Evaluative stance in master's theses discussion sections: the case of Iranian graduate student writers
Presenting the writer's voice and positioning it within the larger body of alternative voices is essential in academic writing. Realizing the challenges novice academic writers might experience while doing this, we selected and analyzed a corpus of 40 discussion chapters (timespan: 2010-2019) w...
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | fas |
| Published: |
University of Isfahan
2023-09-01
|
| Series: | نشریه پژوهشهای زبانشناسی |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://jrl.ui.ac.ir/article_28046_81a0247f21199915a3f4a747d124b777.pdf |
| _version_ | 1797315353640960000 |
|---|---|
| author | Esmaeel Abdollahzadeh Naeemeh Ghasemnejad |
| author_facet | Esmaeel Abdollahzadeh Naeemeh Ghasemnejad |
| author_sort | Esmaeel Abdollahzadeh |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Presenting the writer's voice and positioning it within the larger body of alternative voices is essential in academic writing. Realizing the challenges novice academic writers might experience while doing this, we selected and analyzed a corpus of 40 discussion chapters (timespan: 2010-2019) written by Iranian master's students. Following systemic functional perspective (Martin & White, 2005), we explored the engagement resources in the corpus to discover evaluative language choices and stance types. The results showed that although student writers actively engaged other voices and adopted a more balanced dialogically contractive and expansive stance, they employed fewer and less diverse linguistic devices. Moreover, these novice writers tended to avoid certainty and preferred more modest and cautious assertions. There was a great tendency to remain neutral toward other voices. In aligning with other voices, they preferred to present more supportive evaluations than critical ones as well as more explicit structures. They opted for implicit attitudes in evoking resources to show criticism. The implication of this study is for EAP and dissertation writing to novice writers. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-08T03:00:34Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-f6f23a87028a469299c0fff8f2f52ec3 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2322-3413 |
| language | fas |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-08T03:00:34Z |
| publishDate | 2023-09-01 |
| publisher | University of Isfahan |
| record_format | Article |
| series | نشریه پژوهشهای زبانشناسی |
| spelling | doaj.art-f6f23a87028a469299c0fff8f2f52ec32024-02-13T11:33:53ZfasUniversity of Isfahanنشریه پژوهشهای زبانشناسی2322-34132023-09-0115210111410.22108/jrl.2023.139212.180328046Evaluative stance in master's theses discussion sections: the case of Iranian graduate student writersEsmaeel Abdollahzadeh0Naeemeh Ghasemnejad1Associate Professor, Department of Foreign Languages, Iran University of Science and TechnologyLecturer, Department of Foreign Languages, Iran University of Science and TechnologyPresenting the writer's voice and positioning it within the larger body of alternative voices is essential in academic writing. Realizing the challenges novice academic writers might experience while doing this, we selected and analyzed a corpus of 40 discussion chapters (timespan: 2010-2019) written by Iranian master's students. Following systemic functional perspective (Martin & White, 2005), we explored the engagement resources in the corpus to discover evaluative language choices and stance types. The results showed that although student writers actively engaged other voices and adopted a more balanced dialogically contractive and expansive stance, they employed fewer and less diverse linguistic devices. Moreover, these novice writers tended to avoid certainty and preferred more modest and cautious assertions. There was a great tendency to remain neutral toward other voices. In aligning with other voices, they preferred to present more supportive evaluations than critical ones as well as more explicit structures. They opted for implicit attitudes in evoking resources to show criticism. The implication of this study is for EAP and dissertation writing to novice writers.https://jrl.ui.ac.ir/article_28046_81a0247f21199915a3f4a747d124b777.pdfacademic writingappraisal theoryengagementdiscussion chapternovice writers |
| spellingShingle | Esmaeel Abdollahzadeh Naeemeh Ghasemnejad Evaluative stance in master's theses discussion sections: the case of Iranian graduate student writers نشریه پژوهشهای زبانشناسی academic writing appraisal theory engagement discussion chapter novice writers |
| title | Evaluative stance in master's theses discussion sections: the case of Iranian graduate student writers |
| title_full | Evaluative stance in master's theses discussion sections: the case of Iranian graduate student writers |
| title_fullStr | Evaluative stance in master's theses discussion sections: the case of Iranian graduate student writers |
| title_full_unstemmed | Evaluative stance in master's theses discussion sections: the case of Iranian graduate student writers |
| title_short | Evaluative stance in master's theses discussion sections: the case of Iranian graduate student writers |
| title_sort | evaluative stance in master s theses discussion sections the case of iranian graduate student writers |
| topic | academic writing appraisal theory engagement discussion chapter novice writers |
| url | https://jrl.ui.ac.ir/article_28046_81a0247f21199915a3f4a747d124b777.pdf |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT esmaeelabdollahzadeh evaluativestanceinmastersthesesdiscussionsectionsthecaseofiraniangraduatestudentwriters AT naeemehghasemnejad evaluativestanceinmastersthesesdiscussionsectionsthecaseofiraniangraduatestudentwriters |