editing effects on generic moves and thematic progression patterns in research article

Conscious teaching of generic conventions has long been emphasized in the teaching of scientific writing in esp classes both in theory and practice; however, despite all the significance attached to theme in theory, there does not seem to be a corresponding emphasis, in practice, on theme or the notion of thematic progression (tp) as an important element affecting cohesion and coherence of monologic texts. moreover, most works done in the field of esp have tended to focus on native-speaker (ns) productions, with scant attention given to non-native speaker (nns) manuscripts, and the editing process that such manuscripts usually require. this is what we tried to do in the present work. we chose the introduction sections of 20 research articles (ras) written by nns academicians, and contrasted their edited vs. unedited versions in terms of the changes in the rhetorical move structure and tp patterns that the articles are assumed to have undergone in the editing process. it was found that the rhetorical move structure posited by swales (2004) for article introductions was seldom affected in the editing process while tp patterns were often found to be quite susceptible to different types of editing, with the structural manipulation or corrections having the most effect on the patterns’ continuity, often linking back up a sequence of t-units disrupted by inappropriate lexico-grammatical choices in the original drafts. in view of the findings of the present research, it is suggested that consciousness raising on thematization strategies be a necessary supplement to overt teaching of rhetorical moves.