Research and Thesis writing4. Thesis writing and persuasionIn unit 2 of this module we suggested that the process of developing aresearch proposal is ultimately one of establishing a gap in currentresearch which your thesis will aim to address. Consequently, thefunction of your research proposal and the literature review chapter ofyour thesis is to convince your audience that this research gap does exist,and that your research is valid and significant. At the macro level, thefunction of your thesis is to describe your research, identify itscontribution to the field and to convince your reader of the validity ofyour argument or thesis.

The language of your thesis needs to be persuasive even though thisseems to contradict our folk understandings of academic discourse asobjective and impersonal. In this unit we investigate the ways in whichpersuasion occurs in academic writing. We can only generalise about thelanguage features of persuasion across different disciplines, but we hopein the following discussion to give you enough ‘tools’ in your ownlanguage toolbox so that you can identify persuasive language in yourown discipline and use it suitably in your own writing.

Building the case: Persuading your audience with evidence The most obvious way you will be able to persuade your audience isthrough the presentation and organisation of evidence that supports theposition or case you are arguing. In a long document like a thesis, alogical progression from one piece of evidence to another and propersign-posting of that progression is particularly important if your readeris not to get lost. Part of the sign-posting comes from such things aschapter and section titles that indicate movement to a new topic and thepresentation of a new piece of evidence; other sign-posting is necessaryto identify movement of ideas within sections or between paragraphs toensure that evidence being presented is foregrounded and notaccidentally backgrounded.

Example text

U n i v e r s i t y o f W o l l o n g o n g

A number of studies during the 70s seemed tosuggest that younger students obtained betterdegree results than older students. Studies in anumber of countries (Warren, 1975; Barlow, 1978; Smith, 1979) all seemed to confirm originalfindings by Brown et al (1970). All of thesestudies, however, were based on only smallsamples of students who were aged betweenseventeen and twenty-one and the correlationtechniques employed in the studies meant thatthe relationship between age and performancereally only concerned this narrow age band. Acloser look at the findings from Brown’s originalstudy actually suggests that the relationshipbetween age and performance disappears whencontrolled for intelligence.

In this excerpt from aliterature review, you’llnotice that the writer putshis or her own argumentat the end of the section.A series of arguments orevidence is presentedthen refuted; this allowsthe writer to present .analternative. Notice howthe use of ‘seemed’ in thefirst sentence indicates alack of credibility in theresults.The writer presents argu-ment that refutes earlierresearch. Notice the useof however to signpostthe contrary view thewriter is putting forward.

1. Research modelsand methods

2. Developing aresearch proposal

3. Thesis Structureguidelines

1.

2.

3.

L e a r n i n g o b j e c t i v e s

This module will help you to:

• learn about various research models.

• prepare a research proposal.

• structure your thesis and its

chapters.

• write convincingly of your research

outcomes and implications

4. Thesis writingand persuasion

4.

3b. Sample Introduction from Engineering, Biology & Education

3a. Sample Abstract fromEngineering & Biology

3f. Sample Conclusion fromEngineering & Education

3c. Sample Methods section from Biology, Engineering & Education

3d. Sample Results sectionfrom Biology & Education

3e. Sample Discussion sectionfrom Biology

(Adapted from Bell (1987) Doing your research project Bristol: Open University)

Making claims: degrees of certaintyIn academic writing, the strength of the claims researchers make is dependent on theamount of evidence there is to support the claim or the degree of certainty felt bythe researcher. The words used to indicate these degrees of certainty are words suchas the modal verbs would, should, may, can, the adverbs and adjectives possibly,possible; the verbs believe, suggest, consider; and nouns such as belief, possibility,assumption, and claim. These words and constructions allow you to signal a degreeof uncertainty in the claims you put forward, or to signal higher degrees ofcertainty.

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e A number of studies during the 80s reported evidencethat supports an opposing view, ie. that older students are just as successful, in terms of degree results, asyounger students. Philips and Cullen (1985), for instance,found that those aged twenty-four and over tended to dobetter than the eighteen and nineteen-year-old age group.Other studies have found that older students, those whodelayed entry to university for a year or two, are moresuccessful than those who enter directly from school(Spicer & Owen 1986; Frome 1988; Reynolds 1988).

Even more studies since then have reported evidence thatsuggests that neither of the above views can be acceptedtoo readily. They suggest that the relationship betweenage and performance is not a linear one, in eitherdirection. Sanders’ study (1987) found that the universitysuccess rate actually fell until the age of twenty ortwenty-one, at which point it rose again. Brown (1989)found that …

The conflicting data resulting from all of these studiessuggest that it may be too simplistic to suggest thatincreasing age brings either more or less success: otherfactors can account for the apparent relationship betweenage and performance: To provide conclusive evidence, astudy is needed that includes subjects across a broad agerange, that gathers data about a range of related factorsand that carries out a multivariate analysis of factors onthe results …

Here, the writer presentsevidence from researchthat further refutes theearlier research.

Notice the role that topicsentences play in sign-posting both the newevidence being presentedand the direction beingtaken by the author.

Here, the writer signalsa position that refutes

both of the previousarguments, then goes on to support that withevidence from research .

The writer now putsforward his/her ownpoint of view.

