Succinct summaries of research methods

In research writing, one of the challenging questions is about extent to which methods need be succinctly summarised in introductory sections. To answer this intriguing question, Swales’ (2004) genre-based analytical framework was used examine frequencies method summaries (MSs) article introductions (RAIs) two major social science disciplines, namely Ethnic Studies (ES) and Industrial Relations (IR), have been overlooked previous studies. Apart from examining expert writers’ recurrent lexico-grammatical resources, semi-structured interviews were conducted with six specialist informants both disciplines. We found that MSs are characterised by use prepositional phrases expressing data sources, cardinal numerals accentuating subjects’ involvement, post-modifying structures describing samples, verb-infinitive/preposition signalling facilitation. IR researchers exhibit a greater propensity foreground than ES researchers, difference ascribable underlying philosophical assumptions behind adoption methodological approaches. our concluding remarks, we (i) demonstrate how findings based on an analysis salient language resources can help instructors make informed decisions while guiding learners craft cogent summary, (ii) argue information derived textual informants’ inputs further contribute understanding rhetorical practices across different