Self-mention is a powerful rhetorical strategy for constructing authorial identity in research articles. This study proposes that researchers’ authorial identity can be considered in three aspects according to the self-mention devices they employ: the detached self, the individual self and the collective self. Based on a corpus comprising 90 research articles (45 in English and 45 in Chinese), the research explores the construction of authorial identity in English and Chinese research articles by examining the frequency of and roles performed by self-mention markers. Results show that both English and Chinese writers try to display their detached self by distancing themselves from the text and reader. But English writers are more ready to present the individual self by taking on the role of discourse constructor, arguer and evaluator, whereas Chinese writers are inclined to show their collective self and take on the role of researcher. The research results have implications for research article writing and the teaching of research article writing.
Delivering news on social media platforms is an increasingly important consideration in journalism practice. However, little attention has been paid to audience engagement with news on social media, especially the discursive presentation of news on the Chinese social media platform WeChat. Based on 36 news reports collected from the People’s Daily official account, this study analyses how news discourse is constructed and presented to engage audiences. The results suggest that highlighting proximity, personalisation, positivity and human interest in news values are the strategies adopted by journalists to engage audiences. The headline tends to use forward-referring terms and performs the speech acts of assertives and expressives to construct news values of proximity and positivity. The news story makes use of particular addressing terms, reported speeches and evaluative markers to construct news values of personalisation, positivity and human interest. The study enriches the analysis of journalistic practice of news on social media in the Chinese context.
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