Genre analysis of literature research article abstracts: A cross-linguistic, cross-cultural study

Following Swales’s (1981) works on genre analysis, studies on different sections of Research Articles (RAs) in various languages and fields abound; however, only scant attention has been directed toward abstracts written in Persian, and in the field of literature. Moreover, claims made by Lores (2004) regarding the correspondence of two types of abstracts with different models, and by Martin (2004) concerning the influence of sociocultural factors on the way writers write needed evaluation. To fill this gap, 90 English and Persian abstracts written in the field of literature, by English and Persian native speakers, were analyzed based on the IMRD (Introduction, Method, Results, and Discussion) and CARS (Create A Research Space) models. The results demonstrated that literature RA writers generally focus on Introduction and Results, neglect Method and Discussion, and do not mention the niche in previous related work; secondly, although none of the models were efficient, literature abstracts generally matched CARS more than IMRD; and thirdly, abstracts written by Persian native speakers had minor deviations from both the Persian and the international norms, and exhibited a standard of their own. The present study also discusses steps which the models fail to predict. In addition, it offers a number of pedagogical implications for TEFL, especially for the writing skill.