Epistemic modality in English-medium medical research articles: A systemic functional perspective

Yang, An; Zheng, Shuyuan; Ge, Guang-chun

doi:10.1016/j.esp.2014.10.005

Cited by 65 publications

(56 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…As the study aims to elicit some cross-cultural patterns in the use of the academic citation, an attempt was made to ensure that the English sub-corpus comprised articles written in native English. This variable was controlled or rather approximated by ensuring that the first authors of the articles had an English-sounding name and surname and that they were affiliated with the University departments in the English-speaking country (Yang et al 2015). 6 These criteria do not ensure that the language used in the articles is native indeed but following previous research (Fløttum, Dahl & Kinn 2006;Yang et al 2015), an assumption was made that even if English was not the writers' mother tongue, such cases were estimated not to be high in number to skew the corpus data (Varga 2016).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…This variable was controlled or rather approximated by ensuring that the first authors of the articles had an English-sounding name and surname and that they were affiliated with the University departments in the English-speaking country (Yang et al 2015). 6 These criteria do not ensure that the language used in the articles is native indeed but following previous research (Fløttum, Dahl & Kinn 2006;Yang et al 2015), an assumption was made that even if English was not the writers' mother tongue, such cases were estimated not to be high in number to skew the corpus data (Varga 2016). Against this background, we adopt the term English writer to refer to the American, British, and Canadian scholars, affiliated to the University departments from the given countries and the term Anglo-American community to refer to the academic writing originated in them (Koutsantoni 2006;Varga 2016) …”

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confidence: 99%

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English and Croatian citation practices in research articles in applied linguistics: a corpus-based study

Varga¹,

Gradečak-Erdeljić²

2017

KLB

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As a mandatory constituent of academic writing, citation allows writers to acknowledge other scholarsʼ work and to position their research against it, showing thus both contribution to previous knowledge and research novelty (Hyland 2004). Previous research has documented not only cross-disciplinary (Hyland 2004) but also crosscultural variations, with a general tendency of Anglo-American writers to use more citations than writers of some other cultural backgrounds (Hyland 2005;Mur Dueñas 2009). By exploring the frequency, preferred types, and reporting structures of citations in two comparable sub-corpora of research articles in applied linguistics in English and Croatian, the present study aimed to provide an insight into the patterns of cross-cultural similarities and differences in the use of academic citation. The corpus comprised 32 research articles that were sampled from the representative English-and Croatianmedium publications in applied linguistics and analyzed manually. The extracted instances of citations were categorized according to the pre-established taxonomies of the citation types (Swales, 1990) and reporting structures in academic writing (Thomson & Tribble 2001). The frequency analysis showed that the English writers used more citations as opposed to the Croatian writers, which is in line with previous cross-cultural research on the use of citations (Fløttum, Dahl & Kinn 2006;Mur Dueñas 2009). In both sub-corpora writers used more non-integral than integral citations, with the highest 154 frequencies reported in the Introduction section of research articles. The overall findings point to the saliency of the congruent types of reporting structures in both citation formats across the two sub-corpora, with the human subjects being most frequently used in integral citations and non-reporting being the most frequent reporting structure in nonintegral citations. However, in non-integral citations English writers used non-human subjects at a significantly higher frequency than Croatian writers, which suggests that in the English citations investigated more importance is placed on research activities than human agents. Whereas similarities in the use of citations between English and Croatian writers may be accounted for by the congruent disciplinary variable, the differences seem to be related to the specifics of a wider socio-cultural background in which academic writing is embedded.

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confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

English and Croatian citation practices in research articles in applied linguistics: a corpus-based study

Varga¹,

Gradečak-Erdeljić²

2017

KLB

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“…e.g. Vold, 2006;Yang et al, 2015). Low-scoring case studies were more likely to contain filler phrases that could be…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Writing impact case studies: a comparative study of high-scoring and low-scoring case studies from REF2014

et al. 2020

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This paper reports on two studies that used qualitative thematic and quantitative linguistic analysis, respectively, to assess the content and language of the largest ever sample of graded research impact case studies, from the UK Research Excellence Framework 2014 (REF). The paper provides the first empirical evidence across disciplinary main panels of statistically significant linguistic differences between high-versus low-scoring case studies, suggesting that implicit rules linked to written style may have contributed to scores alongside the published criteria on the significance, reach and attribution of impact. High-scoring case studies were more likely to provide specific and high-magnitude articulations of significance and reach than low-scoring cases. High-scoring case studies contained attributional phrases which were more likely to attribute research and/or pathways to impact, and they were written more coherently (containing more explicit causal connections between ideas and more logical connectives) than low-scoring cases. High-scoring case studies appear to have conformed to a distinctive new genre of writing, which was clear and direct, and often simplified in its representation of causality between research and impact, and less likely to contain expressions of uncertainty than typically associated with academic writing. Highscoring case studies in two Main Panels were significantly easier to read than low-scoring cases on the Flesch Reading Ease measure, although both high-scoring and low-scoring cases tended to be of "graduate" reading difficulty. The findings of our work enable impact case study authors to better understand the genre and make content and language choices that communicate their impact as effectively as possible. While directly relevant to the assessment of impact in the UK's Research Excellence Framework, the work also provides insights of relevance to institutions internationally who are designing evaluation frameworks for research impact.

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“…To be a student in medical school may be stressful [1][2][3] . Previous studies have shown relatively high levels of distress, such as symptoms of depression 4,5 and suicidal thoughts 6,7 in medical undergraduates.…”

Section: Sociological Research Demonstrates That Clinical Teaching Rementioning

confidence: 99%

“…They follow an implicit set of linguistic conventions to represent themselves as cautious, even uncertain as they critique existing knowledge and offer their own knowledge claims. This is the 'academic hedge', long regarded as critical to scientific discourse and readily (even semi-consciously) performed by the experienced writer, but difficult to reproduce for the novice or the non-native English writer [3,4]. When should your writing express confidence, and when should it be tentative?…”

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confidence: 99%

The academic hedge Part I: Modal tuning in your research writing

Lingard

2020

Perspect Med Educ

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show abstract

Epistemic modality in English-medium medical research articles: A systemic functional perspective

Cited by 65 publications

References 17 publications

English and Croatian citation practices in research articles in applied linguistics: a corpus-based study

English and Croatian citation practices in research articles in applied linguistics: a corpus-based study

Writing impact case studies: a comparative study of high-scoring and low-scoring case studies from REF2014

The academic hedge Part I: Modal tuning in your research writing

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Epistemic modality in English-medium medical research articles: A systemic functional perspective

Cited by 65 publications

References 17 publications

English and Croatian citation practices in research articles in applied linguistics: a corpus-based study

English and Croatian citation practices in research articles in applied linguistics: a corpus-based study

Writing impact case studies: a comparative study of high-scoring and low-scoring case studies from REF2014

The academic hedge Part&nbsp;I: Modal tuning in your research writing

Contact Info

Product

Resources

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The academic hedge Part I: Modal tuning in your research writing