representations of phrasal structures in the introduction section of medical sciences researcharticles developed by english and persian authors: a corpus-driven approach

The perennial use of nominal groups is a discriminating feature in academic writing. for composing well-thought-out academic writing, it is incumbent upon native and non-native writers to acquire knowledge of these features. with a specific concentration on biber, gray, and poonpon’s (2011) hypothesized developmental stages in writing development through the expanded use of complex phrasal structures, the current study honing in on the phrasal modification features attempted to compare the introduction sections of research articles written by expert native english writers and expert l1-persian writers in the field of medical sciences. the corpus of this study consisted of 40 articles, with 20 research papers randomly selected from the persian and english authors of medical sciences, respectively. using wordsmith concordancing software, the results revealed that the most frequent patterns of noun modifiers employed in the introduction section of medical sciences research articles were attributive adjectives, prepositions other than those with the abstract and concrete meaning, and relative clauses. moreover, using a chi-square test, a significant difference was found between the english and persian writers in the use of attributive adjectives, prepositions other than noun post-modifiers in a concrete meaning, and attributive adjectives and nouns as pre-modifiers. the more accomplished writers tended to avail themselves of more prepositional phrases as postmodifiers and nouns and adjectives as phrasal pre-modifiers in their writings. the findings of the present study are of great assistance to eap and esp learners to gain a thorough understanding of the ways the phrasal structures are used by more deft writers.

Representations of Phrasal Structures in the Introduction Section of Medical Sciences ResearchArticles Developed by English and Persian Authors: A Corpus-Driven Approach

The perennial use of nominal groups is a discriminating feature in academic writing. For composing well-thought-out academic writing, it is incumbent upon native and non-native writers to acquire knowledge of these features. With a specific concentration on Biber, Gray, and Poonpon’s (2011) hypothesized developmental stages in writing development through the expanded use of complex phrasal structures, the current study honing in on the phrasal modification features attempted to compare the introduction sections of research articles written by expert native English writers and expert L1-Persian writers in the field of Medical Sciences. The corpus of this study consisted of 40 articles, with 20 research papers randomly selected from the Persian and English authors of Medical Sciences, respectively. Using wordsmith concordancing software, the results revealed that the most frequent patterns of noun modifiers employed in the introduction section of Medical Sciences research articles were attributive adjectives, prepositions other than those with the abstract and concrete meaning, and relative clauses. Moreover, using a chi-square test, a significant difference was found between the English and Persian writers in the use of attributive adjectives, prepositions other than noun post-modifiers in a concrete meaning, and attributive adjectives and nouns as pre-modifiers. The more accomplished writers tended to avail themselves of more prepositional phrases as postmodifiers and nouns and adjectives as phrasal pre-modifiers in their writings. The findings of the present study are of great assistance to EAP and ESP learners to gain a thorough understanding of the ways the phrasal structures are used by more deft writers.