Change and stability in abstracts of an education research journal from Venezuela (1997-2016)

Abstract

Analysis of discourse structures and functions can reveal phenomena that may help understand and take action on various domains of activity. On the basis that research abstracts are genres that tend to represent published articles, that education texts are epistemologically relevant, presentation of results is considered the main indicator of the scientific value of texts and also that language structures can change with time, frequently as a result of social pressures, this empirical study using academic texts analyzed diachronically the structure of 254 research article abstracts from an important education journal from Venezuela in the period between 1997 and 2016. The presentation of results in these texts and their relationships with articles published were also analyzed. The unit of analysis were the abstracts and the categories of the rhetorical moves evidenced in these texts. Results show considerable variation in abstract structure, with change along the time span and then stability, moving from quite unstructured abstracts to more complete ones, closer to scientific prose. Such results can be attributable to the discipline of education but also to institutional pressures, to Editorial Committees and academic power in universities.

Keywords: journal abstracts, higher education, academic discourse.