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【Abstract】Acknowledgement， as a genre， is vital in academic writing for writers to express thanks to whoever have assisted them in their writing and to establish a favorable academic reputation. Based on John Swales’ genre analysis and Hyland’s study on the generic structure of dissertation acknowledgements， this paper examines the acknowledgements of nine English master theses selected from five universities in Sichuan to reveal the generic structure and distribution of moves and steps and further to find out differences and similarities between the result of the current study and that of Hyland’s research.
【Key words】acknowledgements； genre analysis； English master theses； universities in Sichuan
1. Introduction
Acknowledgement is essential in thesis writing. It offers writers a unique opportunity to convey their gratitude for any assistance they have received in their research， and to create a scholarly identity by displaying their immersion in scholarly networks and their observance of such valued academic ideas as modesty and gratitude（Hyland， 2004）.
While acknowledgement in academic thesis writing became popular from 1960s ， genre analysis of it did not really start until 2004 when Hyland published his Graduates’ Gratitude： The Generic Structure of Dissertation Acknowledgements， and nowadays is still not common in China. Based on Swales’ genre analysis and Hyland’s analysis of the generic structure of dissertation acknowledgements， this paper attempts to find out the generic structure of English master theses acknowledgements of universities in Sichuan.
2. Genre Analysis and Generic Structure of Acknowledgement
Genre analysis， a kind of discourse analysis， has concerned itself with exploring the structure of spoken or written texts. It aims to identify how texts are organized by moves and steps and to examine how communicative purposes are realized through the use of language.
Researchers have studied various discourses based on genre analysis. Swales （1990） analyzed the introductions of 48 academic articles and proposed the concept of move-step to describe how an introduction is presented. Since then various aspects of academic writing have been investigated. Adopting Swales’ move and step， Hyland in 2004 studied the generic structure of 240 dissertations acknowledgements completed by students in Hong Kong. Hyland’s model of acknowledgement consists of a main thanking move and optional reflecting and announcing moves， each of which containing some necessary and optional steps， as is shown in table 1 （Hyland， 2004）： Table 1 The Generic Structure of Dissertation Acknowledgements in Hyland’s Research
Move / Step Definition
Move 1： Reflecting Move Introspective comment on the writer’s research experience
Move 2： Thanking Move Mapping credit to individuals and institutions
Step 1：Presenting participants Introducing those to be thanked
Step 2： Thanking for academic assistant Thanks for intellectual support， ideas， analyses， feedback， etc.
Step3 Thanking for resources Thanks for data access
【Key words】acknowledgements； genre analysis； English master theses； universities in Sichuan
1. Introduction
Acknowledgement is essential in thesis writing. It offers writers a unique opportunity to convey their gratitude for any assistance they have received in their research， and to create a scholarly identity by displaying their immersion in scholarly networks and their observance of such valued academic ideas as modesty and gratitude（Hyland， 2004）.
While acknowledgement in academic thesis writing became popular from 1960s ， genre analysis of it did not really start until 2004 when Hyland published his Graduates’ Gratitude： The Generic Structure of Dissertation Acknowledgements， and nowadays is still not common in China. Based on Swales’ genre analysis and Hyland’s analysis of the generic structure of dissertation acknowledgements， this paper attempts to find out the generic structure of English master theses acknowledgements of universities in Sichuan.
2. Genre Analysis and Generic Structure of Acknowledgement
Genre analysis， a kind of discourse analysis， has concerned itself with exploring the structure of spoken or written texts. It aims to identify how texts are organized by moves and steps and to examine how communicative purposes are realized through the use of language.
Researchers have studied various discourses based on genre analysis. Swales （1990） analyzed the introductions of 48 academic articles and proposed the concept of move-step to describe how an introduction is presented. Since then various aspects of academic writing have been investigated. Adopting Swales’ move and step， Hyland in 2004 studied the generic structure of 240 dissertations acknowledgements completed by students in Hong Kong. Hyland’s model of acknowledgement consists of a main thanking move and optional reflecting and announcing moves， each of which containing some necessary and optional steps， as is shown in table 1 （Hyland， 2004）： Table 1 The Generic Structure of Dissertation Acknowledgements in Hyland’s Research
Move / Step Definition
Move 1： Reflecting Move Introspective comment on the writer’s research experience
Move 2： Thanking Move Mapping credit to individuals and institutions
Step 1：Presenting participants Introducing those to be thanked
Step 2： Thanking for academic assistant Thanks for intellectual support， ideas， analyses， feedback， etc.
Step3 Thanking for resources Thanks for data access