Introductory chapter
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Ken Hyland
Abstract
The expression of personal opinions and assessments is a ubiquitous feature of human interaction and, despite its apparently impersonal facade, also central to academic writing. In scholarly genres argument involves presenting a position on things that matter to a discipline in ways that disciplinary members are likely to find familiar and persuasive. Beneath its frozen surface, an academic text is seeking to build an appropriate relationship between the writer and the reader by anticipating the audience’s likely interests, knowledge, reactions and processing needs. We can, then, see academic writing as essentially dialogic as writers seek to engage and persuade their readers. In this introductory chapter I explore some of the ways that this is achieved. Based on an analysis of 240 published research papers I show how features of stance and engagement, such as hedges, self-mention, directives and reader pronouns, are not simply dry textualisations but elements of persuasive craftsmanship which help construct a disciplinary view of the world while simultaneously negotiating a credible persona for writers.
Abstract
The expression of personal opinions and assessments is a ubiquitous feature of human interaction and, despite its apparently impersonal facade, also central to academic writing. In scholarly genres argument involves presenting a position on things that matter to a discipline in ways that disciplinary members are likely to find familiar and persuasive. Beneath its frozen surface, an academic text is seeking to build an appropriate relationship between the writer and the reader by anticipating the audience’s likely interests, knowledge, reactions and processing needs. We can, then, see academic writing as essentially dialogic as writers seek to engage and persuade their readers. In this introductory chapter I explore some of the ways that this is achieved. Based on an analysis of 240 published research papers I show how features of stance and engagement, such as hedges, self-mention, directives and reader pronouns, are not simply dry textualisations but elements of persuasive craftsmanship which help construct a disciplinary view of the world while simultaneously negotiating a credible persona for writers.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction vii
- Foreword ix
- Introductory chapter 1
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PART 1. Authorial stance and the construction of readership
- Chapter 1. Academic voices and claims 23
- Chapter 2. The role of authorial voice in professional and non-professional reviews of films 55
- Chapter 3. Multivoiced interaction in English and Italian academic review discourse 87
- Chapter 4. From ‘Readers may be left wondering’ to I’m genuinely puzzled’ 113
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PART 2. Dynamic dialogic interactions
- Chapter 5. Dialogic voices of writers and readers in traveller forums through interpersonality 137
- Chapter 6. A corpus-based study of the discursive creation of a child consumer identity in official tourist information websites vs. opinion forums 165
- Chapter 7. Interactions with readers through online specialised genres 189
- Conclusion 209
- Author index 221
- Subject index 225
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction vii
- Foreword ix
- Introductory chapter 1
-
PART 1. Authorial stance and the construction of readership
- Chapter 1. Academic voices and claims 23
- Chapter 2. The role of authorial voice in professional and non-professional reviews of films 55
- Chapter 3. Multivoiced interaction in English and Italian academic review discourse 87
- Chapter 4. From ‘Readers may be left wondering’ to I’m genuinely puzzled’ 113
-
PART 2. Dynamic dialogic interactions
- Chapter 5. Dialogic voices of writers and readers in traveller forums through interpersonality 137
- Chapter 6. A corpus-based study of the discursive creation of a child consumer identity in official tourist information websites vs. opinion forums 165
- Chapter 7. Interactions with readers through online specialised genres 189
- Conclusion 209
- Author index 221
- Subject index 225
