Organizational Patterns and Common Mistakes in English Research Abstracts

Abstract

      This research aimed to investigate the organization patterns and common mistakes in English abstracts written by master degree students at Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai Campus. Five abstracts were randomly selected from each faculty resulting in the total of 45 non-English major abstracts. All were analyzed and calculated for frequencies of occurrence in two aspects: the organization patterns of abstracts, and common mistakes in grammar use at two levels: sentential level and word level. The results showed that 22 abstracts were written with the four organizational patterns, 18 abstracts with three and five abstracts with two. In terms of grammar use, there were more errors at word level (816 errors) than at sentential level (264 errors). The result suggested that knowledge in the organizational patterns of abstracts and specific grammar use were needed to make their abstracts more accurate.