The research article "Stance and engagement: a model of interaction in academic discourse" by Ken Hyland (2005) presents a comprehensive framework for understanding how academic writers interact with their readers. Hyland points to two key methods, stance and engagement, and describes some common examples of those methods.
This guide adapts Hyland's findings, which are based on an analysis of 240 research articles across eight disciplines, to show how academic writers use stance and engagement to make their writing more persuasive. Bear in mind that stance and engagement can often work together, even in a single sentence, and that these methods are not mutually exclusive.
Stance refers to how writers present themselves and convey their judgments, opinions, and commitments in academic writing. It is how writers express a textual 'voice' or authorial personality. Hyland discusses four ways to express stance.
HedgesWords that show caution and withhold complete commitment to a claim (think of the expression "hedging your bets") "may be," "possibly," "suggests," "appears to," "perhaps," "likely," "seems to"
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BoostersWords that express certainty, presenting arguments with conviction and ruling our alternative positions "clearly," "definitely," "obviously," "demonstrates," "proves," "certainly," "shows"
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Attitude MarkersWords that express the writer's feeling, values, and assessments "surprisingly," "unfortunately," "interestingly," "remarkable," "appropriate," "important"
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Self-mentionUse of first-person pronouns and possessive adjectives to indicate the writer's own presence and identity "I argue," "we discovered," "our analysis," "my research," "in this paper, I"
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| Humanities & Social Sciences | Sciences & Engineering |
|---|---|
| More hedges to acknowledge multiple interpretations | Fewer hedges, more definitive statements |
| Greater use of self-mention creates impression of subjectivity | Minimal self-mention creates impression of objectivity |
| More attitude markers to evaluate content | Focus on data rather than writer's attitudes |
Engagement refers to how writers connect with their readers, acknowledge their presence, and guide them through arguments. It involves explicitly addressing the reader as a participant in the discourse. Hyland discusses five ways to foster engagement.
Reader PronounsPronouns that directly refer to or include the reader, binding the writer and reader together "we can see," "you may notice," "our understanding," "let us consider," "as we know"
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DirectivesInstructions that guide the reader to do something or see things in a certain way "consider," "note that," "look at," "imagine," "it is important to understand," "see Table 1," "See Smith (1999)"
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QuestionsInterrogative statements that invite the reader into the discussion by asking questions "Why does this matter?" "How might this approach work in practice?" "What are the implications of these results?"
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Appeals to Shared KnowledgeStatements that position both writer and reader as having common understanding, presupposing the readers hold particular beliefs "of course," "obviously," "as we know," "in our field it is well established that," "familiar concept"
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Personal AsidesBrief interruptions where the writer directly addresses the reader, offering commentary "As I believe many professionals would agree," "(this, by the way, is a critical distinction)," "as we saw earlier"
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| Humanities & Social Sciences | Sciences & Engineering |
|---|---|
| Frequent use of reader pronouns ("we can see") | Limited reader pronouns, more impersonal style |
| Use of questions to engage readers in dialogue | Fewer questions, more direct statements |
| More personal asides and direct reader address | More functional directives (e.g., "See Figure 2") |
Hyland, K. (2005). Stance and engagement: a model of interaction in academic discourse. Discourse Studies, 7(2), 173-192.
