Page 334 - English - Teaching Academic Esl Writing

320 CHAPTER 12
Investigations of student LI and L2 essays have shown that NNS texts in- clude significantly greater frequencies of every- and wo-words (everybody, every- thing, nothing, no one] than the prose of NS writers (for additional discussion, see chap. 6 on pronouns; Hinkel, 2002a).However,research into formal aca- demic prose shows that the quantifier none occurs at the rate of 0.01% and in- definite pronouns with every- 0.04%, as opposed to, for example, the quantifiers many and some with the rates of 0.1% and 0.28%, respectively. On the other hand, no- words and none are rarer still (Biber et al., 1999).
MODAL VERBS AS HEDGES
In general terms, in formal writing the meanings and functions of modal verbs can be divided into three classes (Hermeren, 1978; Quirk et al., 1985):
• Ability and possibility
• Obligation and necessity
• Prediction
can, may, might, could, be able to must,haveto,should, ought,needto,tobeto, tobesupposed to(highlyinformal)
will, would
Although most ESL grammar texts state that the primary purposes of modal verbs are to express meanings of ability (can, could}, possibility (may, might), and obligation (have to, must}, in academic texts the main function of modals is hedging. For example,
A life without mastery may produce vulnerability to depression. (Seligman, 1999, p. 147)
Promotion provides information about the company and its products. It may convey a message that encourages consumers to respond. (Zikmund et al., 1995, p. 293)
Will Versus Can and May
The meaning differences among modals largely deal with the degree of cer- tainty, probability, and/or possibility. For instance, will refers to the future with a high degree of certainty, and may indicates a possibility. Therefore, because the function of will is to predict the future, unless the writer can as- sure the reader of the outcome certainty, the uses of the future tense in aca- demic texts is considered to be somewhat inappropriate (see also chap. 7, the Future Tense).
Studies have shown that the future tense occurs significantly more fre- quently in L2 academic prose than in NS text. For example,
When parents take care of their children's social skills, their offspring will befar more successful than in families where children are ignored. Children from caring families
TLFeBOOK