17.116, Review: Writing/Discourse: Hyland (2005)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-17-116. Sat Jan 14 2006. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 17.116, Review: Writing/Discourse: Hyland (2005)

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1)
Date: 12-Jan-2006
From: Alexandar ?arapi? < acarapic at sezampro.yu >
Subject: Metadiscourse: Exploring Interaction in Writing 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Sat, 14 Jan 2006 17:14:59
From: Alexandar ?arapi? < acarapic at sezampro.yu >
Subject: Metadiscourse: Exploring Interaction in Writing 
 

AUTHOR: Hyland, Ken
TITLE: Metadiscourse 
SUBTITLE: Exploring Interaction in Writing 
SERIES TITLE: Continuum Guides to Discourse 
PUBLISHED: 2005 
PUBLISHER: Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd
Announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/16/16-2576.html 

Aleksandar Carapic, University of Belgrade

DESCRIPTION 

This volume provides an accessible introduction to metadiscourse, 
discussing its role and importance in written communication. It 
explores examples from a wide range of texts from business, 
journalism, academia and student writing to present a new theory of 
metadiscourse. The final section of the book explores the importance 
of metadiscourse for teachers and students, and details its practical 
advantages and applications in the writing class. Accessibly written 
and packed with examples, Metadiscourse is an essential introduction 
for students of applied linguistics, language teachers and academics.

Kan Hyland has arranged 9 individual chapters into three sets: 
Section 1 ''What is metadiscourse'' (1-60) focuses on the key elements 
of metadiscourse such as its development, notion, and model; it 
clarifies some of the assumptions and conception of the term and 
provides a new categorization scheme. 
Section 2 ''Metadiscourse in practice'' (61-171) deals with issues 
related to discursive and pragmatic aspects of metadiscourse such as 
those of rhetoric, genre, culture, and community. It aims to elucidate 
the way in which metadiscourse research has been undertaken as 
well as how it contributes to the study of language in use. 
The first part of the Section 3 entitled  ''Issues and implications'' (104-
203) is more concerned with the applied linguistics aspects of 
metadiscourse, i.e. metadiscourse in the teaching practice, while the 
second part deals with some unresolved issues pointing forward to 
further research in the area. 

CONTENTS

Chapter 1 ''First impressions'' (3-15) starts with a brief overview of 
metadiscourse. In addition, the author elaborates view according to 
which all kinds of speech or writing include expressions, which refer to 
the text producer, the imagined receiver, and the evolving text itself. 
Such expressions are traditionally considered as metadiscourse. In 
other words, metadiscourse are those ''aspects of text which explicitly 
organize a discourse or the writer's stance towards either its content 
or the reader.'' (p.14). The concept of metadiscourse is based on view 
of writing or speaking as a social and communicative engagement, 
offering a means of understanding the ways we project ourselves into 
our texts to manage our communicative intentions. Despite the fact 
that the concept motivated extensive interest, its descriptive and 
explanatory potential has remained undeveloped.

In Chapter 2 ''Definitions, issues and classifications'' (16-36) K. Hyland 
evaluates a range of approaches to metadiscourse definition. He also 
deals with propositional and metadiscourse. The author advocates a 
functional approach to the analysis of metadiscourse. Following 
Halliday (1994), he particularly pays attention to the following 
language functions: the ideational, the interpersonal, and the textual 
function. There is a separate subchapter, which deals with another 
important notion related to this concept: metadiscourse signals. There 
are two categorizations of metadiscourse. The first one is based on 
Vande Kopple's two-part classification: (1) textual metadiscourse 
which includes text connectives, code glosses, validity markers, and 
narrators; (2) interpersonal metadiscourse which includes illocution 
markers, attitude markers, and commentaries. The second lies in 
Crimsore et al.'s distinction:  textual and interpersonal metadiscourse.  

Chapter 3 ''A metadiscourse model'' (37-60) establishes three basic 
principles of metadiscourse: (1) metadiscourse is distinct from 
propositional aspect of discourse, (2) metadiscourse expresses writer-
reader interactions, and (3) metadiscourse distinguishes external and 
internal relations. It leads further to a classification of metadiscourse, 
which has been proposed in Hyland's earlier works. It is based on 
interactive and interactional dimensions: while the first one helps to 
guide the reader through the text, the latter is involving the reader in the 
text. In subchapter, which is focused on the metadiscourse resources, 
the author makes interactive resources (transition markers, frame 
markers, endophoric markers, evidentials, and code glosses) and 
interactional resources (hedges, boosters, attitude markers, self-
mention, engagement markers) distinction.

