Writing Theory - CARS model

Writing has its secrets. The discoveries for a foreign student in an introductory course of writing techniques in English go far beyond the increasing appropriation of a larger repertoire of new words and idiomatic expressions. Actually, the systematic analyses of writing pieces reveals patterns, or, as described by the experts in field, moves and steps that represent authors’ reasoning process to convey the messages of the text.

To what extent good writers are familiar with techniques that help them construct blocks of clear written texts or if they simply intuitively develop this ability, still intrigues me. Nevertheless, the writing strategy I am about to describe is a potent tool to organize research article introductions. The Create a Research Space – CARS model developed by Swales in 1990 organizes three moves in academic writing to introduce a general issue and then, after claiming an original approach, focus on a particular subject. Specifically, CARS move 1 consists of “establishing a territory”, move 2 “establishing a niche” and move 3, “addressing that niche”. The basic idea underlying this model is that academic writers should first introduce their topic (move 1), then narrow the subject usually presenting a knowledge gap within that particular literature field, i.e., the niche (move 2) and lastly, state how that piece of work will allegedly occupy the gap.

It is interesting, though, that not every language systematically benefits from this basic structure to introduce their academic papers. In Brazilian Portuguese papers, for example, academic writers seem to be uncomfortable with CARS model move 2 (Hirano, 2009). But while avoiding move 2, Brazilian writers give up from benefiting of its power and the role move 2 plays raising the importance of the text in a given context.

Brazilian researchers that want to use English, the current academic lingua franca, as their medium to publish their papers must become familiar with techniques like CARS model, which will help them make conscious choices while writing their articles and increase their chances as researchers to be successful in an international environment