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SPECIFIC
English for Specic Purposes 27 (2008) 387411 PURPOSES
www.elsevier.com/locate/esp
Individualized engagement with genre

in academic literacy tasks
An Cheng *
Department of English, Oklahoma State University, 205 Morrill, Stillwater, OK 74078, USA
Abstract
The interaction between learner characteristics, including learners histories and goals of learning,
and learners analysis and production of target genres remains a topic of continuing interest in the
genre-based literacy framework. This case study documented an L2 graduate students individual-
ized engagement with genre in both her reading and writing tasks in a genre-based academic writing
course. The analysis of the students genre-analysis tasks, writing samples, text-based interviews, and
literacy narrative reveals that the students familiarity with the overall research article move structure
in her eld may have accounted for her intensive focus on the incongruities between the generic fea-
tures discussed in class and the generic features that she perceived to be unique to her eld. Many
features she pointed out in her genre-analysis tasks as dialogic responses to class discussions had also
been incorporated into her own writing, thus showing that her individualized engagement with genre
had not only scaolded her reading of research articles in her eld, but also her writing. The stu-
dents meaningful re-mediation of her existing genre knowledge to generate a new understanding
of texts extends our conceptualizations of genre-based teaching as a needs-based approach and what
learning may entail in such an approach.
2008 The American University. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Genre is often dened in the ESP tradition as structured communicative events engaged
in by specic discourse communities whose members share broad communicative purposes
(Bhatia, 1993, 2004; Swales, 1990; see Hyon, 1996, for a discussion of genre in the ESP and
*
Tel.: +1 405 7449474; fax: +1 405 7446326.
E-mail address: an.cheng@okstate.edu
0889-4906/$34.00 2008 The American University. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.esp.2008.05.001
388 A. Cheng / English for Specic Purposes 27 (2008) 387411
other traditions). Over the past two decades, genre has become an increasingly important
concept in ESP and EAP research and practices (Hyland, 2004; Tardy, 2006). Many
researchers have analyzed the recurring generic features and the rhetorical contexts of var-
ious discipline-specic genres (see, for example, many articles in this journal). These anal-
yses have, in turn, generated many insightful genre-based pedagogical proposals and
teaching materials (e.g., Bhatia, 1993; Flowerdew, 1993; Hyland, 2004; Johns, 2002; Pal-
tridge, 2001; Swales & Feak, 2000, 2004; Weissberg & Buker, 1990).
In recent years, the ecacy of these proposals and materials has been explored in vary-
ing geographical and pedagogical contexts. In the University of Brunei Darussalam, for
example, Henry and Roseberry (1998) studied how genre-based instruction and materials
improved learners ability to produce eective tokens of the genre of the tourism bro-
chure (p. 148). In Jordan, Mustafa (1995) examined how formal instruction in the genre
of the term paper raised university students awareness of term paper conventions. In
Hong Kong, Pang (2002) explored the impact of genre-based teaching on some undergrad-
uate students writing of lm reviews. In Ukraine, Yakhontova (2001) documented her
students intellectual and emotional reactions to an inuential ESP genre-based writing
textbook (Swales & Feak, 1994) and the course in which the book was adopted. In the
United States, Hyon (2002) found that the L2 graduate students interviewed immediately
after an EAP genre-based reading course reported increased attention to rhetorical fea-
tures in texts and improved reading condence and speed. A related study of the same
population led Hyon (2001) to conclude that genre-knowledge gained through explicit
instruction can be remembered by EAP students over an extended period of time and facil-
itate aspects of L2 reading and writing (p. 434). Also in the US, Swales and Lindemann
(2002) explored how L2 graduate students in their academic writing class learned the lit-
erature review section of research articles (RAs). They were impressed with the students
abilities to produce a greater number of intelligent structures than are typically proposed
in the literature and to elucidate much about the reasoning behind the various
approaches to literature reviews (p. 117).
These studies have invaluably enhanced our understanding of the ESP genre-based lit-
eracy framework. An issue that remains to be addressed in these studies, however, is the
interaction between learner characteristics, including learners histories and goals of learn-
ing, and their analysis and production of target genres in genre-based writing classes (see a
detailed discussion of this literature gap in Cheng, 2006a). Since understanding such an
interaction can help us appreciate the full intricacies of learning in the genre-based literacy
framework, this study aimed to ll the above-mentioned literature gap by exploring the
following three research questions:
What features did an L2 graduate student attend to when she analyzed discipline-spe-
cic genre samples?
What generic features did the student incorporate into her own writing?
Why did the student focus on these features in her genre-analysis and writing tasks?
2. Research design
2.1. The context of the study
This paper reports on a case in a series of case studies on learners and learning in the
ESP genre-based framework of writing instruction. The data were collected in an academic
A. Cheng / English for Specic Purposes 27 (2008) 387411 389
writing course in a large American university. Most students enrolled in this elective
course because of self- or other-perceived problems with English academic writing.1 In
the semester during which this study took place, two sections of this course were oered,
with a total of 22 students enrolled in them. Both sections were taught by the author.
Among the students, 11 were engineering majors of various kinds (electrical, mechanical,
and industrial, among others), and the others were from accounting, nance, physics, agri-
culture, information systems, and other disciplines across the campus. 12 were from
China, seven from Korea, and the other three were from other countries. 17 of the 22 stu-
dents were doctoral students. Each section met for two 75-minute sessions weekly for 16
weeks. Since I played both the roles of instructor and researcher in this study, special mea-
sures were mandated by the Universitys Research Compliance Oce to ensure that I was
not aware of which student had agreed to participate in the study during the semester.
Consequently, the various documents collected from the students as regular learning
requirements of the course were analyzed for research purposes after the semester had
ended (see the data sources discussed below).
The course adopted the principles of ESP genre-based teaching expounded in Bhatia
(1993, 2004), Flowerdew (1993), Swales (1990), and Swales and Feak (2000, 2004) to meet
the needs of the students, many of whom were expected by their programs to write up and
publish their current or future research projects. It consisted of four interrelated sections.
In Section 1, non-academic genre samples, such as good/bad news letters (Bhatia, 1993;
Swales & Feak, 2004) and wedding announcements (Johns, 1997), were used to guide
the students to practice delineating the rhetorical structures and language features in texts.
These samples were also used to raise the students awareness of the role rhetorical con-
texts (reader, writer, and purpose) play in genre formation. Section 2 tackled the rhetor-
ically highly demanding RA introduction (Swales & Lindemann, 2002, p. 117). Section 3
explored the generic features of the method, discussion, and conclusion sections in RAs.
Section 4 examined such academic support genres as job application letters and manu-
script submission letters (Swales & Feak, 2000).
In order to encourage the students to become more observant readers of the discoursal
conventions of their elds (Swales & Lindemann, 2002, p. 118), I asked the students to
each collect at least ve published RAs from recent volumes of reputable refereed journals
in their elds for their out-of-class genre-analysis tasks (see Appendix A for the ve articles
collected by the focal student in this study). Copies of all these RAs, along with short para-
graphs explaining why each RA was chosen, were provided to me. In Sections 2 and 3, I
used these samples to create activities modeled on those in Swales and Feak (2000, 2004)
and to lead class discussions aimed at heightening the students awareness of the generic
features and the rhetorical contexts in various sections of RAs. Similar to Flowerdew
(1993) and Henry and Roseberry (1998), these discussions were designed as open-ended
and inductive activities of metacommunicating the explicit analysis of the genre sam-
ples (Flowerdew, 1993, p. 309), through addressing questions such as
1
This course was the only credit-bearing writing course for L2 graduate students in the Universitys L2 EAP
curriculum when the study took place. The credit-bearing status of this course may partially explain why most
students were motivated to complete the learning tasks in this course (see Norris & Tardy, 2006, for a discussion
of this issue). Unsurprisingly, however, many students reported that the three credits they earned in this course
usually did not fulll their degree requirements.
How many moves (and steps) can you see in this section?
What is the author trying to do (vs. say) with these two sentences in the rst paragraph?
What are the words, phrases, clauses, and sentences that the author uses to achieve that
purpose?
Do you see anything similar to, or dierent from, these examples in your reference
RAs?
At the end of every discussion, I reminded the students to use the insights they gained
from the discussions as a set of heuristics to enhance their own observation of the generic
features in RAs in their elds, rather than as rules that could be mechanically applied to
their subsequent writing tasks.
To maintain this discovery-oriented approach to genre, I assigned eight out-of-class
genre-analysis tasks in which the students independently analyzed dierent parts in the ve
RAs they had each collected (see Appendix B for the purposes of these genre-analysis
tasks). The students cut and pasted dierent parts of the RAs and used the editing func-
tions (coloring, italicizing, underlining, and boldfacing, among others) in Microsoft Word
to highlight the rhetorical organizations and the lexico-grammatical features in the RA
samples that they found interesting or useful. I responded to their analyses by oering
additional examples based on my reading of published genre-analysis studies or by asking
for clarications of certain points in their tasks. The students were given credits for doing
these genre-analysis tasks on a weekly or bi-weekly basis.
There were three major writing assignments in this course, apart from some small, in-
class writing assignments. The rst assignment was a literacy narrative an account of
how the students learned to read and write in both their L1 and L2. In the second assign-
ment, the students practiced writing an RA introduction based on a current or a previous
research project. In the third writing assignment, the students practiced writing another
RA section other than the introduction.
2.2. The focal student
Ling (a pseudonym), the focal student in this study, was in her third semester as a doc-
toral student in nance and business studies at the start of this study. After earning her
B.S. degree in international nance from one of the premier research universities in China
in 2000, she worked for six months at the China oce of an American company as a nan-
cial analyst. From 2001 to 2003, Ling studied for her M.A. degree in accounting and
nance in a major English-medium research university in the Hong Kong/Macau region.
During her study there, she assisted her professors in various research projects related to
nancial risk management, mutual fund ow, and market return volatility. She also pre-
sented a paper at an international conference in North America in 2002. However, she had
never published any single-authored or coauthored paper in English when the study
started.
Lings academic and professional background may explain why she was awarded the
coveted University Fellowship to support her study in the rst year. Despite her academic
training and her professional experience, Ling could remember her struggles with English
academic literacy learning. In her literacy narrative, for example, she traced such struggles
to her days in China, where she viewed English primarily as a school subject almost a
necessary evil with little real-life relevance:
[Excerpt 1] To be honest, I didnt read or write a lot in English before my graduation

