Page 345 - English - Teaching Academic Esl Writing

HEDGING IN ACADEMIC TEXT IN ENGLISH 3 3 1
Genetic engineering can improve the taste of some types offood and the nutri- tional value of many food products.
(c) The following excerpt presents an author's opinion on a particu- lar topic. Do you think the author accurately describes the situation? Why or why not? What particular words and phrases make the author's opinion appear very strong? Can this excerpt be made to describe the situation more accurately and the author's opinion less strong?
We really need the information on the Internet to be free. We must not pay money for all the advertising companies put on the Web. Information about smoking and alcohol leads to bad effects and will encourage people to become involved with them. It is also totally wrong to say that advertising is the main factor that causes these problems. People have to have all the information they need to make their decisions about their health. Therefore, advertisers have to reveal all the information about the products they sell.
(2) Hedges in Diverse Written Genre
Nonacademic, commercial prose such as tourism promotional fliers; com- pany, product, and servicesadvertisements; or beauty and fashionmaterials (i.e., texts intended to inflate rather than hedge the virtues of their prod- ucts) can provide a useful venue for contrasting various types of written gen- res. These materials can also be analyzed, and the uses of exaggeratives and emphatics in promotional texts can be effectively compared with those in academic prose:
• What are the goals of the promotional materials?
• What is the purpose of academic texts?
• Whydo the authors of promotional flyers employ inflated language
features such as adjectives, adverbs, or nouns?
• Whyare there fewer exaggeratives and overstatements in academic
prose than in promotional materials?
In pairs or small groups, students can be assigned to write short texts (100-200 words) for a promotional flier to advertise travel to their home towns or their favorite travel destinations (e.g., cities, beaches, resorts, or hotels). Such fliers can promote shopping in students' favorite stores or food/service in favorite restaurants; other popular venues for writing can in- clude beauty products, fashions and brand names (clothing, shoes, back- packs, handbags), athletic gear, as well as cars, computers, Web sites, computer games, music, TV shows, movies, magazines, or even celebrities (singers, movie stars, TV personalities, or sports figures). These promo-
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