Are We Doing It Right? Delving into the Structure of Published English Article Abstracts in Allameh Tabataba’i University Journals in the Fields of Counseling, Industry, linguistics, and Management

Ostad, Omid

doi:10.22034/jespp.2025.530608.1011

Are We Doing It Right? Delving into the Structure of Published English Article Abstracts in Allameh Tabataba’i University Journals in the Fields of Counseling, Industry, linguistics, and Management

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Omid Ostad

Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran

10.22034/jespp.2025.530608.1011

Abstract

Abstracts are the first reading contact of scientific reports providing the reader with the decision to either continue reading the full text or not, hence requiring great care when it comes to writing an effective abstract. The present study investigates the structures of abstracts of research articles written in Persian using the IMRD model. In doing so, 80 article abstracts from eight journals in different disciplines of humanities (all belonging to Allameh Tabataba’i University) published between 2015 and 2017 were selected. A content analysis of the rhetorical structural conventions of research article abstracts written in Persian-language journals was carried out. The results showed that only 16.25% of the abstracts used the IMRD model (the most prevalent structure being IMR with 50% of presence). Wide variations were observed in the moves of the abstracts across and within the journal articles. The implications are more tangible for researchers of each discipline and their expectations towards abstract writing as it will allow the educators more freedom when dealing with identifying anomalies and assisting MA and PhD holders in internalizing the appropriate conventions in academic discourse. The findings are beneficial for the researchers in the fields of counseling, industry, linguistics, and management.

Keywords

Abstract

IMRD model

rhetorical structure

academic discourse