As the first step in genre analysis, Bhatia (1993) suggests that the investigation should include literature on the structural and linguistic features of the genre analyzed. In accordance with this, Section 2.5 of this paper reviews these features of the research paper. Narrowing the focus to the subgenres investigated in this study, this chapter focuses on the situational and contextual aspects of the two sets of texts analyzed in this book: RAs and MA theses. It describes the communicative purposes of the writers, the relationship between the writer and the audience, and the typical formal conventions of the two genres.