LING 620 Proseminar/Thesis Formal Proposal Feedback
NAME OF PRESENTER ……………Caylee
1. TITLE
I think it is a good title, as it covers what your research is about and what you will use
for your research.
2. INTRODUCTION: RESEARCH AREA
It is good to present the different kinds of markers in an indented way, so that I can
easily understand the relation between them. But I was wondering if there is a clearcut difference between commentary markers and assessment markers, since the
criterion you are saying like “gratitude that something did happen” is subjective, but
not objective. So would words like “eventually”, “finally” be counted as assessment
markers in a context like someone worked so hard that finally achieved something?
3. AIM/JUSTIFICATION
You presented very well what previous studies have done and also their limitations. It
would look better if you could present here in this slide what you will achieve or what
gap you will fill in your research.
4. REFERENCES
Nice selection of references. While explaining a study in the Grammar Book, you
mentioned some terms that I don’t quite understand, such as “sentence and short
adverbials”, “prepositional content”. You might explain a bit more about them. Also,
as you mentioned that your research would extend this study a little bit, so you might
explain here in what aspect you would extend.
5. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Since the third question is an emerging one, so there is no previous study that has
done something about it. But do you have any preliminary evidence found in your
corpus that can provide the basis for your question? For example, you mentioned past
tense and present tense categories. Have you found any sentences in the corpus differ
according to this criterion?
6. METHODOLOGY
a. SUBJECTS/SOURCES
You might as well consider dividing the spoken register into two registers, which are
informal and formal, and also selecting one more register from the “other” register,
for example, science. Because when I did small-scale discourse analysis, I found the
data of science is different from those of other genres.
b. MATERIALS/INSTRUMENTS
I think the search and find function can serve the purpose of your research very well.
I cannot come up with any other punctuation possibilities. But I was wondering if the
last two possibilities belong to the first two. For example, when you search the data
of “hopefully”, the data of the fourth possibility “hopefully,” might be included as
well.
c. PROCEDURE
You may also analyze the frequency of each assessment marker in different registers,
as spoken language and written language differ in many aspects. I’m not sure about
this, but is there any possibility that one *ly word is an assessment marker in one
context, but in another context it is not?
d. TYPE OF DATA AND ANALYSIS
I still don’t quite understand what “propositional content” means, so if you could
provide an example here, it would be very helpful to comprehend the term. Again,
your quantitative analysis may include the comparison of the frequency of one
assessment marker in each register, and you may find some trend.
7. ANTICIPATED PROBLEMS/LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
What is your criterion for whittling down some assessment markers? I think your
methodology is designed in a way which is based on previous studies and thus valid
for you research.
8. EXPECTED FINDINGS
I believe you will get these finding, especially, for the first and the third one. Because
assessment markers which are usually used to express speaker’s desire probably would appear
in the future forms, and which are used to gratitude something has happened would appear in
the past tense.
9. OVERALL COMMENTS
You do a good job. Your presentation is well-organized and well-delivered. I had no idea what
pragmatic markers are, let alone assessment markers. But now I know what they are, and why
they are used in different registers. One point as I mentioned above is that you may just need
to search lower case and upper case for each assessment marker without the punctuations,
which will reduce much of your work, but it will not affect the validity of your data. Besides,
you may also present in your research the criteria for how you select or whittle down
assessment markers.
LING 620 Proseminar/Thesis Formal Proposal Feedback
NAME OF PRESENTER Caylee
1. TITLE : Assessment Markers: A Corpus Study.
2. INTRODUCTION: RESEARCH AREA: Pragmatics (Pragmatic Markers). Great
introduction into getting us familiar with your area. Providing examples helps
activate some background knowledge for the audience to relate to.
3. AIM/JUSTIFICATION: Cute unintended put of “actually”  It is really
interesting how easily we use these markers. Even how they pop up from time to
time in your presentation!
4. REFERENCES: The G-Book cha-ching!!!!
5. RESEARCH QUESTIONS: Great research questions! Especially question # 3.
6. METHODOLOGY: You are really good at looking for trends in corpus data. You
have demonstrated this in Pedagogical Grammar. Good choice! I am wondering if
you will find any corpus data that will show “Hopefully” used in its correct form
instead of used as a sentence adverbial. Great explanation of separate components
of your methodology.
a. SUBJECTS/SOURCES: Strong
b. MATERIALS/INSTRUMENTS: Strong
c. PROCEDURE: Strong
d. TYPE OF DATA AND ANALYSIS: Strong
7. ANTICIPATED PROBLEMS/LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY: I think most
research is inspired by our own inquiry.
