{"id":1016,"date":"2025-06-12T15:50:18","date_gmt":"2025-06-12T19:50:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/writing.rochester.edu\/faculty\/wsap\/resources\/?p=1016"},"modified":"2025-10-08T13:59:48","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T17:59:48","slug":"the-move-step-framework","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writing.rochester.edu\/faculty\/wsap\/resources\/the-move-step-framework\/","title":{"rendered":"The Move-Step Framework"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Handout. Katherine Schaefer. Adapted from work by John Swales.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Overview: <\/strong>This handout describes a framework for analyzing empirical research papers in terms of &#8220;rhetorical moves&#8221;: essential functions that need to be executed for the paper to convey the results of empirical research.\u00a0 It is most applicable to Intro-Methods-Results-Discussion papers (IMRD) and its variants like IRDM.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Uses: <\/strong><span style=\"font-size: 1.25rem;\">This handout works well to help students read and write empirical papers in the natural sciences, some social sciences, and engineering.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 1.25rem;\">I have successfully used it in WRT105 and in upper-level writing courses in the natural and social sciences.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>How do I use it in class? <\/strong>I introduce students to the handout and then ask students to use the framework to analyze a sample paper by highlighting instances of the moves and classifying the steps within the moves.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Note: <\/strong>The CARS handout is a subset of this framework, limited to introductions.<\/p>\n<p>You can find the handout <a href=\"https:\/\/rochester.box.com\/shared\/static\/iysr4h6gzdreconoqxx0jc68j5jrni14.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">at this link<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Citations:<\/p>\n<p>John Swales (1990). <em>Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings.\u00a0<\/em>Cambridge University Press.<\/p>\n<p>John Swales (2004).\u00a0<em>Research genres: Explorations and applications. <\/em> Cambridge University Press.<\/p>\n<div class=\"category-nav\"><a class=\"cat-link\" href=\"https:\/\/writing.rochester.edu\/faculty\/wsap\/resources\/tag\/source-use\/\"> Browse more in Source Use<\/a><br \/>\n<a class=\"all-link\" href=\"https:\/\/writing.rochester.edu\/faculty\/wsap\/resources\/\">Back to All Materials<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Handout. Katherine Schaefer. Adapted from work by John Swales. Overview: This handout describes a framework for analyzing empirical research papers in terms of &#8220;rhetorical moves&#8221;: essential functions that need to&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[376],"class_list":["post-1016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reading-sources-effectively","tag-source-use"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Move-Step Framework - Writing, Speaking, and Argument Program<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/writing.rochester.edu\/faculty\/wsap\/resources\/the-move-step-framework\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Move-Step Framework - Writing, Speaking, and Argument Program\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Handout. Katherine Schaefer. Adapted from work by John Swales. 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