Summary of the article

Kanoksilpatham Budsaba’s “Rhetorical Structure of Biochemistry Research Articles” was

published in 2004 by Elsevier Ltd. The main purpose is to identify the rhetorical moves

employed in biochemistry related research articles so as to compare and contrast between the

similarities and differences of such moves and their sub-moves. The data were analyzed by three

main stages: compilation of the corpus, Swales’ framework and the analysis of the corpus, and

reliability of move identification. The author selected the top five journals in biochemistry

reported in Journal Citation Reports (1999, cited in Kanoksilpatham, 2005). Swales’ framework

and the justification on the reliability of move identification were explained. Crook’s and

Cohen’s data analysis were used. The results showed there were 15 moves in total aligned with

sub-moves, suggesting that the authors of the biochemistry research articles employed Swales’

rhetorical moves to a great extent. Furthermore, it was found that certain moves were

conventionally and optionally applied. The significance of Swales’ rhetorical moves was

critically discussed, as well as the distinctions between biochemistry and other research articles

in related fields were justified.

Evaluation

The author conducts a very well-established research study. Her methodology is carefully

crafted while Swales’ framework of the three rhetorical moves is clearly explained. The use of

data analysis is systematic, reliable, and comprehensible. The justification of her research

reliability is convincing while a huge compilation of her corpus is striking. By discussing and
commenting on the data findings, the author does really help the reader to contextualize such

complexities.

Her results and discussion are my most favorite parts. The author addresses the generalization

and dissimilarities between biochemistry and other science-related corpus, as well as other APA-

based research articles. Honestly, I have just learnt that there are sharp distinctions among them.

This makes me realize how elaborate the research should be and how significant each and every

step for conducting research is. Therefore, it would be regrettable if I had not studied this

research article.