Metadiscourse and Rhetorical Moves in English Thesis Abstract

Abstract

An abstract is a brief summary of the main components of a research project. It functions to save time in reading and gives salient information about the article enabling the readers to decide whether they would want to further pursue a full reading. The topic is very significant because it functions on two levels: informational and indicative. The informational function is designed to encapsulate the paper, so it can and should briefly state the problem, the method used to study the problem, and the principal data and conclusions. The indicative function is designed to illustrate the content of a paper, essentially serving as a table of contents, making it easy for potential readers to decide whether or not to read the paper. This research will share about how metadiscourse and rhetorical moves were applied in abstract writing. The method used is qualitative research. The data dealing with abstract writing (i.e. thesis) is chosen from and limited to Master of English Education and Art) documents written by master's program of The State of Surabaya University. There are thirty sample theses from a total of sixty exactly, starting from 2010­2013