scholarly journals HEDGING THROUGH THE USE OF MODAL AUXILIARIES IN ENGLISH ACADEMIC DISCOURSE

2016 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tofan Dwi Hardjanto
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Academic Discourse ◽  
Health Sciences ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Research Articles ◽  
Auxiliary Verbs ◽  
Corpus Linguistic ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Modal Auxiliaries ◽  
Communicative Strategy

As a communicative strategy, hedging plays a central role in academic writing. Numerous different linguistic forms can be used to express this strategy. This article attempts to investigate modal auxiliary verbs as the principal means of expressing hedging in English academic discourse. For this purpose, a corpus of 75 primary empirical research articles from economics, linguistics, medicine, natural sciences and engineering was analyzed quantitatively with the help of corpus linguistic method. The results revealed that modal auxiliaries were used most frequently in linguistics and economics and least frequently in engineering and natural sciences while their use in medicine came in between. This seems to suggest that there is noticeable disciplinary variation in the degree of hedging through the use of modal auxiliaries in English research articles. Modal auxiliaries tend to be more common in soft sciences than in hard sciences whereas their use in health sciences in comparison with soft and hard sciences does not seem to show any significant difference.

scholarly journals Stance and modals of obligation and necessity in academic writing

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean Parkinson
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Research Articles ◽  
Student Writing ◽  
Modal Auxiliaries ◽  
Objective Meaning ◽  
Published Research

Abstract Variation has been demonstrated in modal use between written and spoken registers and between disciplines. This article investigates variation within a discipline by comparing modals of obligation and necessity used in three science genres. Obligation modals project strong authoritative stance, thus contrasting with the tendency in academic writing towards tentativeness. The modal auxiliaries must and should and quasi-modals have to and need to are investigated using student writing from the BAWE (British Academic Written English) corpus and a corpus of published research articles. Findings include a dearth of obligation modals in the empirical genres (research articles and laboratory reports). Also a greater prominence was found of dynamic modal meaning (where necessity arises from circumstances) rather than deontic meaning (where the necessity arises from human authority or rules). A further finding is the prominence of objective meaning in the science register compared with the International Corpus of English (Collins 2009a).

scholarly journals Transitivity Structure of Research Articles: Variations across Sections

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 8
Author(s):  
Xindi Zheng
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Applied Linguistics ◽  
Academic Discourse ◽  
Meaning Construction ◽  
Research Articles ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
Experiential Meaning

This study investigates the transitivity structure of research articles and examines the variations of process types across sections, aiming to explore experiential meaning construction in academic discourse. The corpus for this study consists of ten applied linguistics research articles published from 2018 to 2020 in the top journals of the discipline. Features of the transitivity structure of the whole research articles are presented. The distribution of different process types is also examined in relation to the rhetorical purposes and stylistic features of the abstract, introduction, method, results and discussion, and conclusion sections. The findings reveal that transitivity structure could largely reflect the stylistic features of research articles, which are characterized as being informative and objective as well as interpersonal. Results also show that the distribution of process types may contribute to the regularity manifestation and purpose fulfillment of distinctive sections. This study has implications for both academic writers and academic writing courses.   

scholarly journals How is information content distributed in RA introductions across disciplines? An entropy-based approach

2022 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-83
Author(s):  
Wei Xiao ◽  
Jin Liu ◽  
Li Li
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Information Content ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Corpus Linguistic ◽  
Research Article ◽  
Based Instruction ◽  
Linguistic Methods ◽  
Interest In Research

Recent years have witnessed a growing interest in research article (RA thereafter) introductions. Most previous studies focused on the macro structures, rhetorical functions and linguistic realizations of RA introductions, but few intended to investigate the information content distribution from the perspective of information theory. The current study conducted an entropy-based study on the distributional patterns of information content in RA introductions and their variations across disciplines (humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences). Three indices, that is, one-, two-, and three-gram entropies, were used to analyze 120 RA introductions (40 introductions from each disciplinary area). The results reveal that, first, in RA introductions, the information content is unevenly distributed, with the information content of Move 1 being the highest, followed in sequence by Move 3 and Move 2; second, the three entropy indices may reflect different linguistic features of RA introductions; and, third, disciplinary variations of information content were found. In Move 1, the RA introductions of natural sciences are more informative than those of the other two disciplines, and in Move 3 the RA introductions of social sciences are more informative as well. This study has implications for genre-based instruction in the pedagogy of academic writing, as well as the broadening of the applications of quantitative corpus linguistic methods into less touched fields.

