International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences

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A Corpus-based Genre Analysis: Moves in Introductory Paragraph of Argumentative Writing

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In Malaysia, the framework of genre analysis has been widely used for analyzing undergraduates and postgraduates target discourse, particularly research articles and theses. Conversely, limited studies have been conducted on argumentative essays produced by pre-university students who are sitting for Malaysian University English Test (MUET). This study is aimed at analyzing the introductory paragraphs of 14 argumentative essays using move analysis. For this purpose, a compiled representative corpus of argumentative essays was used as a main instrument to examine the rhetorical moves in the compiled essays. As a corpus-based study, the identification of rhetorical moves was examined via a computer-assisted corpus analysis (CACA). The findings of this preliminary study revealed that there were 3 moves and 9 steps identified in the compiled introductory paragraphs. The pedagogical implications based on the results of the study were proposed and the ideas for future research were discussed.
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In-Text Citation: (Kanestion & Singh, 2019)
To Cite this Article: Kanestion, A. a/p, & Singh, M. K. a/p S. (2019). A Corpus-based Genre Analysis: Moves in Introductory Paragraph of Argumentative Writing. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 9(7), 821–831.