from college although I had studied English for about ten years by then. . . .Yes, dur-
ing those ten years, I learned how to read and write in English, just in order to pass
various exams, such as the University Entrance Exam, since English is a required sub-
ject in all the exams in China. At that time, I never read a piece of article in English
except for those articles related to courses or exams. Also, I never wrote a piece of
paper in English if I dont have to. I can say that I could live well without English
if I didnt need to take English exams then. (Lings literacy narrative, p. 1) 2
However, her admittance into the M.A. program in Hong Kong/Macau drastically
changed her perception of the role of English. Learning and using English suddenly
became a daunting daily reality, a necessary tool for academic success, and even a life-long
commitment. She started to feel the urgent need to improve her academic literacy skills:
[Excerpt 2] But things have changed dramatically since I came to [a major research
university in the Hong Kong/Macau region] to pursue my Master degree. It suddenly
came to me that English was something that I had to deal with throughout my whole
life. I had to take courses in English, I had to read a lot of papers in English, I had to
do a lot of projects in English, I had to communicate through emails in English, I
had to write dissertation in English as well. What should I do? Is there a way that
I could improve my English skills, especially in reading and writing, as soon as possible?
I realized that I had to do something about it. But how? (Lings literacy narrative, p. 2)
Having realized the role of English in enabling her to engage in a multitude of academic
tasks crucial to her academic survival, she worked hard at improving her English academic
literacy skills. She rst concentrated on her reading skills:
[Excerpt 3] Maybe part of the answer lies in reading and writing themselves: to read
more and to write more. As you see, I do not really enjoy reading and writing even in
Chinese, much less in English. But I have to, otherwise I could not survive in my aca-
demic life. At that time, I had to read at least one journal article thoroughly every
week. I remember I was really a slow reader at rst: it usually took me almost the
whole week to read through a paper. Again I experienced diculties focusing on
the articles all the time, since they seemed very boring and dicult to me. I couldnt
understand these articles, but I couldnt stop reading. You see, it is really a painful
experience for me. But gradually I found my eorts paid o: it only took me about
three or four days to nish a paper half a year later. Here, I am not saying that I
am good at reading in English. But at least, I became more comfortable with English
papers. (Lings literacy narrative, p. 2)
While becoming a relatively more procient reader of English RAs, she realized the
importance of improving her academic writing, so she participated in some writing work-
shops in her university:
[Excerpt 4] Yet I have been struggling with writing in English all the time, even until now.
No matter how painful I was at writing, writing is very essential in my life and in my
future career development as well. Therefore, I took a series of writing workshop and a
2
In Excerpts 15, all emphases were added by the researcher.
thesis writing course, where I learned how to structure an academic paper. Especially
after I read the papers in my eld, it became clearer to me what an introduction, method,
or conclusion part should be looked like. (Lings literacy narrative, p. 2)
In my interview with her based on her literacy narrative, she explained that these work-
shops mainly focus on the overall macro rhetorical organization of academic writing. They
were often delivered in a deductive manner where the instructors described, often quite
prescriptively, the structure of RAs. Despite having taken these workshops, Ling was
acutely aware of her on-going struggles as an academic reader and writer:
[Excerpt 5] I doubt I was really a bad writer then since I could tell that my supervisor was
very dissatised with the rst draft of my paper. But he didnt criticize too much of my
writing. Instead, he recommended several papers to me to read and asked me to pay spe-
cial attention to how the ideas are presented in those articles. . . .After coming to U.S., I
just realized how immature I am as a reader and writer of English. I am still not used to
reading: I am not able to read freely and understand it to the maximum. Also, I am still
not used to writing either: I am not able to write freely and express it in the most appro-
priate way. I recalled my painful experience of reading and writing in my Philosophy
of Science course last semester. . . ..the fact is still there: I am not able to read and write
eectively in English. Maybe I have to do something to improve my written English, dont
I? This is also part of the reasons why I took this course. (Lings literacy narrative, p. 3)
Possibly due to the motivation to improve her writing, Ling was very attentive in class.
She was quiet most of the time but was extremely detail oriented. Her extensive analyses of
the RAs in her collection greatly attracted my attention when the semester was over.
2.3. Data generation and analysis
Given her knowledge of what an introduction, method, or conclusion part should be

