Exploring Metadiscourse in Master’s Dissertation Abstracts: Cultural and Linguistic Variations across Postgraduate Writers

Akbaş, Erdem

doi:10.7575/ijalel.v1n1p12

Cited by 18 publications

(22 citation statements)

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“…The results match those observed in earlier studies (Hyland, 1998;Abdi 2009;Akbaş 2012b). Akbaş (2012b) found that Turkish-speakers of English had the tendency of using hedges more often than boosters in the abstracts of their master dissertation like native speakers of English.…”

Section: Extracted From Ctaesupporting

confidence: 82%

Stance-Taking through Metadiscourse in Doctoral Dissertations

Can¹

2018

ijlet

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The authorial stance in academic genres is conveyed with the use of linguistic conventions of disciplines, one of which is metadiscourse. The aim of this study was to compare the use of interactional metadiscourse features (IMDMs) by native academic authors of English (NAAEs) and Turkish-speaking academic authors of English (TAAEs) for the construal of their stance in their doctoral dissertations. In a corpus of 120 doctoral dissertations, IMDMs were analyzed according to Hyland's (2005) taxonomy by using Wordsmith Tools 6.0. Log likelihood statistics was conducted to see whether there was a statistically significant difference between these two groups in their use of IMDMs in terms of frequency and variety. A statistically significant underuse of IMDMs by Turkish-speaking academic authors of English regarding the overall use of 5 subcategories of IMDMs was found.

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Section: Extracted From Ctaesupporting

confidence: 82%

Stance-Taking through Metadiscourse in Doctoral Dissertations

Can¹

2018

ijlet

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“…As stated above, the comparison with Akbas's (2012) study is deficient to justify the possible variations underlying the use of engagement features since different coding schemes are employed to detect them. By calculating the counts in our subcorpora, it is easy to find that authors feel less need to establish an explicit dialogue with their readers and there are no appreciable variations in the use of engagement features over time.…”

Section: Genre-specific Featuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A qualitative analysis shows that we dominates the frequencies, composing 77.35% of all self-mentions. Even in single-authored abstracts, authors still see the increasing need to avoid subjective findings and acknowledge those who also contributed to the work through the use of we rather than I or the author, which is rather salient in thesis in which Master candidates intentionally use we to acknowledge their supervisors for the guidance in the thesis writing (Akbas, 2012). On the other hand, the growing trend towards more collaborative writing and co-authorship also spurs authors to strongly identify themselves with their knowledge claims in the form of first-person plural pronouns.…”

Section: )mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…example, Akbas (2012) examined IM in the dissertation abstracts written by native speakers of English, Turkish and Turkish speakers of English, and reported that Turkish writers employ far fewer IM than their English peers to communicate the credibility and build the solidarity with the audience. By reviewing the current literature on IM, we identify a conspicuous lacuna that merits scrutiny, i.e., scant reflection has been given to the contrast between English and Chinese languages in RAs.…”

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confidence: 99%

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A Study of Interactional Metadiscourse in English Abstracts of Chinese Economics Research Articles

Liu¹,

Huang²

2017

HES

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This study adopts the revised interpersonal model of metadiscourse to discover whether and to what extent Chinese authors employ a varying amount of Interactional Metadiscourse (IM) in the past decade in English abstracts of economics Research Articles (RAs). The data was drawn from a prestigious economics journal in China to compose a corpus of 289 abstracts. The analysis indicates that Chinese authors harmonize with English counterparts by capitalizing on more hedges, while the amount of boosters unexpectedly maintains at a high level over time, both of which can be attributed to the interaction of Chinese deep-seated cultural leanings and Anglo-American cultural preferences. Consistent with our prediction, attitude markers exhibit no significant difference along the years given the initial parallel with English counterparts. However, there are significant differences of self-mentions in the past decade regardless of English rhetorical conventions, which may be attributed to economical influences in China. With regards to engagement features, they remain relatively underused with no marked difference within the period resulting from the genre-specific factor which confines their use.

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“…In another similar study on the use of metadiscourse markers in master's dissertations (introductions and conclusions) by Turkish students written in Turkish and English, Akbas (2012b) found a statistically significant difference in introductions, but no statistically significant difference in conclusions. In another cross-cultural study on the use of metadiscourse markers in master's dissertation abstracts, Akbas (2012a) found that native speakers of English use metadiscourse markers in their abstracts more than do Turkish writers. Notwithstanding these studies, there have been very few academic explorations of hedges and boosters within the Turkish academic context.…”

Section: International Journal Of Languages' Education and Teachingmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Intercultural Investigation of Meta-Discourse Features in Research Articles by American and Turkish Academic Writers

Kafes¹

2017

ijlet

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This corpus-based study compares the use of hedges and boosters in English academic research articles by Turkish and American academic writers. The data come from 40 research articles collected from well-known international journals of Applied Linguistics. Quantitative and textual analyses reveal that the American academic writers preferred to be visible in their texts by employing a lot more hedges and boosters, while Turkish academic writers opted to be invisible, preferring their studies to speak for themselves. Our results indicate, among other things, the influence of rhetorical practices, and epistemological beliefs, and the cultural, linguistic, and educational backgrounds of academic writers on their use of hedges and boosters. The findings of the study are discussed in relation to these aspects.

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Exploring Metadiscourse in Master’s Dissertation Abstracts: Cultural and Linguistic Variations across Postgraduate Writers

Cited by 18 publications

References 0 publications

Stance-Taking through Metadiscourse in Doctoral Dissertations

Stance-Taking through Metadiscourse in Doctoral Dissertations

A Study of Interactional Metadiscourse in English Abstracts of Chinese Economics Research Articles

An Intercultural Investigation of Meta-Discourse Features in Research Articles by American and Turkish Academic Writers

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