Discursive practices in concluding chapters of PHD theses

Abstract

The present paper aims to reflect on the role of discursive practices in the writing of concluding chapters in PhD theses written in English and in Portuguese. The research, characterized as a descriptive and comparative study, analysed ten concluding chapters covering the areas of discourse analysis and text linguistics. Two discursive practices were examined: the rhetorical structure of the chapters, according to Swales’ model (1990), and the way writers project themselves in the texts. The results revealed that there are four rhetorical moves in the writing of the chapters and that there is a considerable difference concerning the role writers choose to represent themselves in the concluding chapters in the two cultures.