasons behind these deviations. It recommends that future research should explore the potential reasons behind the, subjectively speaking, unique rhetorical moves employed by Moroccan L2 writers of English in their research article introductions.