A Comparative corpus-based analysis of conclusion sections, hedges and boosters in academic writing
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Date
2023
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University of Oum El Bouaghi
Abstract
Recently, a greater emphasis has been set on the role of metadiscourse features especially the interpersonal elements in academic writing. By means that researchers in academic writing started to concentrate on the interactional metadiscourse markers that authors use to convey their voice and position in writing. Therefore, the primary focus of the current study is to examine how Algerian researchers use hedging and boosting devices in their master theses and particularly the concluding sections. In addition, academic writers, particularly EFL learners, do not demonstrate these features in their writing. Thus, the current study's main aim is to report a comparative based analysis of 40 master two theses from graduate students of Algeria gathered into two corpora of similar size, each representing one of two branches (Civ-Did). In order to look at these devices in terms of frequency and use we have adopted Hyland's 2004 Model to see how the two corpora are similar or different in their use of these two devices and the AntConc software to analyze the data. Our findings indicated that each group used these interactional markers in a different way. Moreover, Civilization students used hedges and boosters more than the Didactics ones. The results show that nouns were the least frequently used hedging and boosting devices in the corpus, while modal auxiliaries were the most frequently used hedging and boosting devices. Modal auxiliaries were reported to be of high frequency while adjectives where the least frequently used boosting devices. For the second aim, the results indicate a slight difference in the use of hedging and boosting devices in terms of functions. These findings suggest that curriculum builders, teachers, and students should make an effort to become familiar with hedging and boosting devices and demonstrate their significance in the field of academic writing.
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Keywords
Metadiscourse features; Hedging and boosting devices; Concluding section