Chapter 4 ''Metadiscourse and rhetoric'' (63-86), which is the opening 
chapter of Section 2, starts with the concept of rhetoric. In addition, 
the author argues rhetorical relevance for academic discourse. In the 
subchapter ''Metadiscourse, ethos, and The Origin of Species'', 
Hyland elaborates the significance of ethos in establishing a 
successful academic writing based on the view that ''metadiscourse 
provides a perspective on author-reader interactions that broadens 
our view of ethos'' (p. 67). Charles Darwin's famous and highly 
prestigious text The Origin of Species is a case study, i.e. Darwin's 
use of modality markers (hedges and boosters), attitude markers and 
commentary in his text. Two final subchapters are dealing with 
business discourse and metadiscourse relations as well as with the 
analysis of metadiscourse and rhetoric in company annual reports. 
Aims of these analyses are twofold: they can show the linguist how to 
undertake metadiscourse research, but they also ''may help students 
of academic and business communication how to develop more 
effective rhetorical and verbal repertoire to better operate in the 
professional domains in which they will find themselves.'' (p. 85).

At the very beginning of Chapter 5 ''Metadiscourse and genre'' (87-
112) it is claimed that a central aspect of metadiscourse is its 
dependency of context, the closeness between the norms and 
expectations of those who use it and in particular setting. He 
continues theoretical discussion the concept of genre and relations 
between metadiscourse and genre. In the succeeding subchapters he 
gives overview and analysis of metadiscourse in academic research 
articles, in popular science articles, and finally, in introductory 
textbooks. In the final part of the chapter Hyland comes to the 
following conclusions: metadiscourse helps the research writers to 
establish their voice ''which balances confidence and circumspection, 
facilitates collegial respect, and seeks to locate propositions in the 
concerns and interests of the discipline'' (p. 112); the role of 
metadiscourse in popular science article is helping the authors to 
present findings as relevant and newsworthy; for the authors of 
textbooks metadiscourse provides a means of presenting an 
authoritative authorial stance and of engaging with readers while 
setting out information as facts as explicitly as possible'' (p. 112) All of 
the above patterns help the authors to achieve their rhetorical goals 
and to define genres and contexts in which they write.

Chapter 6 ''Metadiscourse and culture'' (113-137) focuses on culture 
and on use of metadiscourse in other languages as well as on writings 
in English by native speakers of those languages. Reviewing 
relationship between language and culture, Ken Hyland starts with 
highlighting three perspectives on culture adopted from Atkinson: 
Received views of culture, Postmodern views of culture, and Cultural 
studies views of culture. The author mostly relies on the relationship 
between language and culture as it was established in the field of 
Contrastive Rhetoric (RC), which actively uses the notion of culture to 
explain differences in writing texts and writing practices. He gives an 
overview of metadiscourse across languages -- nominalization in 
Japanese, indirectness in Chinese, implicitness and theme in Finnish, 
and reflections in Thai. In addition, he examines Spanish and English 
editorials and articles, Finnish and English essays. These findings 
help to create a descriptive understanding of variation of in the written 
discourses of various languages and language using groups. 
Subchapter ''Interactive metadiscourse in English'' deals with 
transitions and frame markers. The subsequent 
subchapter ''Interactional metadiscourse'' is focused on boosters, 
hedges, and engagement. Closing this chapter, Hyland concludes that 
the role of culture in writing is controversial -- while CR 
helps ''teachers and writers avoid getting trapped in English in an 
Anglophone cultural ethnocentrism where non-English writing 
practices appear as deviant anomalies.'' (p.136). Researchers lately 
become ''sensitive to community based orientation to literacy, so that 
differences in the use of metadiscourse should be understood not only 
in relation to national culture of the writer, but also in relation to the 
genre and immediate discourse community to which the text is 
addressed.'' (p. 137).

Chapter 7 ''Metadiscourse and community'' (138-171) aims to show 
how close are relationships of metadiscourse practices and social 
activities, cognitive styles, epistemological beliefs, and academic 
communities. It starts with the concept of community, which is a key 
idea in discourse analysis considering that researchers become more 
insightful to the ways genres are written, used and responded to by 
individuals acting as members of social groups. The author discusses 
issues related to community, academic writing and metadiscourse. He 
is concerned with metadiscourse variation and interactional 
metadiscourse in articles across disciplines as well in textbooks across 
disciplines. He focuses on the main patterns such as hedges and 
boosters, self-mention, attitude markers, engagement markers. 
Another group of patterns in interactional metadiscourse in articles 
across disciplines are endophorics and evidentials. Summarizing the 
chapter Hyland reminds that research articles in the chapter show that 
metadiscourse is sensitive to differences in the ways disciplines 
understand the world and conduct their practices. Pedagogic texts 
reveal similar disciplinary differences in writers' use of metadiscourse, 
attitudes to knowledge approaches to instructions. 

