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This study examines the differences and similarities in academic writing between undergraduate and graduate students by analysing lexical bundles and identifying rhetorical moves in research reports from the Michigan Corpus of Upper-Level Student Papers (MICUSP, 2009). The analysis of lexical bundles is based on Hyland's and Biber et al.’s framework (Biber, Johansson, Leech, Conrad, & Finegan, 1999; Hyland, 2008a), while the rhetorical moves analysis follows Swales' CaRS (Create a Research Space) model (Swales, 1990). The corpus comprises 169 undergraduate and 195 graduate report papers across soft and hard sciences. For the analysis of four-word lexical bundles, the whole corpus of reports (364 reports) is considered while only introduction sections of 5% of reports are considered for the rhetorical moves analysis (18 reports).

Considerable variations and similarities in the use of lexical bundles and rhetorical moves were found in the results of undergraduate and graduate student writing in terms of their structures/functions and communicative purposes, highlighting different expectations and complexities associated with various educational levels. The results align somewhat with previous studies (Cortes, 2013; Hyland, 2008a), showing that graduate students used different types of research-oriented bundles while undergraduate students employed text-oriented bundles more frequently, with lower proportions of participant-oriented bundles in both groups. Prepositional-based bundles were used frequently by both groups and various lexical bundles were identified in their rhetorical moves.

This research aims to shed light on academic writing practices across different educational stages, and the findings provide valuable insights into how rhetorical strategies and lexical choices evolve as students’ progress through their academic careers.