.
8. EXPECTED FINDINGS: For your expected findings, can you give us example sentences?
Some of us need visuals.
9. OVERALL COMMENTS: This is a strong study. Great work.
LING 620 Proseminar/Thesis Formal Proposal Feedback
NAME OF PRESENTER
Caylee
1. TITLE
The title is clear to me as well as the research area
2. INTRODUCTION: RESEARCH AREA
I like the way you have narrowed down your research topic from a very broad area to a
specific one.
3. AIM/JUSTIFICATION
Very sound justifications. Am however curious to know if there could be any kind
of relationship between the few that have been researched on and specific fields
where they are used. I feel like the issue of registers and styles might influence
their usage.
4. REFERENCES
Nice critique on the work you are building on. I like the suggestion of chipping in
something into your mentor’s work to make it better.
5. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Explicitly stated. Would it be helpful to specify in the first question that you are
investigating adverbs which are frequently used among the ones you have selected?
METHODOLOGY
a. SUBJECTS/SOURCES
The NBC’s corpus is a great source and the justification for selecting it sound. My weird
suggestion would be for you may be to consider using the Corpus of
Contemporary American English (COCA) to see the kind of comparative results you
might get.
Other sounds somewhat very broad. Would it be okay to ignore it?
b. MATERIALS/INSTRUMENTS
It is crystal clear
Other examples that I can think of which are somehow common include: surprisingly,
honestly, seriously, ordinarily and obviously.
c. PROCEDURE
Nice job
d. TYPE OF DATA AND ANALYSIS
You have two types of data: qualitative and quantitative and it is clear how each will be
analyzed.
ANTICIPATED PROBLEMS/LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
I feel like the first limitation is due to individual styles. Some people have already
‘individualized’ some assessment markers and use them all the time.
6. EXPECTED FINDINGS
I feel like assessment markers in the newspapers might almost similar to the ones in spoken and
fiction because newspapers report issues from diverse fields and perspectives.
7. OVERALL COMMENTS
Nice job. Your research area sounds very interesting and I feel it will be a great peace of
work after all has been said and done.
LING 620 Proseminar/Thesis Formal Proposal Feedback
NAME OF PRESENTER ………………Caylee…………………….
1. TITLE
I like your title. It makes me curious about your study.
2. INTRODUCTION: RESEARCH AREA
It’s very nice of you to give us definitions and examples for each term. But I
would like to know the resource of the categorization (in which book or article
they are named “assessment markers”).
3. AIM/JUSTIFICATION
I really like that you give examples of more often used markers and less often
used markers.
4. REFERENCES
Isn’t it nice to use the G book as one reference?
5. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
I think these are nice questions. At first I thought that the third question and the
second question overlap a little bit because one way of classifying the assessment
markers is to be based on the register they occur, and then I didn’t think it’s a
problem because in the second question you are looking at assessment markers as
a whole and in the third question you are looking at the differences among
different assessment markers. Still, it seems to me to answer those questions, you
really need to work a lot!
6. METHODOLOGY
a. SUBJECTS/SOURCES
It might be nicer to give readers a stronger reason of using BNC rather
than that you’ve used it in grammar class. 
b. MATERIALS/INSTRUMENTS
I was amazed to see that your list of the possibilities of searching only one
word, and these are still not all of them! Good job.
c. PROCEDURE
For this list of words that you came up with based on previous study, you
may want to consult other native speakers and ask their feelings. Also, I
have a question about the last step. If you do find some new assessment
markers that fit Fraser’s definition and previous trends, will you count
them in analyzing the assessment markers for your research questions?
d. TYPE OF DATA AND ANALYSIS
How do you define “significant”?
7. ANTICIPATED PROBLEMS/LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
I think you can adjust your methodology after you start to analyze the data.
.
8. EXPECTED FINDINGS
It seems like your categorization is based on both Assessment markers’ relation to
propositional content and the verb tenses. It might be nicer to have only one standard in
categorizing.
9. OVERALL COMMENTS
Overall I think you did a nice job! I also feel you really need to do lots of searching,
coding and analyzing. Good luck! 