Local Linguists Mastering Academic Writing in English

2017 ◽  
pp. 143-163
Author(s):  
Irina Khoutyz
Keyword(s):  
Identity Construction ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Academic Discourse ◽  
Research Articles ◽  
Contrastive Rhetoric ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Structural Differences ◽  
Reader Engagement ◽  
Sociocultural Contexts

This chapter describes the differences in how scholars present their findings in Research Articles (RA) in international journals in English and in local journals in Russian. It also attempts to present the reasons for these differences, seeking explanations in the sociocultural contexts in which these RAs were written. To achieve this aim, six RAs in English and six RAs in Russian, published in peer reviewed international and local journals, were examined. The analysis draws upon the theory of contrastive rhetoric, which stresses the necessity of studying texts in the contexts of society. The methodology used to unveil discursive conventions of RAs relies on a contrastive approach, which identified the structural differences and linguistic features of RAs in both English and Russian. The conclusion is made that the RAs differ in terms of writer / reader responsibility, form / content orientation, and reader engagement level. These differences are a result of sociocultural environments that affect the process of identity construction in academic discourse.

scholarly journals A Corpus-Based Contrastive Study of Code Glosses Used in English Academic Articles Written by Authors of Politics and Applied Linguistics

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 39
Author(s):  
Ibrahim Safari
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Applied Linguistics ◽  
Research Articles ◽  
Frequency Count ◽  
Contrastive Study ◽  
Research Article ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Writing Instructors

In the field of academic writing, it is important to create a structurally and communicatively well-organized and coherent text. Metadiscourse is the way in which writers interact through their use of language in the form of writing with readers– is a widely used term in the field of pragmatics and language teaching. This research article aims to investigate using code glosses as a sub-category of metadiscourse in the introduction section of two different disciplines, politics and applied linguistics. The corpus consists of twenty research articles from the politics and twenty from applied linguistics. The model suggested by Hyland (2005) is used for analizing the selected corpus. These articles were investigated and the number of code-glosses in each group was counted and analyzed. The result of data analysis revealed that there is significant difference between the frequency count of using code glosses used by applied linguistics and politics authors. Politics authors used more code glosses in comparison with applied linguistics and both applied linguistics and politics writers used reformulations more than exemplifications. This study can have pedagogical implications for EAP course designers as well as academic writing instructors and students.

scholarly journals Stance and modals of obligation and necessity in academic writing

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean Parkinson
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Research Articles ◽  
Student Writing ◽  
Modal Auxiliaries ◽  
Objective Meaning ◽  
Published Research

Abstract Variation has been demonstrated in modal use between written and spoken registers and between disciplines. This article investigates variation within a discipline by comparing modals of obligation and necessity used in three science genres. Obligation modals project strong authoritative stance, thus contrasting with the tendency in academic writing towards tentativeness. The modal auxiliaries must and should and quasi-modals have to and need to are investigated using student writing from the BAWE (British Academic Written English) corpus and a corpus of published research articles. Findings include a dearth of obligation modals in the empirical genres (research articles and laboratory reports). Also a greater prominence was found of dynamic modal meaning (where necessity arises from circumstances) rather than deontic meaning (where the necessity arises from human authority or rules). A further finding is the prominence of objective meaning in the science register compared with the International Corpus of English (Collins 2009a).

scholarly journals Stance and modals of obligation and necessity in academic writing

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 102-130
Author(s):  
Jean Parkinson
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Research Articles ◽  
Student Writing ◽  
Modal Auxiliaries ◽  
Objective Meaning ◽  
Published Research

Abstract Variation has been demonstrated in modal use between written and spoken registers and between disciplines. This article investigates variation within a discipline by comparing modals of obligation and necessity used in three science genres. Obligation modals project strong authoritative stance, thus contrasting with the tendency in academic writing towards tentativeness. The modal auxiliaries must and should and quasi-modals have to and need to are investigated using student writing from the BAWE (British Academic Written English) corpus and a corpus of published research articles. Findings include a dearth of obligation modals in the empirical genres (research articles and laboratory reports). Also a greater prominence was found of dynamic modal meaning (where necessity arises from circumstances) rather than deontic meaning (where the necessity arises from human authority or rules). A further finding is the prominence of objective meaning in the science register compared with the International Corpus of English (Collins 2009a).

scholarly journals Health Sciences Students’ Perceptions of the Role of the Supervisor in Clinical Placements

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (9) ◽  
pp. 4427
Author(s):  
Álvaro Borrallo-Riego ◽  
Eleonora Magni ◽  
Juan Antonio Jiménez-Álvarez ◽  
Vicente Fernández-Rodríguez ◽  
María Dolores Guerra-Martín
Keyword(s):  
Professional Training ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Health Sciences ◽  
Data Matrix ◽  
Quantitative Methodology ◽  
Clinical Placements ◽  
Validated Questionnaire ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Health Sciences Students

The supervision of clinical placements is essential to achieving a positive learning experience in the clinical setting and which supports the professional training of those being supervised. The aim of this study was to explore health sciences students’ perceptions of the role of the supervisor in the supervision of clinical placements. A quantitative methodology was used, administering a previously validated questionnaire, by means of an expert panel and a pre-test, to 134 students from the Faculty of Nursing, Physiotherapy and Podiatry at the University of Seville (Spain). The analysis of variables was carried out by means of a data matrix. The results revealed a statistically significant difference in the perception of placement supervision depending on the degree, with Nursing producing the highest degree of affirmation in the variables studied and the greatest satisfaction with placement supervision; in contrast, Physiotherapy produced the greatest dissatisfaction and the lowest degree of affirmation. The study and analysis of these perceptions facilitates the collection of relevant information in order to formulate actions that help to improve the supervision experience during placements. They also allow a greater understanding of what factors most influence the experience of supervision during clinical placements.

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