Research articles in applied linguistics: moving from results to conclusions

Our paper examines how selected research articles (RAs) reporting empirical investigations in applied linguistics proceed from first presenting results to eventually offering final conclusions or some other form of closure. After reviewing the literature on relevant aspects of RA structure and its functions, we report the findings of a genre analysis of 20 RAs in applied linguistics concerning rhetorical choices among possible Results, Results and Discussion, Discussion, Conclusion, and Pedagogic Implications sections, and identify specific organizational choices within each section. We propose a two-level account (Moves and Steps) of the separate Discussion sections in our corpus, and argue that this is able to capture general trends and specific rhetorical realizations in an insightful way.