looked like and her awareness of the need to improve her English academic literacy skills,
what did Lings learning prole look like? To address this question, I examined the follow-
ing main data sources: (1) Lings eight genre-analysis tasks, (2) her second writing assign-
ment an RA introduction, (3) her written comments on this writing assignment, (4) the
transcripts of several audio-recorded text-based interviews (Odell, Goswami, & Herring-
ton, 1983) based on Lings genre-analysis and writing tasks, and (5) her literacy narrative.
I adopted the constant-comparative method (Glaser, 1978; Strauss & Corbin, 1998) to
develop categories and thematic patterns from the data. For example, the rst data source
Lings eight genre-analysis tasks were compiled into a document of 41 single-spaced
pages. I then read the entire document numerous times until I could almost memorize
all the details in it. This step helped me to reect on the overall meaning of the information
in the document. After this step, key words, phrases, and notes were written down on the
margin of any unit or chunk (Rossman & Rallis, 1998, p. 171) of data with heuristic
signicance.3 These tentatively coded units of data were then compared with subsequent
3
A unit of data with heuristic signicance often reveals information relevant to the study and stimulates the
analyst to think beyond this particular bit of information (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). In this study, these units of
data could be as small as a few words Ling used to analyze an RA sample or as large as several pages that showed
a signicant turn in Lings analysis.
unit(s) to identify recurring regularities in the data. Fig. 1 provides an example of this
open-coding process.
In the open-coding process, any unit of the data was compared not only within one data
source, but also across dierent data sources. For example, the units of data in Lings
genre-analysis tasks were compared with those in her literacy narrative and her writing
tasks. After open coding, axial coding was applied until categories are related to their
subcategories to form more precise and complete explanations about phenomena
(Strauss & Corbin, 1998, p. 124). For instance, while the category of familiarity with rhe-
torical organization of RAs was being established (see part of this process in Fig. 1),
another category called highlighting rhetorical features unique to her eld was also
established through open coding. These two categories were identied as mutually contrib-
uting to the overarching theme of individualized engagement with genre based on prior
knowledge of genre. Any emerging theme, with its categories, was then applied to the
data again for an iterative, spiraling analysis until further details could be identied and
an overall theoretical understanding of the data could be achieved (Strauss & Corbin,
1998). Because the data were uniquely grounded in the pedagogical contexts of this course,
the data were mainly coded by the instructor/author. The coded data then went through a
peer-debrieng process (Creswell, 2003) in which I explained the coded data to a fellow
Tasks Lings analyses of RAs Keywords and notes Categories

Task 2 The author first affirmed the Clear deciphering of rhetorical (after
contributions of previous structure? The word natural comparing all
literature, and then he criticized suggests her familiarity with and units across the
the literature by pointing out a even acceptance of this structure 4 tasks)
research gap. It is natural to as part of her implicit knowledge
introduce this papers contribution of the rhetorical organization of familiarity
after this paragraph (Unit 1). RA? with the move
Task 3 The literature review part is a [compared with Unit1] Again, structure of the
well-structured one where the clear analysis of rhetorical RAs; ability to
authors began with a topic structure? Clear outlining of decipher the
sentence (Indeed, ), and then main topic and subtopics in RA move structure
evaluated the specific literatures in suggests again familiarity with clearly and to
views of data mining (paragraph rhetorical structure? analyze it quite
2), behavior patterns (paragraph smoothly;
3), and risk (paragraph 4 and 5),
respectively (Unit 2). [Alternatively],
Task 4 --Announcing the general [compared with Units 1 & 2] move structure
objectives Clear analysis of overall in her RAs
--elaborating the objective rhetorical structure in the form of may not be
--justifying the use of method heading. She knew the structure complicated.
(Unit 3) well enough to not even bother
analyzing it?
[Alternative interpretation]
clear structure in RA and not
much to analyze?
Task 5 The move pattern is very clear; [compared with Units 1, 2, and 3]
see headings below (Unit 4) Again, she used heading instead
of analysis; did the cursory
analysis of rhetorical structure
mean she knew it well? Again,
alternative interpretation (see
Unit 3) may still stand.
Fig. 1. An example of the open coding of four tentatively identied units of data.
researcher with an impressive record of publications that use the constant-comparative

