Examining Cohesion in Academic Writing: A Comparative Study of Organizational Skills in Pakistani and International Research Abstracts

Authors

  • Syeda Smeet Akif Department of English, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan.
  • Dr. Ayesha Asghar Gill Assistant Professor, Department of English, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan.
  • Prof. Dr. Muhmmad Asim Mahmood Professor, Department of Applied Linguistics, Government College University, Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan.
  • Prof. Dr. Muhammad Rashid Mahmood Professor, Department of Applied Linguistics, Government College University, Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.53057/linfo/2024.6.1.3

Keywords:

cohesive devices, coherence, grammatical cohesion, lexical cohesion, pragmatic competence

Abstract

Effective writing demands strategic language use for both communicative impact and structural accuracy. Cohesion is one of the keys to achieving these goals (Sutherland, 2015). This study investigates the use of cohesive devices in Pakistani and Native writers’ research article abstracts, identifying the different used types and their functions, using the framework of Halliday and Hassan (1976). To achieve this, 50 abstracts were collected from two prominent international research journals (25 from each) of ‘W’ categories, compiled into a corpus, and analyzed manually. The findings revealed differences in grammatical and lexical cohesive device usage between the two groups. Native writers frequently used reference, clausal ellipsis, reiteration, and collocation, while Pakistani writers' abstracts showed a higher frequency of conjunctions, nominal ellipsis, and verbal ellipsis. Consequently, the abstracts by Native writers exhibited greater interconnectedness and flow of ideas. The results indicated that Pakistani writers primarily organized their texts at a syntactic level, suggesting the need for organizing texts at a semantic level.

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Author Biographies

Syeda Smeet Akif, Department of English, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan.

Syeda Smeet Akif is affiliated with the Department of English at the University of Agriculture in Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan.

Dr. Ayesha Asghar Gill, Assistant Professor, Department of English, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan.

Dr. Ayesha Asghar Gill is an Assistant Professor in the same department at the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad.

Prof. Dr. Muhmmad Asim Mahmood, Professor, Department of Applied Linguistics, Government College University, Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan.

Prof. Dr. Muhammad Asim Mahmood is a Professor in the Department of Applied Linguistics at Government College University, Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan.

Prof. Dr. Muhammad Rashid Mahmood, Professor, Department of Applied Linguistics, Government College University, Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan.

Prof. Dr. Muhammad Rashid Mahmood also serves as a Professor in the Department of Applied Linguistics at Government College University, Faisalabad.

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Published

2024-03-30

How to Cite

Akif, S. S., Gill, D. A. A., Mahmood, P. D. M. A., & Mahmood, P. D. M. R. (2024). Examining Cohesion in Academic Writing: A Comparative Study of Organizational Skills in Pakistani and International Research Abstracts. Linguistic Forum - A Journal of Linguistics, 6(1), 38–47. https://doi.org/10.53057/linfo/2024.6.1.3