Genre Analysis of Research Articles in Applied Linguistics and ESP

Communicative moves and generic structuring patterns as mounting evidence shows are two important indicators in writing and publishing the RAs. According to Swales (1990) the main purpose of genre studies is to raise awareness about the prototypical structure of academic texts. After the introduction of genre analysis it was supposed that some changes might happen in the academic writing. This genre impact/awareness was examined in different studies. Along with the studies done this study tended to examine the sectioning patterns and move analysis of the Applied Linguistics and ESP research articles (RAs) over the past years of publication to evidence the possible changes and differences among Iranian and international journals. Analysis of the sectioning patterns of the RAs in different journals of Applied Linguistics and ESP is in fact an attempt to reflect the genre effects on the academic writing.