Stance Markers in HUMSS and STEM Research Articles

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Research writing has been treated as a faceless discourse. However, this traditional convention in writing research articles (RAs hereafter) started to shift to the writing style that considers writers' intersubjectivity and reader-response. The skill of provoking text interactional enables writers to communicate an idea clearly, reasonably, and safely. Yet, not all RA writers might be aware of stance-taking that can be done in texts. Hence, such a topic might be explored to give writers an edge on making their RAs more enticing and persuasive for the readers.

METHODS

Using criterion-based-selected RAs under HUMSS and STEM discipline, the study investigated the way authors manifested their voices in the text and enabled the text to interact with the readers through stance taking strategy. Guided by the framework of Biber et al. (1999) for attitudinal stance functions, results of relational content analysis on the use of stance markers across RAs were assessed per 10,000 words.

RESULTS

Considering RAs under HUMSS, authors utilize attitudinal stance markers that reveal their attitude and feelings towards the proposition more frequently than those authors of STEM RAs. On the contrary, STEM RAs utilizes attitudinal stance markers showing authors' judgment of the proposition more frequently than HUMSS RAs. Meanwhile, stance markers showing expectation is almost equally utilized by the authors of both HUMSS and STEM RAs. From this, it can be perceived that authors of HUMSS RAs express their attitude freely on their academic works, which enhances the subjectivity of their works compared to STEM RAs which tends to be more objective in presenting propositions. On the other hand, authors of RAs under STEM Discipline were more able to give judgment and evaluation on the presented idea compared to their counterparts in HUMSS.

DISCUSSIONS

This study revealed that as HUMSS RAs writers express their attitude through the use of stance markers, STEM RAs writers reveal their evaluation of the content of the proposition. Researchers may be educated on the use of stance taking in research writing the way published RAs on peer-reviewed journals were written. In this manner, research writers might be able to increase their prominence in the academe by making their research findings, assertions, and claims acceptable and persuasive. Considering this, stance functions may be integrated into the research writing curriculum to enhance the researchers' skills in conveying their voices within the text.