Chapter 9. Epistemic stance and authorial presence in scientific research writing: Hedges, boosters and self-mentions across disciplines and writer groups

In this study, we investigate hedges, boosters and self-mentions as main expressions of epistemic positioning and how much they are projected by explicit authorial presence in the research writings by Chinese PhD students and expert writers across four science disciplines. Results show that PhD science students used considerably more hedges, boosters and self-mentions than journal article writers. They exhibit an obvious preference for certain...