Elizabeth Swain

University of Trieste, Italy

Appraisal in expository texts: insights and pedagogical implications

Appraisal theory (Martin, 2000; White, 2001; Macken-Horarik & Martin eds., 2003) is descriptive rather than prescriptive, but presumably there are norms operating about what can be appraised, by whom and how in different genres / contexts, norms which appraisal analysis can shed light on. Academic expository discourse - except perhaps for argumentation - values for instance impersonality and 'objectivity' in topic treatment. But EFL or EAP students may fail to maintain such norms in their essay writing. Academic writing text books e.g. Jordan (1999) and Seal (1997) deal usefully with characteristic features such as impersonality, hedging and attribution of sources. This paper considers how appraisal theory may add something to our awareness of the scope of the resources available for expressing evaluation in academic expository discourse and provide some pedagogical solutions for essay writing as part of English language learning syllabuses.