Chapter 4
“This dissonance”
Bolstering credibility in academic abstracts
Writing a convincing abstract requires the ability to demonstrate credibility through an adequate selection of
keywords. A case in point is the selection of shell nouns determined by this. Based on a comparable
interdisciplinary corpus of 400 PhD abstracts written in English by writers in an Anglophone and a Francophone
context, the role of shell nouns determined by this is studied to (1) assess their impact on textual
cohesion (2) evaluate the connection between the selected terms and the discipline’s epistemological values as
perceived by newcomers (3) consider the influence of the writer’s linguistic origin on the handling of this device.
This study aims to contribute to the assessment of the parameters which might undermine writers’ credibility in their
scientific community.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Background issues on labeling nouns and the uses of this as an anaphoric determiner in academic
discourse
- 2.1Labeling nouns also known as general, signalling, shell, or metadiscursive nouns
- 2.2This as a determiner
- 3.Corpus and methodology
- 3.1A comparable corpus of PhD abstracts written in English by writers in a French and an English context
- 3.2Approach and method for corpus study
- 3.3Approach and method for case studies
- 4.Results and discussion of the corpus-based study
- 4.1Definition and distribution of a functional typology of this as a determiner
- 4.2Definition and distribution of a semantic typology of encapsulating this + LN
- 5.Back to the text: Gains and losses
- 5.1Case study 1: Building an effective argumentative flow
- 5.2Case study 2: Failing to inscribe the research project in the disciplinary field
- 5.3Case study 3: Assessing the rhetorical impact of interpretive encapsulating this
- 5.4Gains and losses
- 6.Final discussion and conclusion
- 6.1Final discussion
- 6.2Conclusion
-
Acknowledgement
-
Notes
-
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