AbstractsLanguage, Literature & Linguistics

The IMRD structure with its constituents Introduction, Method, Results and Discussion is acknowledged as the norm for writing abstracts by most. Researchers need to adhere to the norm in order for their abstracts to function as effective advertisements for their research articles, and students need to comply with the norm should they want their abstracts to serve as connectors to the academic world. The aim of this thesis is to examine to what extent abstracts written in English by Swedish students adhere to the IMRD norm. A total of 40 bachelor’s thesis abstracts in English linguistics and physics were analyzed in terms of macro structure, the inclusion, exclusion and order of the constituent parts, and micro structure, the linguistic realization of the constituents. The results show that the English linguistics and physics abstracts fail to meet the requirements of the IMRD norm on several points. This suggests that the students are either unaware of the important function fulfilled by abstracts or need more guidance and practice. The conclusions are necessarily tentative since further research is required to provide a comprehensive picture, but still, the results suggest that Swedish students’ abstract writing needs to be given higher priority.