Abstract
The ultimate communicative purpose of literature reviews is to convince the reader of the worthiness of the writer’s research, which is realized stage by stage and evaluation plays an important role in achieving this end. However, concerns about evaluation demonstration in novice academic writers’ literature reviews have been repeatedly voiced in academia. This study examines how Chinese English-major MA students utilize evaluative resources in different rhetorical stages in thesis literature reviews and whether in a way that facilitates building a coherent argument for their own studies. To achieve this, an integrated appraisal analysis applying Martin and White’s (2005) appraisal framework with a move analysis based on Kwan’s (2006) model of the move structure of thesis literature reviews is undertaken. Results show that the Chinese students generally manipulate evaluative resources in a way that is beneficial for realizing the purposes of different rhetorical stages in thesis literature reviews. However, they also have problems in deploying generic structure and constructing evaluative stances, which hamper weaving a strong argument in the texts. Findings of this study provide implications for teaching English academic writing in China and in other L2 contexts as well.
Highlights
In academic writing, writers express their emotions, opinions, attitudes, and positions towards various entities or propositions talked about via various evaluative resources, so as to “construct a dialogue and relations of solidarity with the reader and to structure the text in expected ways” (Hyland & Diani, 2009)
This study examines how Chinese English-major MA students utilize evaluative resources in different rhetorical stages in thesis literature reviews and whether in a way that facilitates building a coherent argument for their own studies
Results show that the Chinese students generally manipulate evaluative resources in a way that is beneficial for realizing the purposes of different rhetorical stages in thesis literature reviews
Summary
Writers express their emotions, opinions, attitudes, and positions towards various entities or propositions talked about via various evaluative resources (e.g., reporting verbs, hedges, boosters, modality), so as to “construct a dialogue and relations of solidarity with the reader and to structure the text in expected ways” (Hyland & Diani, 2009). How to improve students’ abilities in demonstrating evaluative stances in literature review writing remains a challenging issue in L2 writing pedagogy. Another major strand of literature on literature reviews focus on the generic structure of literature reviews. O’Connell and Jin (2001) analyzed and compared the structure of five literature reviews by Chinese postgraduate students at British universities with a literature review model promoted by well-established western academics: Move 1, statement of problem issues; Move 2, findings related to the problem issues; Move 3, critical analysis of findings; Move 4, identification of gaps, and Move 5, summation and transition to the section. The authors found that all the Chinese students’ literature reviews include some of the key characteristics matching those of a good literature review, but Move 3, critical analysis, only appeared elt.ccsenet.org
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