Engagement Resources in Project Works Written by Selected Students at St. John Bosco’s College of Education, Ghana

Abstract

Writing a thesis in a second language (L2) remains a considerable challenge. By drawing on the Appraisal Theory (Martin & White, 2005), this study explored the way students of St. John Bosco's College of Education engage with the academic discourse community in their undergraduate (diploma) project writing. The data comprised introduction and conclusion sections of thirty (30) purposively sampled project works. Engagement items in the project works were examined manually. The results revealed that expand engagement markers were more frequently used than contract engagement markers, that deny was the dominant type of contract engagement markers, and that acknowledge was the most favored subtype of the expand engagement markers. This study confirms that an engagement system is a key tool to help novice writers align authorial voices with readers, thereby achieving promotional and persuasive purposes. The findings are of potential interest to other novice research writers and their examiners in future project work writing and examinations.