Chapter 8 ''Metadiscourse in the classroom'' (175-193) is the opening 
chapter of Section 3. The author is trying to consider what the study 
of metadiscourse offers language teachers and how they might go 
about putting it in use. In the subchapter ''Students, writing and audience 
awareness'' Hyland claims that ''metadiscourse is a central feature of 
communication since when we have correctly assessed both the 
readers' resources for interpreting a text and their likely responses to 
it can we reconstruct our arguments effectively.'' (p. 175) In addition 
he represents advantages of teaching metadiscourse features. He 
outlines three main advantages to students: first, it helps them to 
better understand the cognitive demands that texts make on the 
readers and the ways writers can assist them to process information; 
secondly, it provides them with resources to express a stance towards 
their statements; thirdly, it allows them negotiate this stance and 
engage in a community-appropriate dialogue with readers. He also 
sketches twelve possible contributions that metadiscourse can make 
to texts. Focused on teaching principles, Hyland ''suggests that 
teacher need to consider the following elements: (1) the writer's 
needs; (2) the writer's prior writing and learning experiences; (3) the 
role of language in expressing functions; (4) the importance of social 
interactions; (5) the use of authentic texts; (6) the role of audience 
and community practices.'' (p. 181). Text analysis, manipulating texts, 
understanding audiences, and creating texts are discussed as 
teaching strategies.

Chapter 9 ''Issues and directions'' (194-203) is the final part of the 
volume. Ken Hyland revisits the main issues raised in this discussion 
in order to highlight some of the key features and to stress the 
significance of metadiscourse as a systemic means of studying 
interactions, and to look forward to future directions.

EVALUATION

Metadiscourse by Ken Hyland will be useful textbook for both 
beginners (and/or for students) who are interested in studying 
metadiscourse and also for scholars and researchers in this field, 
because it gives a comprehensive overview of concept of 
metadiscourse guiding a reader through issues related to this notion 
systematically. It provides scientific toolkits for future courses on 
related subjects in discourse linguistics. I entirely agree with Professor 
Vijay K. Bhatia who says, ''In this engaging and highly insightful 
account of multifunctional metadiscourse, Ken Hyland expertly re-
examines the relationship between writers and readers through the 
mediation of texts to highlight the interactive nature of discourse as 
social engagement. The book gives a new meaning and direction to 
study of form-function relationships in the analysis of discourse and 
the ways it is embedded in the wider contexts of genre, culture and 
society.'' Despite the different and critically oriented views of 
metadiscourse (cf. Ifantidou 2005), Hyland's book represents a 
valuable and comprehensive study, which not only imposes relevant 
questions, but provides valid answers in regards to this subject 
establishing new directions for future investigations.  

REFERENCES:

Connor, U. (2002) ''New directions in contrastive rhetoric''. TESOL 
Quarterly, 36: 493-510.

Dahl, T. (2004) ''Textual metadiscourse in research articles: a marker 
of national culture or of academic discipline''. Journal of Pragmatics, 
36:1807-25.

Halliday, M. A. K. (1994) An Introduction to Functional Grammar (2nd 
edn). London: Edward Arnold. 

Hyland, K. (1999) ''Talking to Students: Metadiscourse in Introductory 
Coursebooks''. English for Specific Purposes, 18 (1): 3-26.

Ifantidou, E. (2004) ''The semantics and pragmatics of metadiscourse''. 
Journal of Pragmatics, 37:1325-53.

Paltridge, B. (1995) ''Working with genre: A pragmatic perspective''. 
Journal of Pragmatics, 24: 393-406.

Renkema, J. (2004) Introduction to Discourse Studies. Amsterdam: 
John Benjamins. 

ABOUT REVIEWER

Aleksandar Carapic is writing the final version of his thesis on _The 
Pragmatic Analysis of Verbs in Narrative Model of Dubravka Ugresic_ 
(University of Belgrade, Department of General Linguistics). His 
interests lie in the areas of discourse linguistics and critical discourse 
analysis, e.g. text strategies, text typology, cohesion, genres. He has 
published a few academic articles in Serbian as well as review articles 
both in Serbian and in English.





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