THE FRAMEWORK OF ACADEMIC ESSAYS SEEN THROUGH A SWALESIAN ‘CARS’ LENS
THE FRAMEWORK OF ACADEMIC ESSAYS SEEN THROUGH A SWALESIAN ‘CARS’ LENS

Summary/Abstract: This paper reflects my endeavor of applying the insights derived from literature review to the analysis of academic essays produced in the IELTS (International English Language Testing System) context. As a subgenre of academic writing, to my knowledge, at least, they seem to be less researched from a genre perspective, as compared to other EAP genres. This study is based on Swales’ (1990) ‘CaRS’ (“Creating a Research Space”) model of analysis, with the main focus on identifying genre characteristics at macro-level in argumentative essays. The centrepiece of this research is, thus, the macro-level analysis of a corpus of IELTS essays, selected from various sources, designed to provide models for students who want to achieve a Band 7 (or above) score. Thus, I have based my analysis on the organizational structure of 109 IELTS Writing Task 2 essays, which were divided into five categories: Opinion essays, Discussion essays, Problem and Solution essays, Advantages and Disadvantages essays and Opinion and-Problems and Solution essays. These essays were analysed in terms of their structure indicating the ‘moves’ and ‘steps’ displayed by each of them. The resulting macro-level structures were then compared, in order to identify similarities and differences. Building on Swales’ (1990) CaRS model of analysis and having the main focus on identifying the genre characteristics at macro-level in argumentative essays, the findings of this paper may provide relevant insights both for EAP teachers and for students aiming to improve their academic writing competences.

• Details
• Contents