method. All the coded categories were cross-checked by this research peer to make sure
that the coded data made sense to both of us. Any inconsistencies between us were dis-
cussed until agreement was reached.
In the next section, I follow the preferred mode of data presentation in grounded-anal-
ysis research and present the data inductively (Creswell, 2003). In other words, extensive
examples from the data will be presented before the main themes and categories are
summarized.
3. Findings
3.1. Discovering generic features
From her genre-analysis (GA) Task 2, Lings analysis of the move structure in RAs
started to show a clear and consistent pattern, as illustrated in Except 6.4
Excerpt 6
A segment of an RA in Lings collection Lings analysis
Over the past 30 years the fraction of Move 1: Claiming the centrality
market capitalization held by institutional The author rst stated that institutional
investors has nearly doubled (footnote 1). presence is growing. He then argued it is
The growing institutional presence has led a common conception that institutional
to a common perception that institutional herding impacts the market. He then gave
herding (i.e., institutional investors a specic example from a practitioners
following each other into and out of the view. In general, the purpose is to per-
same securities) impacts security prices and suade the readers that this area is very
leads to excess volatility and market important.
fragility. In a recent episode of Wall Street The present prefect tense is used in the rst
Week, for example, Louis Rukeyser two sentences. The past tense is used when
claimed, Who really did do the panicking the author quoted Wall Street Journal.
at the bottom? We found what we had long The author used two footnotes here5 In
suspected. The real patsies were the large the rst footnote, the author cited the
institutional traders whos [sic] congenitally data to support his statement. (The past
shaky nerves get so much sensationalized tense is used here.) In the second footnote,
media attention(Footnote 2). the author provided the reference. In
addition, he gave more examples. The
purpose is to make his statement more
persuasive yet keep the article concise.
(Lings GA Task 2, p. 1)
4
From Excerpt 6 on, all emphases were Lings unless specied otherwise.
5
The two footnotes in the original text are omitted in this article for space concerns. Lings description of them
here is accurate.
As seen in Excerpt 6, Ling described the function (claiming the centrality) and the
content (the author stated. . ., argued. . ., gave a specic example. . .) in this segment of
the text. She then reconstructed the purpose of the move for the authors (to persuade
the readers that this area is very important) before discussing the language features (bul-
let point 2) and the discipline-specic textual practices (bullet point 3) that she saw in this
segment.
Notably, naming a move ? outlining its content ? dening its purpose(s) ? analyzing
language features and/or discipline-specic practices in the move became a consistent pat-
tern of analysis in almost all of Lings subsequent genre-analysis tasks. This pattern reveals
her ability to accurately decipher the rhetorical move structure in the RAs she analyzed, an
ability possibly gained through her previous reading experience, the series of writing
workshop, and the thesis-writing course (see Excerpts 3 and 4 above). In the interview
based on her literacy narrative, she claried that she learned about the basic structure of
RAs through pay[ing] special attention to the idea structures in those articles in the work-
shops (Interview 1 transcript, p. 5). Additionally, she mentioned in another place in the
interview that she was a data-driven researcher who mainly read empirical, data-based
RAs, and the structure [of these empirical RAs] in my eld is not that complicated
because they usually have a xed structure (Interview 1 transcript, p. 3). In sum, her pre-
sumed knowledge of what she perceived to be the simple basic RA structure in her eld
may explain her ability to recognize and analyze the RA move structure.
If Ling could analyze the overall RA rhetorical structure smoothly, what did she learn
through the genre-analysis tasks? My analysis of the data reveals her unique and individ-
ualized engagement with the generic features in the RAs she analyzed. For instance, she
started to attend to the perceived discrepancies between the generic features discussed in
class and those she discovered on her own, as seen in Excerpt 7.
Two points in Excerpt 7 indicate Lings eort to balance what she learned in class with
what she discovered in her reference RAs. First, she commented on the use of a rhetorical
question in this RA sample. Early on in the semester, the class had discussed the use of
(rhetorical) questions in formal academic writing (based on Swales & Feak, 2004, p.
23). Most of the class agreed that (rhetorical) questions should be used with caution, if
at all, in RAs to avoid sounding patronizing to the readers, many of whom may be the
experts in the eld. Here, without openly challenging this majority opinion, Ling high-
lighted the function and, by extension, the legitimate use of the rhetorical question as a
topic sentence in this genre sample.
Lings analysis of the literature review section in this excerpt also suggests her eort to
connect class discussions with her own discovery of generic features. I had previously dis-
cussed with the class how an RA writer can impose some order on the various studies he or
she reviews in order to demonstrate that there is an organizing mind at work (Swales &
Feak, 2000, p. 119). Referring to Swales and Feak (2000, pp. 114128) and the RA sam-
ples collected by the students, the class and I looked at how an RA writer can create a
stronger coherence a clear, though sometimes implicit, logic that can link previous stud-
ies into a collective rst story. This rst story can then anticipate the writers own study,
which is the second story that is thematically related to, but goes beyond the rst
story (Swales & Feak, 2000, p. 118). We also examined cohesive devices words and
phrases that explicitly build up the rst story (e.g., unlike the Johnson study (2000) that
only addressed. . ., the Smith study (2001) focused on both . . .and. . .). This information
may seem fairly straightforward on paper. However, how to recognize, in a concrete
Excerpt 7
[1] What kind(s) of risk might be driving In paragraph 4, the authors present the
momentum? [2] Jegadeesh and Titman empirical evidences related to the risk
(1993) show that momentum is not driven factor. The authors used a rhetorical
by market risk. [3] Fama and French (1996) question as a topic sentence. The purpose is
demonstrate that their unconditional three- to lead to specic review of literatures
factor model cannot explain momentum naturally. However, it might be problematic
either. [4] Measuring conditional exposure that the authors didnt make connections
to three-factor risk, as in Grundy and among the studies they reviewed. They just
Martin (2001), only serves to deepen the moved from one study to another without
momentum puzzle. [5] Conrad and Kaul obvious reasons. Although it is clear to me
(1998) conjecture that cross-sectional that these studies are grouped together
dispersion in expected returns can explain because they all present the evidences that
momentum, but the eect of such dispersion risk fails to explain the momentum (in
is not strong enough to fully explain particular, the rst three papers are logically
observed momentum. [6] Jegadeesh and presented since they moved from one-
Titman (2001) present evidence that US factor model to unconditional three-
momentum returns quickly dissipate after factor model, and then to conditional
the investment period, a nding dicult to three-factor model), it might again incur
reconcile with standard notions of priced confusion to outsider. But on the other
nancial risk. [7] However, Chordia and hand, this kind of review might be
Shivakumar (2002) investigate the one-step- acceptable since the readers of these articles
ahead forecasts obtained by projecting are supposed to be professionals. (Lings
momentum prots onto lagged GA Task 3, p. 2)
macroeconomic variables and conclude that
US momentum prots are completely
explainable using these forecasts.
manner, the organizing mind and the second storying at work in RAs in ones own
eld may not be easy for many learners. It is thus notable that, in Excerpt 7, Ling took
up this issue. She noticed that the authors just moved from one study to another without
obvious reasons or any connections among the studies they reviewed. However, she
quickly invoked her disciplinary knowledge and her rhetorical reaction as a reader to claim
that what may be perceived to be a lack of connections in this case may not be as prob-
lematic as one may assume, since professionals may be able to decipher how the studies
reviewed here are actually logically presented. Note that Lings observation here could
be disputed by a more seasoned discourse analyst. For example, one could argue that there
is a cohesive device (however) between Sentences 6 and 7 that helps establish a relation
between the studies reviewed in these two sentences. Similarly, the word either in Sen-
tence 3 and the phrase measuring conditional exposure to three-factor risks in Sentence
4 may have established an overt cohesion between the studies reviewed in Sentences 2, 3,
and 4. Be that as it may, it remains signicant that Ling tried, though imperfectly, to make
sense of this issue concretely in her own analysis tasks.
Elsewhere in her genre-analysis tasks, Ling also commented on the (lack of) connec-
tions among various studies reviewed in the literature, possibly as a response to the class
discussions on this issue. For instance, in Excerpt 8, she noticed that the internal logic
among the studies reviewed in an RA sample is not very strong, possibly due to the lack
of some explicit connections markers.
[Excerpt 8] The internal logic among those studies is not very strong. It is not easy to
gure out the logical relationship at the rst glance. Maybe the authors should have
built up stronger relation using some connections. But as I have observed, it is com-
mon (of course not necessary) to review literature in this way, say without using con-
nections, in my eld. The authors suppose that the research community could gure
out the internal logic. (Lings GA Task 5, p. 3)
In a statement at the end of Task 5, Ling summarized some conicting practices in her
eld.
[Excerpt 9] In some papers, the internal logical relationship among the specic stud-
ies is not obvious. I guess in this case, the authors assume that the research commu-
nity can gure out the internal logic although sometimes it may not be an easy job
for some starters like me. Yet in other papers, the authors use transitional phrases to
build up the strong logical relation among those studies. The bottom line is that we
should never under-do it nor should we overdo it. (Lings GA Task 5, p. 6)
Here, although she acknowledged the lack of connections as a potential problem, she
was quick to defer to the implicit knowledge of the readers in the research community that
would enable a reader to gure out the internal logic. Meanwhile, she noticed that some
researchers do use transitional phrases to build up the strong logical relation among
various studies they review. The observation she generated from this potentially confusing
array of practices was that one should never under-do it nor overdo it. Her analysis
here suggests an individualized and rhetorically engaged analysis of this highly complex
issue that had been discussed in class.
Apart from addressing the (lack of) connections among various studies reviewed in the
literature review section of RAs, Ling also attended to other dierences between what had
been discussed in class and what she saw in her genre samples. In Excerpt 10, for example,
she focused on the gap-lling move in an RA.
The need to include some gap-indicating statements in the CARS framework (Swales,
1990) had been discussed in class, based mostly on Swales and Feak (2004). Here, Ling
noticed the lack of this move, which made this segment of the text sound[ed] a bit odd
to her. To check the accuracy of Lings analysis here, I read closely the paragraph prior to
the one that Ling analyzed in Excerpt 10. A direct, overt gap-indicating statement indeed
seems to be missing in that paragraph, and it is thus not easy to see why the authors tran-
sition to their discussion of the papers main purposes in the paragraph in Excerpt 10, as
Ling argued here. However, I wonder whether words such as exhaustively and care-
fully built upon in Excerpt 10 have subtly helped identify a research gap in a way that
Ling may not have noticed, and I wonder whether there is some implicit discipline-specic
logic here that hints at the gap, logic that had not been detected by Ling. In other words, it
seems that Lings observation of the absence of the gap-indicating statement is accurate.
However, whether the absence is odd, as Ling claimed in Excerpt 10, may be debatable.
Regardless, it is important to note that Ling subsequently assessed the rhetorical contexts,
Excerpt 10
The principal goal of this study is to Move 3: Laying out research objectives
investigate exhaustively on a global basis In paragraph 6, the authors seemed to ll a
the relation between momentum returns research gap by laying out the principal goal
and macroeconomic risk. In addition, we of the study using a standard sentence like
analyze whether international evidence on the principal goal of this study is to. . .
the dissipation of these prots is consistent What sounds a little bit odd to me, however,
with risk-based or behavioral models of is that they didnt open a research gap at all.
momentum. We carefully build upon the The main contribution of this paper, as I
literature studying the relation between understood, is to evaluate the risk factor
stock returns and macroeconomic risk explanations relatively to behavioral expla-
through the use of the widely cited nations based on the international evidence
unconditional approach of Chen, Roll, and of momentum. Maybe the authors should
Ross (1986). We also examine whether the have briey reviewed what have been done
