Appraising Research: Evaluation in Academic Writing

Abstract

The book makes an important contribution to our understanding of academic writing in English with a focus on how published writers take an evaluative stance in the introductions to published research articles. Drawing on appraisal theory in systemic functional linguistics, the author analyses whole texts and phases of texts to explore comprehensively the ways in which writers bring together a range of resoruces to develop their positions in the flow of discourse. The data derive from a diverse range of disciplines and disciplinary differences are noted and explained. Analyses and explanations will inform pedagogic practices and the detailed application of appraisal theory, carefully and progressively introduced throughout will guide to researchers new to the theory.