RHETORICAL STRUCTURE VARIATIONS IN THE DISSERTATIONS BY PAKISTANI AND INTERNATIONAL PHD ENGLISH LINGUISTICS SCHOLARS PUBLISHED IN THE LAST DECADE

Abstract

This study investigates the rhetorical structure variations found in the PhD dissertations written by Pakistani and international scholars in the field of English linguistics during the last decade (2015–2025). Drawing upon genre analysis and Swales' (1990, 2004) CARS model, this qualitative study explores how rhetorical moves and steps are differently realized across cultural and institutional contexts. A corpus of 6 dissertations among them, 3 dissertations taken from Pakistani universities and 3 dissertations taken from international universities are analyzed, by focusing particularly on the Introduction, Literature Review, Methodology, and Conclusion chapters. These chapters are carefully and assiduously analyzed in order to elucidate repetitive and common themes in both international and Pakistani dissertations. Correspondingly, a desk research approach has been followed in this study by focusing on the published dissertations in various search engines, viz. Google Scholar, Research Gate, Scopus, Web of Science and Sci-Hub among others. Data taken through desk research approach is further analyzed while adopting thematic analysis technique, which consists of six major steps such as familiarizing with the data, generating initial codes, searching for themes, reviewing themes, defining themes and write-up. The findings reveal that international dissertations are generally conform and taking into considerations globally accepted-rhetorical conventions, on the other hand Pakistani dissertations exhibit structural deviations in terms of move realization, meta discourse use, and citation patterns. Likewise, in terms of sentence structures, through thorough introspection, in Pakistani dissertations, complex and compound sentences are used by the scholars, in sharp contrast in international dissertations simple and short sentences are used by the scholars. The study contributes to academic writing pedagogy and offers implications for improving doctoral writing practices in non-native English contexts. Finally, upon the major findings of the study, it is recommended for research scholars to conduct studies on research paradigms variations in Pakistani and international dissertations