Author stance in theme position: variation
across disciplines and years in a corpus of
assessed student writing
Signe Ebeling and Paul Wickens
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The British Academic Written English Corpus
 Part of the ongoing ESRC-funded project An investigation of genres of assessed
writing in British Higher Education (RES-000-23-0800 )
 Collaboration between Oxford Brookes, Warwick and Reading Universities
 Collection of 3,000-3,500 student assignments at Undergraduate and Masters
level – all marked >60%
 Four disciplinary groupings:
 Arts & Humanities
 Medical & Life Sciences
 Physical Sciences
 Social Sciences
Westminster Institute of Education
BAWE
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Data selection
1st year
2nd year
3rd year
English studies
4
4
4
Engineering
4
4
4
Health and
social care
4
4
4
Anthropology
4
4
4
Westminster Institute of Education
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Thematic choice, stance
and disciplinary variation
“The literacy practices of a disciplinary community embody
different orientations to knowledge constructions […] The initial
constituent of the clause appears to have particular significance
in the way it reflects the writer's beliefs and values, and thus
provides an indicator of disciplinary difference in professional
academic writing.” (North 2005: 435)
Aims:
 point out disciplinary differences and/or similarities in the thematic choices of
students’ academic writing.
 look at possible reasons why disciplines show different or similar tendencies in
terms of ‘point of departure of the message’.
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Framework and classification of data
 T-unit: "an independent clause together with all hypotactically related clauses which are
dependent on it" (Fries 1994: 229)
 Topical theme: typically fills a participant role within the clause and is most commonly
found to be the grammatical subject (or the subject of the main proposition)
 Orienting theme: the elements preceding the topical theme
 Textual – makes "explicit the way the clause relates to the surrounding discourse"
(Halliday 2004: 83)
 Experiential – may contain fronted hypotactic clauses and “experiential elements which
do not fill participant roles (mainly circumstantial adjuncts)" (North 2005: 438)
 Interpersonal – typically expresses the speaker's "own angle on the matter in
hand" (Halliday 2004: 84)
Orienting theme
Textual
…and
Experiential
in order for practice to
be changed accordingly
Topical theme
Rheme
Of course
passion, an emotion,
cannot be said to physically flow…
it is important that
the results
are trustworthy.
Interpersonal
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An overview of orienting themes across disciplines
Orienting theme
Discipline
Year of study
Textual
Experiential
Interpersonal
English studies
1190 t-units
22
21
10
Engineering
1405 t-units
19
23
10
Health and social care
1306 t-units
24
20
23
Anthropology
1536 t-units
24
23
18
Figures (approximate) per 100 t-units
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Interpersonal themes in the BAWE material
Examples
1) Modal adjunct
Clearly force is essential to the complete turn around of rebellious individuals in
1984, (BAWE3003c)
2) Interrogative / inversion
Does this leave the individual with any hope?
(BAWE3003c)
3) Imperative
Consider the use of plastic gears for one stage of speed reduction.
(BAWE0023e)
4) Personal projecting clause
In both novels, Orwell suggests that every system of power will inevitably abuse
the use of language as mechanisms of control, (BAWE3007a)
5) Non-personal projecting clause
It is possible that this is more than a criticism of the Bible itself but of the
“canonizing process”, which Ostriker also argues has “throughout history rested,
not accidentally but essentially, in the silencing of women.” (BAWE3006k)
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Distribution of interpersonal themes per 100 t-units
Discipline English
Studies
Interpersonal theme
Engineering
Health &
social care
Anthropology
personal projecting clause
3.2
0.3
12.1
8.2
non-personal projecting clause
3.5
5.3
9.7
6.5
modal adjunct
2.9
0.3
0.5
2.9
interrogative/ inversion
0.4
0.5
0.2
0.7
imperative
Total
3.4
10
Westminster Institute of Education
0.1
9.8
22.5
BAWE
18.4
8
Interpersonal themes: Projection
Muir (2004) states that
Non-self
Researchers have shown that
Personal
I propose that
I believe
Self
Projection
Non-self
Nonpersonal
External
it is claimed for instance that
Internal
The graph shows that
Self
it is clear that
There is a possibility that
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Interpersonal themes: projection
Personal
English Engineering
Health
Anthropology
Non-self
2.7
0
6.7
7.7
Self
0.5
0.3
5.1
0.3
0.3
0.2
0.3
12.1
8.2
English
Engineering
Health
Anthropology
Non-Self
2.3
2.6
4.9
3.2
Self
1.2
2.7
4.7
3.2
0.1
0.1
9.7
6.5
Other
total
3.2
Figures per 100 t-units
Non
Personal
Other
total
3.5
5.3
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Disciplinary Differences: Personal Projection
Non
Self
English
Engineering
Health
Anthropology
2.7
0
6.7
7.7
Makdisi suggests that
John Blades argues
that
John Blades notes
that
John Beer states that
Blake suggests that
0.5
Self
Schon (1987) would say that
Mildred Blaxter (1990) notes that
Beauchamp and Childress (1989)
believe
Muir (2004) states that
Thompson et al (2004) argue that
0.3
I propose that
I believe
I think ultimately
I would suggest that
we can see that
you find that
I decided that
5.1
0.3
I had always believed that
I realise with hindsight that
As professionals, we may feel
Personally I feel that
we cannot confidently say that
I am satisfied; however, that
Westminster Institute of Education
Boyd and Silk suggest that:
Semaw (1997) points out
that
Richard Klein emphasizes
that
Tim Ingold argues that,
Ingold conversely
concludes that
He claims for instance that
BAWE
I don’t think
I concur that
We can fairly safely say
that
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Disciplinary Differences: Non-Personal Projection
Non-Self
external
English
Engineering
Health
Anthropology
2.3
2.6
4.9
3.2
0.6
0.5
3.8
2.5
feminist readings of
the turnover data
the Bible, and
suggests that
indeed Atwood’s
novel itself,
demonstrate that
internal
1.6
These actions
suggest
This symbolises that
This passage also
suggests that
Self
1.3
It seems that
it is clear
it is natural that
Studies have shown that
Statistics have shown that
It has always been
understood that
2.0
The graph shows that
The results have
shown that
1.1
The results of this may
show that
These showed that
This suggests that
2.7
it appears that
it is unlikely that
It is expected that
it is observed that
4.7
It is also true that
it is possible that
it is highly unlikely that
it was unclear why
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BAWE
It has been suggested
It has been predicted
that
0.7
This essay argues that
This example shows
that
This quote shows that
3.2
there is a high
probability that
it is unlikely
It appears that
it is not surprising that
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Mediated or second order learning
‘Disciplinary Literature’
Textbooks
Research Literature
Lectures
Student Writing
‘Object of Study’
Teaching in HE is “… a rhetorical activity, seeking to persuade students to
change the way they experience the world (and to) enable students to
learn the descriptions of the world devised by others. (…) It is
mediated learning, allowing students to acquire knowledge of someone
else’s way of experiencing the world. “
Laurillard (1993) p28-29
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Health Care
• Draws equally on literature (P + NP Non-Self) and personal (P + NP
Self) as point of deparutre to orientate reader.
