Writing and publishing research articles (RAs) in English is crucial because an RA is considered as one of the channels to communicate among researchers and scholars worldwide. Research publication has become one of the requirements for Thai graduate students before graduation; however writing for publication is a daunting task to them as it requires substantial writing skills to ensure that researchers can efficiently present research findings and express themselves in response to textual

more »

... ntion and academic community. This paper centres on the rhetorical structures and linguistic features commonly used in the Introduction and Methods sections of the RA genre as written in a particular set of journals. Inspired by Swales' analytical framework (1990; 2004) and work by Biber, Conner and Upton's (2007) steps of conducting a move analysis, this study examined 25 RA Introduction and Methods sections in the field of applied linguistics. These RAs were analysed by genre analysis into 'moves' and 'steps'. The results revealed that each section displayed a generic pattern, comprising a series of moves and steps. Lexicogrammatical features associated with a communicative function were also identified. Pedagogically, the findings generated by this study could be useful for teaching students how to write scholarly publications in EAP classrooms. The structural patterns and linguistic features found to functionally interact with one other may facilitate the understanding of novice writers and Thai graduates of published research articles in these sections. Moreover, the rhetorical patterns generated by this study might be meaningful for teachers in implementing relevant reading and writing materials for advanced learners to improve their writing skills to effectively disseminate discoveries in their fields.