A GENRE ANALYSIS OF LIMITATIONS SECTIONS IN MPHIL THESES AT GOVERNMENT COLLEGE UNIVERSITY FAISALABAD: A SWALES’ MOVE-BASED STUDY

Abstract

The genre component that is widely recognized as more of a high-stakes element in academic theses, but has been neglected in genre analysis scholarship is the Limitations section. Although the CARS model in introductions, discussion sections and conclusions has attracted a lot of research, the Limitations section as a separate genre has not received sufficient attention and to date, relatively few studies have focused on the limitations section as a separate genre, and none, to the researchers’ knowledge, have done so in the context of Pakistani MPhil theses. This gap is significant given the growing number of graduate researchers. The present study offers what appears to be among the earliest genre analyses of the limitations section taken from 42 MPhil theses from Government College University Faisalabad, 2025, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Based on an analogical extension of the CARS model, three corresponding moves were suggested: Move A, Contextualizing the Research Boundary; Move B, Acknowledging the Limitation; and Move C, Responding to the Limitation. The design was a mixed method involving both qualitative move analysis and quantitative frequency calculations, and was aimed at obtaining a range of disciplines, using purposive sampling to achieve a spread of fourteen departments. It was found that there was significant variation in the distribution of moves. Move B was obligatory 90.5%, Move C common 64.3%, and Move A optional 45.2%. Only 33.3% of them had a structurally complete A–B–C configuration, whereas B–C 31.0% and B only 26.2% were the most common patterns. In theory, the study is a confirmation of the analogical extension of the CARS model to this genre. From the pedagogical perspective, the findings suggest limited genre awareness among the GCUF MPhil students sampled, which may point to gaps in explicit genre instruction at this institutional level, which can be used to make recommendations for courses in thesis writing, in supervision practices, and as guidelines for the HEC curriculum.