Generic Structure Potential in electric engineering dissertations: Contrasts between languages and educational stages

Abstract

This article describes electric engineering dissertations contrasting languages and educational stages in two metropolitan, traditional and highly selective state universities in Chile and Brazil. Drawing from Systemic-Functional Linguistics, the Contextual Configuration, extension, Generic Structure Potential of initial elements and of semantic elements and impersonalization options in introductions and conclusions of 20 recent dissertations were analyzed. Results show that dissertations take place in a knowledge and expertise asymmetrical relationship between mostly male writers and supervisors, and they vary in complexity and contribution due to educational stages. It consists of an individual systematic research on a specialized topic within a formal higher education setting and produces a multimodal written text. It is around 95-page long at the undergraduate level, but it doubles its length at the postgraduate level. It includes cover, dedication, acknowledgments and abstract in the local language as initial elements. Dissertations in Portuguese exhibit more compulsory elements related to protocolization and internationalization of multimodal texts than in dissertations in Spanish. Introductions must include motivation, goals and textual organization, whereas conclusions show compulsory final considerations and future studies, together with optional main findings; both sections are more complex in the postgraduate level. The author is impersonalized almost completely by means of strategies such as metonymy. This research helps understand the genre and provides insights to enhance literacy teaching in engineering within undergraduate and postgraduate programs in Chile and Brazil.