The discourse structure of literature review paragraphs: a multilingual study

This paper examines literature reviews in 12 master’s dissertations written in German, English and French. Specifically, we analysed the discourse structure of 155 paragraphs to assess the extent to which students manage to write a coherent review combining literature reports with their own ‘voice’. The study was motivated by the design of a multilingual academic writing course at the University of Luxembourg Language Centre. The analysis distinguished three main discourse elements, nl. report, discussion and text orientation. The data reveal considerable variation in the frequency with which these combine to form different paragraph types. However, in all three languages, report discourse uses the same quotation and reformulation strategies and tends to employ ‘list’ structures with few cohesive links. Discussion elements are generally not elaborated and the writer’s voice is weak. Text organization uses the same linguistic strategies and is mainly used to orientate readers rather than to summarize or signal transitions. Pedagogical implications for multilingual academic writing courses are discussed.