AGenreAnalysisofEnglishMasterThesesAcknowledgementsofUniversitiesinSichuan

譚妮

【Abstract】Acknowledgement， as a genre， is vital in academic writing for writers to express thanks to whoever have assisted them in their writing and to establish a favorable academic reputation. Based on John Swales genre analysis and Hylands study on the generic structure of dissertation acknowledgements， this paper examines the acknowledgements of nine English master theses selected from five universities in Sichuan to reveal the generic structure and distribution of moves and steps and further to find out differences and similarities between the result of the current study and that of Hylands research.

【Key words】acknowledgements； genre analysis； English master theses； universities in Sichuan

1. Introduction

Acknowledgement is essential in thesis writing. It offers writers a unique opportunity to convey their gratitude for any assistance they have received in their research， and to create a scholarly identity by displaying their immersion in scholarly networks and their observance of such valued academic ideas as modesty and gratitude（Hyland， 2004）.

While acknowledgement in academic thesis writing became popular from 1960s ， genre analysis of it did not really start until 2004 when Hyland published his Graduates Gratitude： The Generic Structure of Dissertation Acknowledgements， and nowadays is still not common in China. Based on Swales genre analysis and Hylands analysis of the generic structure of dissertation acknowledgements， this paper attempts to find out the generic structure of English master theses acknowledgements of universities in Sichuan.

2. Genre Analysis and Generic Structure of Acknowledgement

Genre analysis， a kind of discourse analysis， has concerned itself with exploring the structure of spoken or written texts. It aims to identify how texts are organized by moves and steps and to examine how communicative purposes are realized through the use of language.

Researchers have studied various discourses based on genre analysis. Swales （1990） analyzed the introductions of 48 academic articles and proposed the concept of move-step to describe how an introduction is presented. Since then various aspects of academic writing have been investigated. Adopting Swales move and step， Hyland in 2004 studied the generic structure of 240 dissertations acknowledgements completed by students in Hong Kong. Hylands model of acknowledgement consists of a main thanking move and optional reflecting and announcing moves， each of which containing some necessary and optional steps， as is shown in table 1 （Hyland， 2004）：endprint

Table 1 The Generic Structure of Dissertation Acknowledgements in Hylands Research

Move / Step Definition

Move 1： Reflecting Move Introspective comment on the writers research experience

Move 2： Thanking Move Mapping credit to individuals and institutions

Step 1：Presenting participants Introducing those to be thanked

Step 2： Thanking for academic assistant Thanks for intellectual support， ideas， analyses， feedback， etc.

Step3 Thanking for resources Thanks for data access & clerical， technical & financial support.

Step 4 Thanking for moral support Thanks for encouragement， friendship， sympathy， patience， etc.

Move 3： Announcing move Public statement of responsibility and inspiration

Step 1： accepting responsibility An assertion of authorial responsibility for flaws or errors

Step 2： Dedicating the thesis A formal dedication of the thesis to an individual

3. Research Methodology

3.1 Data Collection

The corpora of the present study include nine acknowledgements written by graduates majoring in English Language and Literature from five universities in Sichuan： Sichuan University， Southwest Jiaotong University， Sichuan Normal University， Southwestern University of Finance and Economics， Southwest University for Nationalities and University of Electronic Science and Technology of China. All sample theses released in recent three years are selected from Chinese outstanding dissertation library in CNKI and are a good representation of acknowledgement writings of universities in Sichuan.

3.2 Data Analysis

Apart from the generic structure of acknowledgements， this research studies the frequency of each step with an aim to reveal necessary moves or steps in English master theses acknowledgements of universities in Sichuan， as is shown in table 2.

Table 2 The distribution of moves and steps in Hylands and the present research

3.2.1 Generic Structure

As is shown in table 2， acknowledgements in both researches cover the same moves with each move accounting for different percentage respectively. However， among the nine acknowledgements， none of them covers all the three moves. Most of them only involve thanking move without reflecting move or announcing move.

This study illustrates that thanking move which takes account of 100 percent is the obligatory and core part of acknowledgement for graduates in Sichuan while reflecting move and announcing move， each with 1.1 percent， are not. Generally speaking， the generic structure of acknowledgements written by graduates of universities in Sichuan is consistent with that in Hylands research.endprint

3.2.2 Frequency of Moves and Steps

Move 1： Reflecting move

Reflecting move provides graduates with the opportunity to reflect their study and writing experience. In this study only one out of nine offered reflecting move， which indicates that this move is optional in acknowledgements of universities in Sichuan.

Move 2： Thanking move

Acknowledgements mainly aim to express gratitude towards people or institutions that have helped writers completion of their theses. Thanking move， therefore， is a must to acknowledgements， with its frequency of 100 percent in sample writings. Writers establish harmonious relations with others and realize their communicative purpose in this move. Thanking move can be divided into four steps：

Step 1， presenting participants， is used to introduce those to be thanked and is usually very short. It accounts for 66.7%， thus is not a must.

Step 2 is offered to thank for academic advice and feedback and is the core of move 2. This step occurred in every sample， indicating that students attach great importance to academic assistance. People to be thanked in this step are usually professors， especially supervisors.

Step 3 is mainly to show gratitude to people supporting writers technically， clerically and financially and people providing data access. It shares 88.9% in sample writings and thus is also optional.

Step 4 is written to thank people for their encouragement， patience， etc. It can be seen in all samples， which shows that Chinese students appreciate moral support. Most people mentioned in this step are parents， friends or classmates.

Move 3： Announcing move

Announcing move is usually the final part of acknowledgements and covers two steps. Step 1 is accepting responsibilities. It indicates that only the writer is responsible for any flaws or errors if there are and that the thesis is completed by himself. However， this step cannot be found in any sample acknowledgement， which can probably be explained by the fact that master thesis is not published and which may indicates that writers have no awareness of acknowledging their flaws or errors or taking responsibility in academic writing.

Step 2 is a special way to express appreciation to those who helped the writer by dedicating his thesis to them. In this study， only one out of nine takes this step.

3.3.3 Comparison Between the Result of the Present Study and that of Hylands Researchendprint

From the result of the comparative study shown in table 2， it can be concluded that the generic structure of English master theses acknowledgments in Sichuan is similar to that in Hylands study on the whole， but when it comes to specific moves or steps there are some differences. Reflecting move in the writings of students in Hong Kong who are influenced by both Chinese and English culture is more common than that in theses written by students in Sichuan.

Thanking move， especially thanking for academic assistance， is essential in all theses. However， there are some differences in step 1， step 3 and step 4. Step 1 and step 4 in Hylands research are not as frequent as that in this study while step 3 is more frequent in Hylands research. More graduates in Hong Kong tend to express thanks for resources in their acknowledgements compared with students in Sichuan.

As for announcing move， all theses or dissertations in Sichuan and Hong Kong have a low frequency， each respectively taking account of 1.1% and 24%. And the later has a relatively higher percentage than the former.

4. Conclusion

This paper investigates the generic structure of acknowledgements of nine English master theses written by postgraduates who major in English Language and Literature in universities in Sichuan and compares the result with that of Hylands research. It is found that the acknowledgements structure of universities in Sichuan is generally consistent with that in Hyalnds research， but the frequency of each move and step is distinct. For instance， both reflecting move and announcing move have a lower frequency in universities in Sichuan than that in Hong Kong. Though there is no universal consensus on the specific structure of acknowledgements， the shortage of reflecting and announcing moves will reduce the quality of a thesis. To improve their theses， students should also pay more attention to genres except for the accuracy of language use.

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