• Key epistemology is of reflective practitioner: evident in P/ Self.
Orienting
topical
Rheme
I was also unaware
that post
registration,
each
practitioner
is personally responsible for ensuring that practice
meets legal requirements and maintaining
professional competence, which means keeping up
to date with new procedures and policies (NMC
2002).
• Clusters of Interpersonal themes. E.g. in conclusion
• Projection gives reflective distance and integrates two elements.
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Conclusion 2nd year Health Care
Orienting
topical
Rheme
The decision to deceive
someone about their
treatment
is not one that should be taken
lightly
and I hope that
this
case study has illustrated some of
the areas that should be considered
by the team.
Although the Mental Capacity Bill
(2005) has made the guidelines
about non-consensual treatment
clearer, it is highly unlikely that
the practice of covert
medicine administration
will ever be detailed by the letter of
the law since this could lead to its
abuse.
Kant would argue that since his
categorical imperative cannot be
applied,
the practice
should not be allowed.
Most practitioners though,
particularly in the mental health
field recognise that
there
are times when an individual may
need an intervention even though
they don’t want it –
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Anthropology
•
•
•
Key focus: Literature as point of departure (P + NP Non-Self)
Lack of explicit self (P/Self). Use of NP Self.
Example of ‘pattern’ or clusters of interpersonal theme (projection):
• Personal Non-Self: arguments in the literature
Orienting
topical
Rheme
Concurrently, Katherine
Milton (1999) suggests
that,
‘using meat to supply
essential amino-acids
and many required
micronutrients
frees-space in the gut for
(high energy i.e. USO)
plant foods (p11).
In reply, proponents of the
USO’s hypothesis and
especially Richard
Wrangham, argue that
if cooked,
tubers
could fulfil all the
dietary requirements.
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English Studies
• Few Interpersonal themes (twice as many Textual and Experiential)
• Extensive referencing and quotation exists but little projection: point of
departure
• Integrated into main clause (use of numerical index system)
The way in the Romantic poets ‘revolutionised’ such rational and
structured ideas is abundantly evident in William Wordsworth and
Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Lyrical Ballads, “arguably the most important
single volume of the romantic period” which “signalled a literary
revolution.”[1]
[1] Duncan Wu Romanticism: An Anthology Second Edition (Oxford:
Blackwell Publishing, 1998) p.189
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In both novels the dystopic totalitarian regimes purport ways of living in a
disturbingly collective manner. In the world of ‘1984’ the distortion of reality
by the omnipresent Big Brother creates a society absent of purpose and
without the freedom of individual choice. In The Handmaid’s Tale the
abundance of biblical imagery, and allusion to various narratives of the
Bible generates a harrowing image of a futuristic patriarchal society, which
legitimates the humiliation and enslavement of women with literal
interpretations of scripture. However, what I would also argue as a key
idea in both novels, and also feminist hermeneutics, is the importance of
the preservation of the individual self within the larger, collective body. In
particular, feminist readings of the Bible, and indeed Atwood’s novel
itself, demonstrate that the voices of these individuals should not, and
will not, remain silenced. (conclusion
•
•
•
•
Orienting themes: experiential Circumstances relating to text: object of study
Clusters of textual and interpersonal themes for key points
Literature or personal stance not often the point of departure
In gerneral, writers perspective on the text (object of study) is the main
proposition
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Engineering
•
•
•
No P/ Non-Self and few NP Non-self. (few references and citation)
Little explicit ‘Self’ (P/ Self). There is use of NP/Self
NP/ Non-self / Internal – refers to data or proposition established in
student’s text.
It is unlikely though that anyone could apply his or her full body
weight to the drill, as this would unbalance him or her.
This principle suggests that the restraints on the beam in the
experimental and initial FE model would have no effect on the results
due to the distance from the ends exceeding 306mm. However the
results indicate that this is not the case where the FE model
produced two different sets of results for differing end restraints, with
the experimental and theoretical giving two different yield loads.
Westminster Institute of Education
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