conditional macroeconomic risk argument in views of this idea and pointed out the
of Chordia and Shivakumar (2002) is research gap DIRECTLY. In doing so, they
robust internationally. Further, we could make the contributions of their paper
document whether international stand out. But unfortunately, the authors
momentum prots extinguish slowly, as failed to do that for some reasons. (Lings
predicted by many risk-based explanations, GA Task 3, p. 4)
or reverse sign completely, consistent with
several behavioral explanations.
including the main contribution and the content of this paper, and the assessment led
her to conclude that omitting the gap-indicating move may be problematic in this partic-
ular rhetorical context. Signicantly, although the explicit discussion of the gap-indicating
move in class may have prompted her to notice the absence of a gap-indicating statement
here, it is her own evaluation of the rhetorical contexts that led her to identify the omission
of the gap-indicating move as problematic. Her analysis here again points to her individ-
ualized reading of the genre samples.
In another excerpt, Ling noticed the presence of the results section in the RAs in her
collection, a section that had been discussed in class (see Excerpt 11). Lings comments
in Excerpt 11 highlight the inuence of class discussions on her own analysis of the RA
samples. In her words, it had been taught in class that the result section should not
appear in the introduction. Here, she may be referring to the lively discussion regarding
the inclusion of research ndings in RA introductions in dierent elds. After reecting on
the practices in their elds and looking at the RA samples from their collections, many
students concluded that the result section was usually not present in RA introductions.
Note that such a conclusion might not be in complete accordance with previous research
ndings. For example, some researchers have noted that, in some elds, the principal nd-
ings are not withheld until the result and discussion sections but are announced, though
often briey, in the introduction section (Swales, 1990; Swales & Najjar, 1987). It remains
signicant here, however, that the classroom discussion on this issue had obviously left an
Excerpt 11
[7] Our results, in brief, are as follows. Move 4: Presenting results
Momentum portfolio prots are large and It is taught in class that the result section
positive abroad, and only weakly co-move should not appear in the introduction. But
among 40 countries, whether within to my knowledge, it is a common practice
regions or across continents. These ndings in the eld of nance to briey discuss the
support the notion that if macroeconomic main results in the introduction, especially
risk is driving momentum, then it should in empirical studies. (Lings GA Task 3, p. 5)
be largely country specic. In the 17
markets where we have such data,
momentum prots bear basically no
statistically or economically signicant
relation to the Chen et al. (1986)
macroeconomic factors. Additionally, the
forecasting model proposed by Chordia
and Shivakumar (2002) generates global
momentum forecasts that are unrelated to
observed momentum prots. We also
tabulate international momentum prots in
both good and bad business cycle states;
our nding of positive prots in both sorts
of economies is incompatible with
momentum being a reward for priced
business cycle risk. Finally, we show strong
international evidence of rapid reversals of
momentum prots, a nding incompatible
with existing risk-based explanations of
momentum.
impression on Ling, as she invoked the discussion to analyze the presence of the result sec-
tion in the introduction section of RAs in her eld. Specically, the class discussion of the
usual absence of the result section in RA introductions seems to have alerted her to the
actual presence of this section in RA introductions in her eld.
In Lings Task 4, she continued to notice how some features in the genre samples she
analyzed turned out to be dierent from what had been discussed in class (see Excerpt
12). Here, Ling was reanalyzing the same paragraph in Excerpt 10. She noticed that the
secondary goal rather than the primary goal is elaborated in this paragraph, contrary
to the examples in class where the primary goal was often emphasized (see also Swales
& Feak, 2004, p. 264). She went on to explain why this was the case by referring to her
knowledge of the research topic and her reaction as a reader of this RA. Her continued
discovery of these odd instances of breaking the rules introduced in class suggests that
the explicit discussions of move structure in class have scaolded her individualized
engagement with the genre samples out of class.
Excerpt 12
(Sub-move 1) The principal goal of this Move: laying out the goal of the research
study is to investigate exhaustively on a The odd thing about this move is that it
global basis the relation between appears directly after the literature review
momentum returns and macroeconomic without a research gap in between. Maybe
risk. (Sub-move 2) In addition, we analyze the authors should have opened a research
whether international evidence on the gap before this move in order to ll it. But
dissipation of these prots is consistent anyway, the authors ll a research gap
with risk-based or behavioral models of here by laying out the goals of the study.
momentum. (Sub-move 3) We carefully This move consists of three sub-moves:
build upon the literature studying the 1. Announcing the primary goal.
relation between stock returns and 2. Announcing the secondary goal.
macroeconomic risk through the use of the 3. Elaborating on the secondary goal.
widely cited unconditional approach of Here it seems to be another case of break-
Chen, Roll, and Ross (1986). We also ing the rules introduced in class: the sec-
examine whether the conditional ondary goal rather than the primary goal
macroeconomic risk argument of Chordia is elaborated. I guess it is because, in this
and Shivakumar (2002) is robust specic research, the primary goal is very
internationally. Further, we document obvious and easy to understand while the
whether international momentum prots secondary goal is abstrue and thus needs
extinguish slowly, as predicted by many more explanation.
risk-based explanations, or reverse sign
completely, consistent with several (Lings GA Task 4, p. 2; underlined
behavioral explanations. emphasis added by the researcher)
Lings analysis of the claiming-centrality step in the RAs in her eld represents another
instance of her individualized analysis of the genre samples. After analyzing several para-
graphs containing this step, Ling observed that there is denitely no uniform model for this
move. However, she noticed that there are some useful techniques. One of them was to
follow a zoom in pattern, i.e., to start from a general area and then narrow down to a spe-
cic area. Another useful technique, according to her, is to invoke existing literature. In
other words, the authors claimed the centrality by appealing to previous literature. Since
there is a growing literature on this topic, it is of course an important, lively, and well-estab-
lished eld (Lings GA Task 4, p. 6). Note that these two techniques had previously been
discussed in class quite extensively when the claiming-centrality step was introduced.
Apart from noticing these techniques that had been discussed in class, Ling also
noticed a unique technique that researchers in her eld often use to claim centrality.
[Excerpt 13] The authors mainly claim the importance of this area by appealing to
practitioners view. My observation is that it is a common technique to refer to a
practitioners journal (e.g., Wall Street Journal and New York Times) when claiming
centrality in my eld. (Lings GA Task 4, p. 4)
Elsewhere in her genre analysis tasks, she pointed out several examples where the authors
cited the Wall Street Journal to claim that an area of research was important (e.g., Excerpt
6). Indeed, appealing to practitioners (rather than just researchers) perspectives to claim
centrality is a feature specic to her eld and something that had not been discussed in class.
Lings analysis of the claiming centrality move here again indicates her attention to both
what had been discussed in class and what she discovered through her own analyses.
Ling also discussed some citation practices that she believed to be unique to her eld, as
can be seen in the following comments in her genre-analysis Task 5.
Excerpt 14
There are many noticeable features about citation:
1. The papers are usually grouped chronologically.
2. There is no and in front of last item when the citations are put at the end of a
sentence.
3. We rarely use et al. even if there are 3 or more than 3 authors.
4. When original words are quoted, quotation marks are used.
5. Sometimes we use the initials of authors last names (e.g., ABDL) to represent the
papers with more than 3 authors.
6. Some feature about citation is Journal-specic. For example, in some journals, paren-
theses are used in conjunct with the year when the quotation is put at the end of a
sentence. But in other journals, parentheses are not used. (Lings GA Task 5, p. 6)
In this excerpt, nearly every point (with the exception of Point 4) is her attempt to high-
light some dierences between class discussions and actual occurrences in her eld regard-
ing citation practices, an attempt again suggesting her individualized engagement with the
genre samples.
In sum, my analyses of Lings various genre-analysis tasks point to Lings seeming
familiarity with the overall RA move structure in her eld as well as her ability to decipher
the move structure clearly and analyze it accurately. Her analyses of the genre exemplars
were, in turn, characterized by her intensive focus on the dierences between what had
been discussed in class and what she perceived to be unique to her eld. This theme in
Lings learning prole is captured in Fig. 2.
Category II
Category I
Lings focus on the
Lings familiarity discrepancies between class
with the overall Theme discussions and her own
rhetorical discovery of generic features
organization of RAs Lings Use of rhetorical questions.
in her field individualized Connections between moves.
A clear and engagement with The absence of the gap-
consistent pattern of genre in her reading identifying move.
analysis. through her The presence of the result
Overall move dialogical responses move.
structure in to class discussions
empirical RAs The emphasis on secondary
considered to be objective.
uncomplicated by Special centrality-claiming
her. techniques.
Unique citation practices.
Fig. 2. The main categories (the left and right blocks) and the resulting theme (the central block) developed from
the data pertaining to Lings analyses of the move structure and other generic features in RAs. The bullet points
inside the left and the right blocks are some broad units of data that generate the categories.
Excerpt 15
Lings claiming of centrality Lings comments on her writing
(Step 1) Stock market volatility has Step 1: establishes market volatility as an
received a great deal of attention from important general area of research. The
investors, regulators, academics, and the phrase has received a great deal of atten-
press. (Step 2) The existing literature tion from helps to realize this step.
provides evidence that volatility is time- Step 2: points out the importance of a spe-
varying and calls for a better understanding cic area of research (the factors contrib-
of the factors that contribute to its uting to the variability of market
variability (endnote 1). (Step 3) The popular volatility). I refer to existing literature to
press often quotes practitioners to suggest claim the centrality by using the italicized
that increased institutional participation words. The literature part is put in the
may account for large market price endnote to keep the text concise.
uctuations. One article, for example, Step 3: continues to claim centrality of a
stated reviewing this weeks events, more specic research area (increased
analysts are concluding that professional institutional trading being reasons of
investors simply overreacted. . . (endnote varying volatility) by quoting a recent epi-
2) The quote highlights the perception that sode of Wall Street Journal (WSJ). In
institutional traders contribute to stock doing so, I indeed argue that this area is
market volatility. very important to practitioners. The high-
Endnote 1: For example, based on monthly lighted words in this step help to claim the
observations, Schwert (1989) reports that centrality.
stock volatility varied substantially during General comments:
the period 18571987. Using daily return I take a specic general to specic, or
data, Haugen, Talmor, and Torous (1991) zoom in pattern to lay out the signi-
document a large variation in volatility cance of a research area.
during the period 18971988. Wood, I claim the centrality mainly by referring
McInish, and Ord (1985), among others, to existing literature and appealing to
examine intraday market returns and show practitioners view as well.
that market volatility is high at the Language features:
beginning and the end of the trading day. The underlined phrasal verbs are com-
Endnote 2: See Wall Street Journal (WSJ), monly used.
July 21, 1995, p. A1. I use various reporting verbs here.
3.2. Applying generic features
Did Lings individualized engagement with genre in her reading inuence her writing?
To address this question, I studied Lings second writing assignment, which was the intro-
duction section of a paper entitled A study of mutual fund ow and market return vol-
atility. Ling explained in the interview following this assignment that the paper was based
on part of her M.A. thesis, and her advisor gave her substantial help in conducting the
study and pointed out many writing and grammar problems in earlier drafts of the the-
sis. Although she had been considering revising the thesis into journal articles, she had
not been able to do so because of her hectic schedule and her lack of condence in her
writing skills. She said that this class and the writing assignment gave her the opportunity
to attempt the task (Interview 2 transcript, p. 8).
Lings RA introduction contains the following moves and steps:

