Writer Interaction With the Reader via Move Recycling in the Introductory Sections of Social Science Research Articles

The current exploratory study sought to determine move recycling (MR) or move repetitions and the plausible rationales behind this phenomenon within the Introductory segments of scholarly research articles (RAIs). To embark on this endeavor, a dataset comprising 400 RAIs from social science disciplines (i.e., Psychology, Applied Linguistics, Economics, and Sociology) was assembled. These articles span the years 2006 to 2018. Afterward, the frequency of recycling of the five key moves within RAIs was identified. The findings revealed that the recycled moves, arranged by descending order of frequency, encompass M1 (Establishing a Setting), M2 (Reviewing Literature), M3 (Indicating the Gap), M5 (Stating the Value), and M4 (Stating the Purpose of the Study). It was assumed that within RAIs, MR serves as a means of interacting with readers through various rhetorical functions such as justifying the study and persuading skeptical readers. These findings could have far-reaching consequences for a wide range of audiences. EAP and ESP instructors can guide novice researchers away from viewing RAIs solely as linguistic documents. Instead, they can encourage these less experienced researchers to prioritize writer-reader interaction and emphasize the deliberate use of MR within RAIs as a potent tool for persuasion and engaging the reader's attention.