Genre Analysis of Review Article Abstracts in Biology Subdisciplines

This study implements a genre-based approach to analyze the rhetorical structure and move patterns of review article abstracts written by biochemistry, biophysics, and bioinformatics scholars. It aims to investigate the similarities and differences between biology subdisciplines in frequency, status, sequencing and step usage. The study examined 300 review abstracts selected from 30 esteemed journals. A modified model from Santos and Swales was employed to identify the move/step structure of all three datasets. The study’s findings revealed that M-M2 is obligatory, while M4 and M5 are optional. Moreover, it showed the dominance of M1-M2 sequences across the three subfields. The three subfields shared similarities and differences in their structural organization at the move and step levels. All three subfields shared the obligatory status of M1 and M2 and differed in M3 usage. Furthermore, the results of this study highlighted that review abstracts show distinct M1-M2 dominance, unlike research article abstracts. The findings of this study have implications for novice researchers and postgraduate students by raising awareness of the variation in generic structure across three biology subdisciplines. Furthermore, the research concludes with future research suggestions that include cross-disciplinary comparisons, longitudinal studies, and linguistic feature studies. Finally, potential limitations that arise from the study are provided.