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Corpora and Rhetorically Informed Text Analysis: The diverse applications of DocuScope
Edited by David West Brown and Danielle Zawodny Wetzel
[Studies in Corpus Linguistics 109] 2023
► pp. 42–78

DocuScope, multi-dimensional analysis, and student writing

Comparisons across tagging systems and corpora

| Carnegie Mellon University
| Carnegie Mellon University

In this chapter, we present a method for comparing tagging systems and patterns of disciplinary variation in corpora of student writing. We begin by highlighting the affordances of rhetorically and linguistically informed tagging systems by highlighting similarities and differences in each system’s analysis of the Michigan Corpus of Upper-Level Student Papers (MICUSP). Results confirm that both taggers produce statistically robust results in distinguishing disciplines across three dimensions and also highlight commonalities and differences that reflect the taggers’ respective theoretical orientations. Then, we present the results of a DocuScope-driven comparison of the British Academic Written English (BAWE) and MICUSP corpora and summarize topical and rhetorical patterns of disciplinary writing that seem fairly stable across national contexts. This chapter’s findings should prove useful to scholars interested in comparative methodologies of corpus analysis and rhetorical measures of disciplinary variation as well as those who work in or research writing in the disciplines.

Keywords: student writing, disciplinary variation, academic discourse, international education, corpus analysis, corpus linguistics, corpus tagging, rhetorical analysis, multidimensional analysis
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Data and methods
    • 2.1Corpora description
    • 2.2Data preparation and processing
    • 2.3Multi-Dimensional Analysis (MDA)
  • 3.Comparing rhetorically and linguistically oriented dimensions
    • 3.1Dimension 1
    • 3.2Dimension 2
    • 3.3Dimension 3
  • 4.Comparing dimensions across national corpora
    • 4.1Social, humanistic commentary versus object- and process-oriented description
      • 4.1.1Topical content: The world of people versus the world of objects and processes
      • 4.1.2Rhetorical modes: Evaluative commentary versus analytical description
    • 4.2Dialogic inquiry versus monologic narration
    • 4.3Strategic planning for public good
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 29 June 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.109.03dej
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