‘We do not seem to have a
theory… The theory I present here attempts to fill this gap’: inclusive and exclusive pronouns in academic
writing
Nigel
Harwood
Abstract
This
paper is a qualitative and quantitative corpus-based study of how academic
writers use the personal pronouns I
and inclusive and exclusive we.
Using a multidisciplinary corpus comprising of journal research articles (RAs)
from the fields of Business and Management, Computing Science, Economics, and
Physics, I present data extracts which reveal how I and we can help
writers create a sense of newsworthiness and novelty about their work, showing
how they are plugging disciplinary knowledge gaps. Inclusive pronouns can act
as positive politeness devices by describing and/or critiquing common
disciplinary practices, and elaborating arguments on behalf of the community.
They can also organize the text for the reader, and highlight the current
problems and subject areas which preoccupy the field. The quantitative analysis
reveals that while all instances of we
in the Business and Management articles and all but one of the instances of we in the Economics articles are
inclusive, only a third of the instances in the Computing articles and under
10% of the instances in the Physics articles are inclusive. The study ends with
a brief discussion of what a few English for Academic Purposes (EAP) textbooks
tell students about inclusive and exclusive pronouns, and with some suggestions
for EAP classroom activities.
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