Move 1 Step a: Claiming centrality
Move 1 Step b: Reviewing literature
Move 2: Opening the research gap
Move 3 Step a: Filling the research gap by outlining the purpose of the study
Move 3 Step b: Announcing the principal results
Move 3 Step c: Indicating the structure of the paper
The move structure in her paper seems to be consistent with what she noticed through
her genre-analysis tasks completed prior to this writing assignment. For a closer look at
the possible inuences of her individualized reading of the genre samples on her writing,
I now examine several moves in her writing, starting with claiming centrality.
As seen in Excerpt 15, Ling pointed out that she had adopted the zooming-in or
general-to-specic structure to perform the claiming centrality function here.
Through three steps that gradually zoomed in to her special topic, she felt that she had
highlighted the centrality of her research topic the relationship between market volatility
and institutional trading. The structure adopted here corresponds quite signicantly to her
previous analysis of the claiming centrality move, as can be seen in her earlier observa-
tion that the general to specic and zooming in pattern, which had been discussed in
class, was indeed often utilized to claim centrality in her eld.
In addition, she commented on the two other methods for claiming centrality in her
writing: citing existing literature (see her comment in Step 2) and using practitioners
perspectives (see her comment on Step 3) to prove the value of her topic. Of these two,
the rst was a strategy that had been discussed extensively in class, and the second was a
feature unique to her eld that she noticed through her genre-analysis tasks (see Excerpt
13). It seems that both features have been incorporated into her writing.
In her genre-analysis Task 2, she noticed a practice unique to her eld using footnotes
to keep the literature-review section concise (see Excerpt 6). This practice has become part
of her centrality-claiming step, as can be seen in Excerpt 15. In her comments, she alerted
her readers to the noteworthiness of this feature, thus indicating her purposeful use of it in
her writing.
Previously in the semester, there had been a discussion of the stylistic dierences
between phrasal verbs and single verbs in academic writing. Based on Swales and Feak
(2004), I introduced the class to the tendency for academic writers to use a single verb
wherever possible in formal academic writing (p. 18). In several places in her genre-
analysis tasks, Ling highlighted the use of phrasal verbs, possibly as a response to the
discussions on this issue in class. For example, in her Genre-analysis Task 3, she noticed
that
[Excerpt 16] Several phrasal verbs like focus on, related to, lies in, and asso-
ciated with are used in this paragraph. They actually, in some sense, all mean that
something has been studied. By using these phrasal verbs, the authors are adding vari-
ety to their writing. I found it very common to use these phrasal verbs in my eld.
(Lings GA Task 3, p. 4)
In turn, it seems that the insight she gained from her analysis had been incorporated
into her own writing, as can be seen in the underlined phrasal verbs in this paragraph
and in her comment that these phrasal verbs were commonly used.
The literature-review move Ling wrote (see Excerpt 17) also demonstrates the connec-
tion between Lings individualized engagement with genre in her reading and her writing.
As we noted earlier in her genre-analysis tasks, Ling commented quite extensively on the
logical connections among the various studies in RA literature reviews by incorporating
what had been discussed in class and what she actually observed in RAs in her eld. As
seen in her writing here, she had paid particular attention to building a stronger connec-
tion among the various studies. She pointed out that the two phrases for example and
further address this issue - helped her to build up an internal logic relationship among
these studies. Signicantly, however, she chose not to provide any cohesive phrases
between Sentences 2 and 3, as she believed that the research community in my eld
can easily gure out the internal logic without the connection there. In the interview fol-
lowing this assignment, she explained that the logical connection between Sentences 2 and
3 was that Sentence 2 focused on studies that explore the eect of money ow into an
individual mutual fund, while the studies reviewed in Sentence 3 were about the price
impact of aggregate mutual fund ow. She believed this distinction would not be easily
lost to the readers (Interview 2 transcript, p. 4). Note that previously in one of her
genre-analysis tasks, she observed that researchers in her eld would sometimes use con-
nections while at other times they would not. The bottom line, according to her, was not
to overdo it or to underdo it (see Excerpt 9). It is thus interesting that this observa-
tion, which was generated through her individualized engagement with the genre samples,
has guided her writing.
Incidentally, the connection between her individualized engagement with genre and her
writing can also be seen in her comment about the two reporting verbs. . .used consecu-
tively in one sentence in Excerpt 17. When the literature-review section was discussed in
class, I alerted the students to the various reporting verbs often used in this section of RAs
(e.g., Swales & Feak, 2004, pp. 262272). Ling noticed that, in her eld, RA authors
uniquely often used a pair of reporting verbs in one sentence. She analyzed this phenom-
enon in several places in her genre-analysis tasks. Here, we can see that she was using this
previously noticed feature quite consciously in her writing.
In a previous genre-analysis task, Ling had criticized some RA authors in her eld for
failing to include some gap-indicating statements in their RA introductions (see Excerpt
10). It is thus noteworthy that Ling included the following explicit gap-indentifying state-
ment in her introduction: while ample empirical evidence suggests that aggregate mutual
fund ow is positively related to market returns, the relationship between aggregate
mutual fund ow and market volatility is not yet clear (Lings Paper 2, p. 3, emphasis
in the original). It should be noted that, if it was indeed not customary to include a direct,
overt gap-indicating move in RAs in her eld, as she herself had noticed, adding such a
move here may have put her writing at odds with the sanctioned RA structure in her eld
and may thus possibly cause her exercise of rhetorical agency here to be rejected by disci-
plinarily and textually more experienced gatekeepers in her eld (e.g., journal editors and
reviewers). Notably, however, Lings gap-indicating statement seems to refer to the lack of
knowledge in a specic area, which seems to be less face threatening than, for example,
identifying a research gap through the criticisms of individual studies. In other words,
although she may be violating disciplinary generic conventions here by incorporating an
Excerpt 17
Lings literature review Lings comments
(Step 1) [1] Considerable academic attention The highlighted part (Step 1) is another
has been devoted to the price impact of typical topic sentence.
mutual fund trading recently. (Step 2) [2] Two reporting verbs (e.g., examine and
Chan and Lakonishok (1993, 1995, 1997), suggest, investigate and document,
Keim and Madhavan (1997), and Jones and address and report) are used consecu-
Lipson (1999), for example, have examined tively in one sentence.
the price eect of money inow into a For example and further address this
mutual fund and in general suggest that issue help to build up a internal logic
institutional trading causes both permanent relationship. However, there is no con-
and temporary price impacts. [3] Warther nection between sentence 2 and 3. I
(1995, 1998) investigates the relationship believe that the research community in
between aggregate cash ow into all mutual my eld can easily gure out the internal
funds and market-wide returns and logic without the connection here.
documents a strong positive relationship
between unexpected mutual fund ow and
contemporaneous stock returns. [4] Edelen
and Warner (2001) further address this issue
using higher-frequency data and report that
aggregate unexpected mutual fund ow is
positively correlated with concurrent
market returns at a daily frequency.
Excerpt 18
Lings results move Lings comments
Our initial evidence suggests that market . . .. This section doesnt begin with a topic
volatility is signicantly negatively related sentence (It is very common in my eld).
to concurrent aggregate net fund ow The underlined parts build up a strong
across the whole ow range. This result connection within this paragraph. It is
indicates that increased mutual fund ow noticeable that although we document
on average is accompanied by a more two results here, I am indeed emphasizing
volatile market. However, when we on the second one since it is more interest-
consider the direction of aggregate net ow, ing and more important. The phrases
we document an interesting nding: the initial and however help to serve this
impact of net inow and net outow on the purpose.
market is markedly asymmetric. In . . .. . .
particular, increased net fund inow is The phrasal verbs are commonly used,
associated with a lower market volatility, especially in documenting a relationship.
while increased net fund outow is I try to use dierent reporting verbs to
associated with a higher market volatility. express the same ideas.
explicit gap statement, she was doing so with the disciplinary culture still in the back of her
mind. Her use of the gap-identifying move here again reveals a very complex inuence of
her previous individualized engagement with genre on her writing.
It is also noteworthy that Move 3, Step b announcing major results - had been
incorporated into her introduction because, as she noticed in Task 3 (see Excerpt 11), this
move was almost mandatory in RA introduction in her eld, although it may not be pre-
valent in the examples from other elds that were analyzed in class (see Excerpt 18).
Lings analysis of this step (presenting the major ndings) in her writing is especially
revealing. First, she mentioned that the omission of a topic sentence at the beginning of
this section is very common in her eld, again indicating her attention to the generic fea-
tures unique to her eld when she wrote. Second, she pointed out some phrases that helped
her to build a strong connection within the paragraph again signifying her consistent
attention to the issue of the logical connections among sentences, an issue that she had
focused on quite extensively in her genre-analysis tasks. Her comment about the phrasal
verbs is also a response to the in-class discussion about the use of phrasal verbs vs. single
verbs (see also Excerpts 16 and 17 above). The third, and the most revealing point in this
excerpt, is her emphasis on the fact that she used some expressions initially and how-
ever to highlight the second nding as more interesting than the rst one. In the inter-
view, I asked her why she thought this was a particularly interesting feature worth
pointing out in her comments. She mentioned that she had noticed something similar
Category III
(In writing)
Overall move structure in writing
consistent with what she observed
Category I in her genre-analysis tasks;
