A Study Of Promotional Strategies In Research Journal Articles

As a genre, research articles (RAs) have been investigated from many aspects. It is widely recognized that writing RAs is not a simple presentation of research findings, but a delicate task in which authors make every effort to balance "modesty" and "promotion". The "promotional" strategies in published RAs have been recognized and explored by many scholars. However, few studies of promotional strategies in applied linguistic RAs have been conducted.To get an in-depth knowledge of how authors in applied linguistics "promote" their work, this thesis presents a corpus-based study with qualitative and quantitative research methods, attempting to explore several elements related to academic "promotion" in abstract and introduction parts, and the strategies used to attract readers’attention in the article title part. Sixty RA titles from several journals in the field of applied linguistics have been chosen and analyzed in terms of their different "promotional" strategies. Thirty abstract and introduction parts from the same sixty RAs are selected for an in-depth analysis. The promotional features in these two parts are examined and analyzed from four aspects:frame markers, hedges, boosters, and self-mention.The findings show that researchers usually "promote" their work in the title part through information packaging, use of question forms, quotations, engagement markers and metaphors. In the abstract and introduction parts, it is found that authors sometimes signal their research findings by overt expressions such as "the main research finding is..." or other metadiscoursive markers to attract readers to their research findings. Some authors present their research findings with politeness and caution by using hedges. However, more than two thirds of research findings in the corpus are presented unhedged. The authors convince readers to accept their work by showing confidence and closing off other alternatives in making new knowledge claims. Self-mention is recognized through two means:first person pronoun and self-citation. Promotional "I" and exclusive "we" are used to create a "promotional" tenor in several ways, such as showing authority in making knowledge claims, emphasizing uniqueness and creativity in filling a research gap, underscoring the significance and contributions of their research, leading readers to read through the whole article. Besides first person pronouns, authors also "promote" their work through citation of their previous work. By using self-citation, they are providing readers the best evidence that they are established and experienced players in the academic community, which may in turn increase the possibility of acceptance by peer-reviewers.Based on the analysis of the data, the thesis finally discusses the implications of academic English pedagogy and areas for future research. The findings of this thesis may also be useful to those novice or beginning scholars who endeavor to write and publish their research papers in international research journals.