The purpose of this study is to investigate the generic structure and lexico-grammatical features of the Discussion section of research articles (RAs). The corpus of the study consisted of 25 Discussion sections of RAs from the field of Applied Linguistics. The sample texts were chosen from quantitative research papers with distinct Discussion sections. The generic structure of the section was analyzed drawing primarily on Yang and Allison’s (2003) framework and dominant lexico-grammatical features embedded in each move of the section were identified. The analysis of the generic structure revealed that there were seven rhetorical moves and that several moves identified in the study involved a set of steps, which in various combinations often formed move/step cycles and sequences. The analysis of prominent lexico-grammatical features indicated that the linguistic features embedded in the moves and steps reflected the communicative purposes of each move and step. Based on the results of the study, pedagogical implications for English for Academic Purposes (EAP) instructors are presented.