(In reading) previously noticed features
Familiarity with the became materialized in her
overall move structure writing:
of RAs in her field. See -Claiming centrality
Category I in Fig. 2 Zooming in from general to
for more details. specific.
Theme Citing existing literature.
Individualized Referencing practitioners
engagement views.
with genre in Adding footnotes.
both reading Incorporating phrasal verbs.
and writing -Literature review
tasks Attending to cohesion and
Category II
coherence.
(In reading)
Using pairs of reporting verbs.
Focus on
-Opening the gap
discrepancies between
class discussions and Adding an explicit gap-
her discovery of identifying statement.
generic features. See -Results
Category II in Fig. 2 Highlighting secondary result.
for more details. Transforming a long result
section in MA thesis into a
short result section in RA.
Fig. 3. The main categories (the surrounding blocks) and the resulting theme (the central block) developed from
the data pertaining to both Lings analyses of the genre samples and her own writing.
through her genre-analysis tasks. However, she could not remember exactly where she had
encountered this feature. When I pointed to the sample from her genre-analysis Task 4 (see
Excerpt 12), she immediately acknowledged that her impression came from that task. Note
that she encountered this feature in the step laying out the research objective (see
Excerpt 12), while the step in which this feature was applied was providing the research
results. One could argue that her individualized engagement with genre noticing that
the secondary research objective was emphasized in a genre sample in her eld had
resulted in a transformed practice in her own writing because she had recontextualized this
feature in a dierent step of a dierent move.
Additionally, in the interview, Ling pointed out that she had a long result section in her
M.A. thesis. It was in the context of this class, however, that she felt she had nally gotten
the chance to examine closely the dierences between the functions of the result section in
the M.A. thesis and the functions of the result section in the introduction of an RA. One
can thus argue that her inclusion of the result section originated from her conscious eort
and again represents a transformed practice on her part.
In sum, many features Ling highlighted in her genre-analysis tasks as responses to dis-
cussions in class had been incorporated into her own writing, thus suggesting that her indi-
vidualized engagement with genre had not only scaolded her reading of RAs in her eld,
but also her writing. This process is illustrated in Fig. 3.
4. Discussion
Some researchers have noticed that the impact of [genre-based] instruction may be less
pronounced if students already have relevant genre knowledge or eective approaches for
reading certain texts (Hyon, 2001, p. 432). My analysis of Lings data sheds new light on
such an observation and thus helps enhance our understanding of learning in the genre-
based literacy framework. Ling seemed to possess some relevant genre knowledge or
eective approaches for reading certain texts, as indicated in her clear analysis of the
RA move structure and her reference in her literacy narrative to the knowledge of basic
RA move structure she gained through previous writing workshops. Therefore, the eects
of learning in Lings case may not be that pronounced if they are measured mainly by
students acquisition of new knowledge of previously unfamiliar rhetorical macrostruc-
tures (Hyon, 2001; Mustafa, 1995) or by students destabilization of previously autono-
mous, uncontested, or unnegotiated theories of genre in the learning process (Johns,
2002, p. 239). However, if our conceptualization of genre-based learning is expanded to
include students meaningful re-mediation of their existing genre knowledge and their
resulting new understanding of texts that is embedded in their own learning needs, the
eects of genre-based learning in Lings case are by no means any less pronounced. Seen
in this light, Lings eort to connect in-class discussions of the genre samples with her own
discovery of generic features, her heightened awareness of features that she perceived to be
unique to her eld, her ner appreciation of features that she previously may only have
been implicitly aware of, and her attempts to scaold her writing with her individualized
engagement with the genre samples all signal a powerful and authentic form of learning
aorded by genre as a learning tool.
Lings case can also extend our understanding of ESP genre-based teaching as a needs-
based approach when we compare it with a related case reported elsewhere (Cheng, 2006b,
2007, 2008). In that case, Fengchen, a doctoral student in engineering, used his genre-anal-
ysis tasks mainly to make explicit the basic overall move structure of RAs in his eld as
well as the rhetorical contexts that underpin the move structure. By contrast, Ling did
not seem to focus on the macro-level overall move structure in RAs or to engage with
the rhetorical contexts underlying the basic move structure as intensively as Fengchen
did, possibly because her analysis of genre seemed to be anchored on her presumed prior
familiarity with the overall RA move structure. In fact, as seen in my analysis of the data,
she gradually phased out the explicit discussion of move structures in her genre-analysis
tasks, relying, instead, on headings and sometimes one-liners to summarize, often accu-
rately, the function as well as the move structures of RAs (see Fig. 1). Her genre-analysis
tasks were notably characterized by her consistent focus on the discrepancies between class
discussions and the genre samples in her collection and on the generic features she per-
ceived to be unique to her eld, among others, which, by comparison, Fengchen did
not seem to be so preoccupied with.
These two learning proles could be traced to the trajectories of learning that these two
learners brought to the class. In the literacy narrative that he composed at the beginning of
the semester, Fengchen mentioned that, in a cram school in China that prepared college
students to take the TOEFL and GRE tests, he was told to recite some patterns and
use them as a model for all the tasks. Consequently, he asked in his literacy narrative:
What is the popular pattern in my research eld and secondly how should I apply this
pattern eciently without risking plagiarism? (Fengchens literacy narrative, p. 5). His
quest for a fuller understanding of the popular pattern in RAs in his eld may have
framed his intensive focus on the overall move structure in the RAs in his eld. At the
end of the semester, Fengchen reected that
. . .I understood the structure of articles better and had my own opinion about the
good or bad of this structure...I felt one thing I benet most from this class is the
deep thinking about the structure. It told me with good plan you could put your
readers on hook and keep them thinking with you throughout the whole paper
(Fengchens literacy narrative, p. 7; see a fuller analysis of the connection between
Fengchens trajectories and outcomes of learning in Cheng, 2008).
By contrast, Lings self assessment of her learning outcomes at the end of the semester
indicates the inuence of a dierent trajectory of learning:
You see, before coming to this class, I did know that an academic paper consists of
various parts such as introduction, method, discussion and conclusion. What I was
not aware of, however, are those rich features specic to my eld. Interestingly, after
I did a lot of rich feature analysis and looked at one of my previous papers again, I
surprisingly found that I implicitly used those features even when I were not aware of
them. . . Now I can say that I am more condent in academic writing in the future
(Lings literacy narrative, p. 4).
In other words, her presumed familiarity with the basic move structure in RAs may
have freed up some analytic energies that led to her magnied attention to other features
that she may have only been implicitly aware of or even unconsciously used. Some of these
features, once becoming the objects of her attention and analysis, ultimately resulted in her
transformed practices, as can be seen in, among other examples, her integration of the
result section in her RA introduction.
The genre-based framework of literacy learning and teaching has often been charac-
terized as being based on writer needs in its approaches to curriculum and materials
development (Hyland, 2004, p. 12). Researchers have, for example, stressed the impor-
tance of conducting a survey of target writing contexts to determine the kinds of writing
practices that the students will be faced with (Hyland, 2004, p. 13). My juxtaposition of
Fengchen and Lings learning proles here suggests that the emphasis on writers needs
should not only include understanding the kinds of writing practices that the students
will be faced with, but should also encompass assessing how students immediate and
long-term learning objectives are driven by their histories and trajectories of learning
and how students agendas of learning aect their access to the ranges and types of generic
features. Doing so will help us gauge how learners lter what transpires in genre-based
teaching through their own needs and how they dene the outcomes of the instruction
on their own terms (Richards & Rogers, 2001; Roebuck, 1998).
5. Conclusion
As noted by Swales and Lindemann (2002), even advanced L2 writers can be helped to
become better genre theorists and to acquire a ner appreciation of intertextuality (2002,
p. 119). Lings case illustrates the power of self-directed learning by an advanced learner
who developed a ner appreciation of disciplinary textual practices through her individu-
alized analysis of genre. Although there remain various limitations in Lings analyses of
the genre samples, many of which I pointed out in the Findings section in this article,
the clear relationship between Lings learning trajectories and her individualized engage-
ment with genre calls for further exploration of how learning in the genre-based frame-
work is facilitated by learners real needs. Such a research direction can enable us to
link the teaching points in the ESP genre-based framework with the learning opportunities
it creates (Allwright, 2005) and can thus enhance our understanding of how genre analysis
can lead to learners development of their own needs and, ultimately, their self-accessed
and self-directed learning of academic literacy.
Appendix A. The ve RAs in Lings collection
Campbell, J. Y., Lettau, M., Malkiel, B. G., & Xu, Y. (2001). Have individual stocks
become more volatile? An empirical exploration of idiosyncratic risk. Journal of
Finance, 56, 143.
Edelen, R. M., & Warner, J. B. (2001). Aggregate price eects of institutional trading: A
study of mutual fund ow and market returns. Journal of Financial Economics, 59, 195
220.
Fleming, J., Kirby, C., & Ostdiek, B. (2003). The economic value of volatility timing
using realized volatility. Journal of Financial Economics, 67, 473509.
Grin, J. M., Ji, X., & Martin, J. S. (2003). Momentum investing and business cycle
risk: Evidence from pole to pole. Journal of Finance, 58, 25152547.
Sias, R.W. (2004). Institutional herding. Review of Financial Studies, 17, 165206.
Appendix B. The major out-of-class genre-analysis and writing tasks in this course
Tasks Task specics

