Contextual Layers in the Establishment of Research Niche in Doctoral Thesis Introductions by Malaysian Writers

Abstract

One of the key moves in thesis introductions in terms of Swales's CARS is Move 2: Establishing the Niche. It is where researchers provide the justifications of the study after introducing the general area of the research. However, research findings of prior work have focused on thesis introductions which relates to how texts are constructed and organised in systematic ways in terms of Swales's (1990) CARS moves and steps, and how these two organisational elements assist in achieving the overall purpose of the genre. These move analysis studies of Introductions do not examine and explain why each move and step are written the way they are through the lens of various contextual layers. The current study views genre through the Contrastive Rhetoric (CR) lens in looking at context as multilayered. The study examines how different levels of context influence how eight ESL Malaysian writers establish their research niche. Adopting the functional-semantic approach to analysis, it can be concluded that apart from the multi-layered discourse community of their academic setting, the socio-cultural and socio-political contexts have a significant effect on the establishments of the writers' research niche.

Establishing a Niche in Research: Rhetorical Strategies in Undergraduate and Postgraduate Writings in the Department of English, University of Cape Coast

“…Step 3 Indicating RA structure Fig. 1 Creating a research space (CARS) model (Swales, 1990: 141) Almost all studies that have investigated the introduction section of RAs (e.g., Adika, 2014;Coker & Coker, 2012;Davies, 2014;Farnia & Barati, 2017;Zainudden & Shaari, 2017) employed the CARS model, either in its original state or modified form. The model has been found to be a viable tool for investigating rhetorical structures of academic writings.…”

“…The ideas are organised based on the rhetorical strategies used in establishing a niche. Generally, strategies that are found in Move 2/Establishing a niche of the CARS model include indicating a gap, counter-claiming, establishing need and problem, question raising, and continuing tradition (e.g., Lim, 2012;Suryani et al, 2018;Zainudden & Shaari, 2017). Interestingly, Adika (2014) reports that 28.8% of Ghanaian writers did not indicate any explicit M2 in their RA introductions.…”

“…All Ghanaian studies on "Establishing a niche" show that Ghanaian writers prefer "Indicating a gap" to other rhetorical strategies (Adika, 2014;Coker & Coker, 2012;Davis, 2014). While "Indicating a gap" strategy was found to be an obligatory and a first choice (Lim, 2012) and second frequently choice used by Malaysian PhD thesis writers (Zainudden & Shaari, 2017), it was reported to be optional in RA introductions of Malaysian writers (Suryani, et al, 2018). In the context of Indonesia, writers preferred "Indicating a gap" as their first choice, although not all that significantly different from "Continuing tradition" strategy (Samad et al, 2017).…”

“…Researchers are expected to explicitly articulate the problem upon which their argumentation takes a firm stance. Zainudden and Shaari (2017) postulate that the most important element in the introduction of a research work is establishing the niche. For one to compose a well-written and successful research, the researcher needs to establish a formidable problem statement in the introduction.…”

“…Consequently, novice writers require the knowledge of best practices in problematising their problem in a RA, because the introduction section of research work poses serious challenges to writers (Afful, 2008;Bhatia, 1993;Suryani et al, 2015;Swales, 1990). Studies on the introduction section of RAs have focused mainly on its generic structure (e.g., Coker & Coker, 2012;Davies, 2014;Farnia & Barati, 2017;Jalilifar et al, 2011;Nimehchisalem et al, 2016;Parsa & Tahririan, 2017;Shirani & Chalak, 2016;Suryani et al, 2018), with few concentrating on Move 2, establishing a niche (e.g., Adika, 2014;Zainudden & Shaari, 2017). Move 2 is crucial in constructing the introduction section and it indicates the main purpose of conducting a study (Adika, 2014;Farnia & Barati, 2017).…”