Referential Cohesion in Academic Writing
A descriptive and exploratory theory- and corpus-based study of the text-organizing role of reference in written academic discourse
Reference across section boundaries
Tartalomjegyzék
- Referential Cohesion in Academic Writing • A descriptive and exploratory theory- and corpus-based study of the text-organizing role of reference in written academic discourse
- Copyright page
- Acknowledgements
- LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
- 1. INTRODUCTION
- 2. A GENRE-ORIENTED APPROACH TO ANALYSING COHESION IN WRITTEN ACADEMIC DISCOURSE
- 2.1. Introduction
- 2.2. Definition of key concepts
- 2.3. Towards analyzing ‘genres’: written discourse analysis since the 1970s
- 2.4. Genre: theory and practice
- 2.5. Teaching reference as a cohesive device for academic writing
- 2.6. Summary
- 2.1. Introduction
- 3. A THEORETICAL BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY OF REFERENCE
- 4. RESEARCH DESIGN
- 4.1. Procedures of developing an analytical tool for referential cohesion analysis
- 4.2. Research questions
- 4.3. Stages of research and validation studies
- 4.4. Data collection: building the corpora
- 4.5. Research articles and MA theses: Comparing oranges to apples?
- 4.6. Expected pedagogical implications
- 4.1. Procedures of developing an analytical tool for referential cohesion analysis
- 5. STAGE 1: HALLIDAY AND HASAN’S COHESION ANALYSIS: THE STARTING POINT
- 5.1. Introduction
- 5.2. Focus: testing the validity and reliability of Halliday and Hasan’s taxonomy
- 5.3. The taxonomy: Halliday and Hasan’s (1976) Taxonomy of Cohesion
- 5.4. The corpus: abstracts of RAs
- 5.5. Methods of analysis
- 5.6. Results and discussion
- 5.7. Conclusions
- 5.1. Introduction
- 6. STAGE 2: DEVELOPING A NOVEL APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF COHESIVE REFERENCE
- 6.1. Introduction
- 6.2. Focus: testing the first version of the analytical tool
- 6.3. The taxonomy: Referential Cohesion Analysis
- 6.4. The corpus: research articles
- 6.5. Methods of analysis
- 6.6. Results and discussion
- 6.6.1. The reliability of RCA at Stage 2
- 6.6.2. The distribution of referring items, cohesive ties and cohesive chains
- 6.6.3. Patterns of chains within the subsections of RAs
- 6.6.4. New and extended chains
- 6.6.5. Chain complexity: merging and splitting
- 6.6.6. The density of ties and the abstract
- 6.6.7. Some unexpected inconsistencies in the references in the corpus
- 6.6.1. The reliability of RCA at Stage 2
- 6.7. Conclusions: practical and theoretical implications
- 6.1. Introduction
- 7. STAGE 3: IMPROVING THE ANALYTICAL TOOL: NON-COHESIVE REFERENCE TAXONOMY FOR ACADEMIC WRITING
- 8. STAGE 4: THE REPRESENTATION OF ERRORS IN THE COHESIVE REFERENCE ANALYSIS OF STUDENT ACADEMIC WRITING
- 9. STAGE 5: THE NEW ANALYTICAL TOOL: REFERENTIAL COHESION IN RESEARCH ARTICLES AND MA THESES
- 9.1. Introduction
- 9.2. Focus: Testing the new analytical tool
- 9.3. The taxonomy: Referential Cohesion Analysis
- 9.4. The Corpus: Research Papers
- 9.5. Methods of analysis
- 9.6. Results: Patterns of Referential Cohesion
- 9.6.1. Reliability and validity results
- 9.6.2. Cohesive ties and chains
- 9.6.3. Long chains
- 9.6.4. New and extended chains
- 9.6.5. Central reference: the lexical content of the longest ties
- 9.6.6. General observations relating to the structure and layout of the papers
- 9.6.7. The distribution of types of cohesive reference in MA theses and RAs
- 9.6.8. Summary of error types and strategies to overcome them
- 9.6.1. Reliability and validity results
- 9.7. Summary and conclusions
- 9.1. Introduction
- 10. PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS
- 11. OVERALL CONCLUSIONS
- References
- Appendices
- Appendix A – Halliday and Hasan’s (1976) coding scheme and an outline of the guidelines for the analysis of cohesion
- Appendix B – Sample analysis for pedagogical purposes: non-specialized text • Teacher instructions for the introduction of RCA analysis (sample text and analysis on the next page):
- Appendix C – Topical Structure Analysis: Sample analysis table
- Appendix D – Corpus of academic abstracts
- Appendix E – The role of numerals in reference
- Appendix F – New and extended chains of reference
- Appendix G – List of Research Articles in the corpus
- Appendix H – Data collection sheet
- Appendix I – Sample RCA
- Appendix A – Halliday and Hasan’s (1976) coding scheme and an outline of the guidelines for the analysis of cohesion
Kiadó: Akadémiai Kiadó
Online megjelenés éve: 2024
ISBN: 978 963 664 049 1
This monograph aims to contribute to the study of written discourse and to writing pedagogy within the field of teaching English for academic purposes. The study has both a theoretical and an empirical focus. Due to the lack of an analytical tool available for the reliable cohesive reference analysis of extended texts, to explore the patterns of referential cohesion in research papers, it has been necessary to develop a new analytical tool. In practice, the study advances the theory of cohesion analysis by refining the cohesive reference-related aspects of Halliday and Hasan’s (1976) taxonomy of cohesion to transform it into a reliable and valid analytical tool for cohesive reference analysis in academic discourse in particular. The analytical tool is then applied to present a corpus-based comparative analysis of research articles and EFL (English as a Foreign Language) writers’ MA theses. This is accomplished by a multi-stage investigation, using quantitative and qualitative approaches at every stage to ensure that quantitative data is supported by qualitative insights and vice versa. The present empirical study points out considerable differences regarding the cohesive reference patterns among research articles produced by expert writers and the subcorpora of high- and low-rated theses by novice EFL writers. A major outcome of the investigation is that it yields significant pedagogical implications for both teachers and learners of academic writing: provides clues for the design of tasks for the development of the relevant aspects of EFL discourse competence together with additional practical activities for a variety of applications of the theory-based analytical tool.
Hivatkozás: https://mersz.hu/jenei-referential-cohesion-in-academic-writing//
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