Writing Literacy narrative
Assignment 1
Genre-analysis Explore (general) language features in dierent parts of the RAs
Task 1
Genre-analysis Learn to decipher moves/steps and the communicative purposes as well
Task 2 as other rhetorical parameters underpinning moves/steps
Genre-analysis Analyze the move structure as well as the lexico-grammatical features
Task 3 of the whole introduction section
Genre-analysis Analyze purpose statement and research gap in RA introductions
Task 4
Genre-analysis Analyze the literature review section
Task 5
Genre-analysis Analyze the contribution, roadmap, and other moves in the
Task 6 introduction section
Writing Introduction section of an RA
Assignment 2
Genre-analysis Analyze method, results, discussion, or conclusion
Task 7
Genre-analysis Analyze method, results, discussion, or conclusion
Task 8
Writing Another part of RA other than the introduction
Assignment 3
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An Cheng is an assistant professor in the Department of English at Oklahoma State University. His research
interests include EAP, ESP, genre studies, genre-based writing instruction, writing teacher education, learner
autonomy, and language awareness. His articles have appeared in English for Specic Purposes, Journal of Second
Language Writing, and Applied Linguistics.

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Individualized engagement with genre

2.1. The context of the study

2.2. The focal student

[Excerpt 1] To be honest, I didnt read or write a lot in English before my graduation

2.3. Data generation and analysis

Given her knowledge of what an introduction, method, or conclusion part should be

Tasks Lings analyses of RAs Keywords and notes Categories

researcher with an impressive record of publications that use the constant-comparative

3.1. Discovering generic features

3.2. Applying generic features

Lings RA introduction contains the following moves and steps:

Appendix A. The ve RAs in Lings collection

Tasks Task specics

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