Page 341 - English - Teaching Academic Esl Writing

HEDGING IN ACADEMIC TEXT IN ENGLISH
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deep(-ly) definite(-ly) enormous(-ly) entirely
even (+ adjective/noun)
in all/every way(s) much (+ adjective) never
no way
positive(-ly)
very
very much well
In many rhetorical traditions other than Anglo-American, strong state- mentsand claimsareoftenintended toconveythewriter'sdegree ofconviction and/or rhetorical emphasis (Connor, 1996; Sa'adeddin, 1989; Zhu, 1996).
Teachers need not only to direct students away from overuse of exaggerative, but also to help them develop alternatives.
Because many L2 writers lack a broad vocabulary base and their lexical means of expressing conviction and emphasis are limited, the number of exaggerated adjectives and adverbs in L2 text is significantly higher than in NS texts (Hinkel, 1997b; Hyland & Milton, 1997). In other words, when writers have to produce persuasive text within the confines of restricted lan- guage, they may have few accessible choices but the frequent use of emphat- ics and exaggeratives. The following example is extracted from a student essay on the necessary qualities of corporate managers:
Besides the skills leaders need to develop strongly, corporate culture nurturing lead- ership every day is extremely important. Cultivating a leadership-centered organization is definitely the most important goal of leadership. Today, some large companies have tens of thousands of employees, and they produce an enormous number of products and have scores of customers. These changes in the business environment create great pres- sure and high uncertainty. In business textbooks, leadership and management are very well defined and the definitions are well accepted by everyone.
This example shows that a high degree of the writer's conviction can lead to increased frequencies of exaggeratives and emphatics in students' writ- ing. The overstated tone of the text may not be difficult to correct by omit- ting or replacing several modifying adjectives and adverbs that combine to create rhetorically inflated prose.
CHAPTER SUMMARY
In general, the purpose of hedging in academic text is to project honesty, politeness, caution, and deference to the opinions of others. Many studies of large corpora of academic prose have demonstrated that hedging state- ments and claims are one of the essential characteristics of formal writing. In addition, investigations into academic writers' text have established that
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