Cultural Divergence in Academic Writing: A Case Study of the Research Article Introduction in Arabic

American universities have benefited from the internet to include students from around the world. Since most participation from students comes through writing, it is vital for professors to be cognizant of the culturally-based rhetorical patterns that these students may bring with them.This paper deals exclusively with the Arabic culture, and examines 20 research article introductions written by Arab writers educated in the Arab world. It applied the CARS model proposed by Swales (1990) to investigate how Arab writers (a) deal with previous studies, (b) establish a research gap, and finally, (c) present their studies. The results show that these rhetorical components as they are realized in Arabic research introductions are qualitatively dissimilar to those that appear in American English writing as described in the CARS model. These results provide important implications for professors to facilitate ESL students learning, particularly in the global eLearning context in higher education.