A corpus-based writing aid for Spanish language authors: the scientific abstract generator prototype

Abstract

Abstracts are a secondary genre based on the Research Paper (RP) that have often been analyzed in English for insights into rhetorical structure and information distribution. However, this wealth of descriptive research has not produced particularly useful results for scientists who are not native speakers of English nor has it been “directly amenable to applied endeavours”. The aim of this paper is to describe the methodology and the tools devised by the ACTRES research group to bridge the transition between the descriptive and the procedural approach. The findings obtained will feed into a writing application for Spanish-speaking scientists who need to report their work in English to the global research community: it is called the Scientific_Abstract_Generator. A custom-made comparable corpus, BioABSTRACTS_C-ACTRES, has been compiled and analyzed for rhetorical and lexico-grammatical features of this genre in both English and Spanish. Then, crosslinguistic similarities and differences relevant for our intended users have been identified and will be used to build a writing prototype available as a useful and usable computer interface.