HEDGING ISSUES IN LANGUAGE DOCTORAL DISSERTATIONS IN ESL SETTING

Abstract

Hedges, the rhetorical devices in mitigating ideas are essential in research writing. This
exploratory study analyzed 10 journal-type language doctoral dissertations with a total of 92,726
words in an ESL setting to identify the hedges used and the issues in using hedges. Using manual
corpus analysis, the study reveals that the language dissertation participants mainly made use of
modal lexical verbs, modals, and epistemic adverbs as hedges in their papers. Although all classes
of hedges were used, the total frequency of 1,279 and the few hedges in each category used imply
inadequacy. The analysis also discloses structural issues of limited use of hedges, inconsistency in
mitigating intent, unnecessary use of hedges, and limited hedging vocabulary. Highlighted by the
findings is a need for postgraduate language ESL writers for explicit instruction in hedging for its
skillful applications in research and general discourse texts as individual research writers, as
research advisers and editors, and as teachers of effective discourse.