Selling Their Research: The Linguistic Realization of Rhetoric Moves in English Thesis Abstracts Written by Hungarian Undergraduates

Abstracts are short and dense summaries of the main aspects of academic work. Major rhetoric moves, such as the aim the research, description of the methodology, the summary of the results, are identified in 52 undergraduate theses written by Hungarian students of English. Emphasis is given to the academic lexical bundles, the use of tenses and aspects, personal pronouns, modal auxiliaries, hedging in the realization of these moves. Comparison is made between novice and experienced writers. The pedagogical implications of the findings are also discussed.