CARS model in analyzing the introduction of research articles: An example from the field of sports science and medicine

As a critical component of a research article that ultimately seeks publication in the highly competitive academic settings, the introduction has drawn particular attention from the academic community and has become a heavily researched area in its own right. To capture the main rhetorical patterns of effectively organized introductions to give writers valuable insights in writing research articles, a lot of corpus-based research concerning various academic disciplines have been carried out with different models proposed. For example, Zappen proposed a problem-solution model with four moves: goal, current capacity, problem and criteria of evaluation. However, the best known and most comprehensive work on RA introductions has probably been conducted by Swales, who presents a groundbreaking model for investigating their rhetorical structure and the underlying motives of writers' rhetorical choices. This article attempts to apply Swales' revised CARS model to account for the effectiveness of the introduction from a research article in the field of sports science and medicine. The move-step analysis shows that the introduction being examined progresses effectively in a clear 3-move rhetorical pattern in light of Swale's revised CARS model. Adapted from the source document