A Generic Analysis of the conclusion section of Research Articles in the field of sociology: A Comparative study

This paper reported on a genre-driven comparative study, which aimed to identify the generic moves in the conclusion sections of twenty research articles in the field of sociology written in the two codes of Persian and English. To meet this purpose, the researchers employed Moritz, Meurer, and Dellagnelo s model, which was set within the Swalesian framework of genre analysis. The analysis was conducted in two phases: first, a qualitative research design was employed to analyze type, sequence and frequency of moves in the conclusion sections and then the frequency structure of the moves in the two corpora were compared to highlight the similarities and differences. The study revealed some generic similarities and differences be-tween the two corpora. No constant move pattern was found in the samples analyzed. The complex ordering of moves and steps, however, rendered a variously-patterned cyclical structure in the two corpora. The results of this study contribute to understanding the conclusions of RAs. It can be beneficial to academic writing instructors to help students to enhance their knowledge of generic conventions in writing. Furthermore, based on the findings of the study, two modified models and some stepwise genrebased tasks could be developed and designed to be employed in academic writing courses through which student-writers are guided towards writing effective conclusion sections.