Publication Date:
2012
abstract:
Posters presented at medical congresses have encountered the favour of the
medical community because their abstracts can be published in prestigious medical journals –
which makes them a convenient means for furthering medical careers.
From a linguistic perspective, medical abstracts have been investigated both as a genre and
from a cross-cultural perspective. Yet, to the best of my knowledge, there seems to be no
investigation regarding the genre of medical poster abstracts from a diachronic perspective.
It is therefore the aim of this paper to examine the diachronic evolution of the abstracts of
posters presented at medical conferences.
My investigation, which adopts both descriptive and inferential statistical approaches, seems
to reveal that poster abstracts have changed from narrative to non-narrative style (henceforth
NS and NNS, respectively), a trend which apparently goes hand in hand with the introduction
of a highly codified structure within medical discourse that transcends national cultures.
Such a codified structure, known as Vancouver Style and introduced in 1991 , is expressed,
either implicitly or explicitly, according to the Introduction - Methods - Results - Discussion
sections (henceforth IMRD), characterizing all medical abstracts.
The descriptive statistical analysis of my corpus has pointed to a possible association between
the NS/NNS and IMRD variables. The inferential statistical analysis of the 2x2 contingency table relating to the association between the NS/NNS variables against the dependent variable IMRD has revealed that the NNS variable has the greatest effect size on the overall effect, as indicated by the Pearson Chi-square test. In other words, the statistical analysis I carried out indicates that NNS seems to occur mostly when IMRD is present. Such a probability is not the result of pure chance, as it may be confirmed with a certain confidence by the Chi-square test.
medical community because their abstracts can be published in prestigious medical journals –
which makes them a convenient means for furthering medical careers.
From a linguistic perspective, medical abstracts have been investigated both as a genre and
from a cross-cultural perspective. Yet, to the best of my knowledge, there seems to be no
investigation regarding the genre of medical poster abstracts from a diachronic perspective.
It is therefore the aim of this paper to examine the diachronic evolution of the abstracts of
posters presented at medical conferences.
My investigation, which adopts both descriptive and inferential statistical approaches, seems
to reveal that poster abstracts have changed from narrative to non-narrative style (henceforth
NS and NNS, respectively), a trend which apparently goes hand in hand with the introduction
of a highly codified structure within medical discourse that transcends national cultures.
Such a codified structure, known as Vancouver Style and introduced in 1991 , is expressed,
either implicitly or explicitly, according to the Introduction - Methods - Results - Discussion
sections (henceforth IMRD), characterizing all medical abstracts.
The descriptive statistical analysis of my corpus has pointed to a possible association between
the NS/NNS and IMRD variables. The inferential statistical analysis of the 2x2 contingency table relating to the association between the NS/NNS variables against the dependent variable IMRD has revealed that the NNS variable has the greatest effect size on the overall effect, as indicated by the Pearson Chi-square test. In other words, the statistical analysis I carried out indicates that NNS seems to occur mostly when IMRD is present. Such a probability is not the result of pure chance, as it may be confirmed with a certain confidence by the Chi-square test.
Iris type:
1.2.01 Contributi in volume (Capitoli o Saggi) - Book Chapters/Essays
List of contributors:
Maci, Stefania Maria
Book title:
A lifetime of English studies. Essays in honour of Carol Taylor Torsello