Rhetorical Structure of Thesis Introduction Chapters Written By English Native Speakers

Thesis introduction chapters provide readers with the description of a research topic as well as the importance of conducting the research. The quality of thesis introduction chapters is highly affected by their rhetorical structure, which is manifested through particular moves and steps in developing paragraphs. Previous studies confirmed that native English speakers tend to demonstrate particular rhetorical structures in composing their thesis introduction. This paper is part of a larger study on investigating the introduction chapters of theses. By employing a qualitative discourse study, five introduction chapters of theses in the field of English language education and Applied Linguistics written by English native speaker students of Master’s program abroad were analyzed. The data were analysed by adopting Swales’ CARS framework (2004) to yield a description of the rhetorical structures of the thesis introduction chapters. This study will contribute to facilitating the teaching of academic writing by providing the generic structures of a good model of thesis introduction chapters generated from the findings of the present study.