This qualitative-move analysis study determined the moves present in the argumentative essays written by the undergraduate students at one of the private schools in Kapalong, Davao del Norte. The purpose of this study was to analyze the moves present in the argumentative essays and to identify what was its over-all organization as compared through the framework of Hyland. Further, this study was gleaned through the theory of Hyland (2004) of which he stated that in writing effective argumentative essay, it must consist of an introduction that consists of hook, generalization and thesis statement; body that consists of topic sentence, support and concluding sentence; and lastly, conclusion that consists of restatement of proposition, clincher and final closing. There were twenty (20) corpora of the study which were the argumentative essays written by the undergraduate students. Results showed major changes in the over-all organization of the argumentative essays of the undergraduate students when compared to the adopted framework. From the introduction, the moves present were topic sentence, hook and thesis statement with the absence of generalization of which from the framework, topic sentence was in the body of the essay. While in the body, there was an occurrence of the move generalization of which in the framework, it was the move 2 in the introduction part. Also, in the conclusion of the argumentative essays, there was an existence of the move support of which, from the adapted framework, it was the move 2 in the body of the essay. Thus, results implied that the writing styles of each writer varies according to context and geographical location. Lastly, results of the study were deemed substantial to teachers and administrators and other stakeholders to create program and activities that will hasten and develop the writing skills of the students.

Keywords : Education, Move Analysis, Argumentative Essays, Qualitative Study, Genre-Based Approach, Kapalong, Philippines