Using the Appraisal framework to analyze source use in essays: a case study of engagement and dialogism in two undergraduate students’ writing

Abstract

A key element of academic writing involves incorporation of external voices, which is a complex rhetorical and linguistic task. Student writers must face this challenge of using sources to strengthen their own arguments. Appraisal, specifically Engagement, provides a useful framework for analyzing source use in texts, as it considers evaluation and dialogic voicing. This article describes a semi-ethnographic case study that contrasts two undergraduate writers and their writing drafts. Results show similarities and differences based on the linguistic abilities of the students and their experience in writing, but overall improvement in terms of dialogic voicing in the final drafts. Applications to research and instruction for ESL and mainstream writing are discussed.

A Cross-disciplinary Study on Evaluative Strategies in Research Articles Conclusion Sections

“…It is posited that academic writing as a 'persuasive endeavor' (Hyland, 2011, p.15) not only produces texts with an external reality, but also uses language to acknowledge, construct, and negotiate social interactions. The centrality of evaluative language has prompted many researchers to investigate its use in different written genres, such as research articles (e.g., Jalilifar, Bardideh & Shooshtari, 2018;Jalilifar, Hayati, & Mashhadi, 2012;Millán, 2014), movie reviews (e.g., Taboada, Carretero, & Hinnell, 2014), book reviews (e.g., Alcaraz-Ariza, 2002), students' argumentative writings (e.g., Liu, 2013;Liu & McCabe, 2018;Liu & Thompson, 2009;Mori, 2017;Myskow & Ono, 2018;Ngo & Unworth, 2015;Wu & Alison, 2003), university lectures (e.g., Bellés-Fortuño, 2017) as well as spoken discourse (e.g., Fernandes, 2011;Llinares, 2015;Põldvere, Matteo, & Carita, 2016), and translation (Munday, 2015), or biography (Su & Hunston, 2019), to name a few. Appraisal framework is advantageous in two major aspects: Initially, it is located at the discourse semantic level of language.…”

'Aargh! This Essay Makes Me Want to Poke Sticks in My Eyes!' Developing a Reader Engagement Framework to Help Emerging Writers Understand Why Readers Might (Not) Want to Read Texts

“…The bulk of recent research examines reader engagement in the narrow sense, from the perspective of academic writers. Texts are analysed with a narrow focus on specific linguistic devices which writers use to try to directly engage with readers (see for example, Ansarinn and Tarlani-Aliabdi 2011, Hyland 2001, 2005a, 2005b, Hyland and Jiang 2016, Hyland and Tse 2005, Khajavy, Asadpour and Yousefi 2012, Mori 2017). There is very little research that examines engagement from the reader's perspective, in the broader sense of keeping a reader reading.…”

Appraisal Framework in Analyzing Learners’ Attitudinal Resources on Performing Of Mice and Men

“…A sizable literature has documented the use of this framework in analyzing various discourse (Badklang & Srinon, 2018;Bednarek, 2009;Fitriati et al, 2018;Križan, 2016;Mori, 2017;Ngo & Unsworth, 2015). In spoken discourse, Badklang and Srinon (2018) analyzed classroom talk using this framework.…”