Genre analysis of English medical papers: a corpus-based study / 中华医学教育探索杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To get to know the genre structure of clinical medical papers in English and to improve the reading and writing abilities of medical workers.Methods Fifteen clinical medical papers from New England Journal of Medicine,The Lancet,Journal of the American Medical Association and British Medical Journal were randomly selected and analyzed based on Swale's CARS model;with reference to the language clues,their moves and steps,as well as their language features,were recorded.Results There were 10 common moves-presenting background information,reviewing related research,announcing present research,clarifying study design,performing data analysis,reporting objective result,highlighting overall outcome,explaining main findings,indicating limitations,stating conclusions-in English clinical medical papers,and each move had its own steps and language features.Conclusion The English clinical medical paper has its common genre structures,and understanding their language features will help Chinese medical workers develop high-quality international academic exchanges.