Linguistic ‘tools’ to Example sentences Explanationhelp signal levels of certainty/uncertaintyany unqualified verbs The results indicate that … High degree of certaintyIs/are The present results are High degree of certainty

evidence that…suggest The present results suggest that … Medium degree of certaintycan The present results can also be Medium degree of certainty

used to address Piaget’s (1959)claims.

could The findings could indicate that… Low degree of certaintymay The findings may suggest that …. Low degree of certaintypossibly The work is possibly indicative of… Low degree of certainty

Covert persuasion and evaluationSuccessful persuasion in the scientific and generally the academic context also oftenoccurs less obviously when writers are trying to put the best ‘spin’ on their resultsand when readers are not aware they have been persuaded. The language throughwhich persuasion occurs has to be implicit, and not obvious to the reader. Considerthe following example on the left; the annotations on the right highlight thepersuasive features of the example text.

(Adapted from Hunston, S. 1994, pp. 193 –199)

You’ll notice, no doubt, that the writers of those sentences feel Piaget was probablywrong in this particular area, and that they are most probably right, even thoughthey have said neither of these things explicitly. It has only been implied. What’smore, you might feel that you’ve been persuaded to share the authors’ viewsbecause of the way they’ve ‘implied’ certain things.

‘Strategic vaguenessAs well as persuading readers covertly, as the last section showed, there are ways ofleaving out or underplaying certain information that effectively allows yourargument to be more persuasive. This is called strategic vagueness: it results fromthe backgrounding of some points and the foregrounding of others. An example ofsuch vagueness is the text below.

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The present results can also be used to Notice that the things that Piaget hasaddress Piaget’s (1959) claims.. reported are referred to by the authors as

claims rather than results. This effectively demotes Piaget’s results without saying so explicitly.

Piaget argued that children under the age Here, the authors write that Piaget argued,of seven years, especially between the suggesting that what he said was anages of three and five years, find it difficult interpretation which can be arguedto accommodate the perspectives of against, rather than a result which their listeners. would have the status of a fact. The results of the present study, however, The authors here refer to their ownindicate that children between the ages research as results. They also use theof 3 and 4 years do adapt to differences reporting verb indicates rather than ain listener status and say ‘thank you’ more verb with more uncertain status suchfrequently to adults than to peers. as suggests.These findings support the results of In this sentence, the writers’ research isprevious studies in which preschoolers similarly referred to as These findingsrecognized differences in listener status which are then interpreted as supportingand adjusted their use of politeness similar findings. By linking the findings routines accordingly [references]. to other similar findings, the authors

establish a greater level of significance for their own research (pp. 193-199).

Example text

While ‘strategic vagueness’ is a feature of academic discourse, letting an examinerthink that you don’t know the field by leaving out relevant information or that youhave deliberately tried to distort the field will almost certainly detract from thesuccess of your thesis

ConclusionThis resource has provided some examples of the way language functions topersuade and evaluate, to modify the degree of certainty attached to a knowledgeproposition, and to create strategic vagueness. As a research student, part of theprocess of successfully participating in your chosen discourse community involveslearning and negotiating the way your discipline uses these persuasive tools so thatyou are able to use them in ways that are valid within the discipline.

ReferencesBell, ? (1987) Doing your research project Bristol: Open University.

Bizzell, P. (1982). College composition: initiation into the academic discoursecommunity. Curriculum Inquiry, 12(2), 191-207.

Halliday, M. A. K. (1994). An Introduction to Functional Grammar (2nd editioned.). London: Arnold.

Hunston Susan. (1994). Evaluation and organization in a sample of writtenacademic discourse. Coulthard Malcolm (editor), Advances in Written TextAnalysis (pp. 191-218). London: Routledge.

Hyland, K. (1994). Hedging in academic writing and EAP textbooks. English forSpecific Purposes, 13(3), 239-256.

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The results of the present study indicate thatchildren between the ages of 3 and 4 years doadapt to differences in listener status and say‘thank you’ more frequently to adults than topeers. This finding supports the results of previousstudies in which preschoolers recognizeddifferences in listener status and adjusted their useof politeness routines accordingly [references].

A number of studies during the 70s seemed tosuggest that younger students obtained betterdegree results than older students. Studies in anumber of countries (Warren, 1975; Barlow, 1978;Smith, 1979, etc.) all seemed to confirm originalfindings by Brown et al (1970). All of thesestudies, however, were based on only smallsamples of students who were aged betweenseventeen and twenty-one and the correlationtechniques employed in the studies meant that ...

Notice that the writers do not discuss to what degree preschoolersrecognise differences in listenerstatus, and to what degree theyadjust their use of politeness markers.To what degree may not be relevantto the argument, and so thenumbers are not given. This has the effect of chanelling the reader’sattention, backgrounding somepoints and foregrounding others.This lack of information about towhat degree preschoolers recognizedifferences in listener status couldalso be an intentional vagueness onthe part of the researchers. To bemore specific, or less vague, wouldprovide information that could beless supportive of their own results.

A reader might ask why the authorhasn’t spelt out more about thesestudies: the number of them, thecountries in which they were carriedout, the degree to which their resultssupported each other’s findings, andso on. The writer may have chosento be vague about them because itmay have provided information thatwould be less supportive of theargument being set up.

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Latour, B., & Woolgar, S. (1979). Laboratory Life: the social construction ofscientific facts. Beverley Hills, CA: Sage.

Myers, G. (1996). Strategic vagueness in academic writing. In E. Ventola, & A.Mauranen (Editors), Academic writing: intercultural and textual issues (pp. 3-18).Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Swales, J. (1990). Genre analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Thomson, E., Woodward-Kron, R., Humphrey, S., Droga, L., & Dreyfus, S.Learning disciplinary discourses, learning grammar: exploring academic discoursesusing SFL with undergraduates. International Systemic Functional Conference2000.