Application Of Appraisal Theory To Practical Writing

Appraisal theory,developed by Martin in 1990s,is a complement to the interpersonal meaning of Halliday's grammar-based model.It aims at evaluative resources in texts used to negotiate emotions,judgments and valuations.Appraisal theory contains three sub-systems—Attitude,Graduation and Engagement.Hence it is a model of interpersonal meaning at the level of discourse semantics.The present thesis is designed to make analysis of a new typetext—practical writing with Appraisal Theory.Practical writing is believed as the most commonly used type of article in personal and social activities to solve the personal and official problems.The author chooses 30 research article abstracts(RA abstracts),30 covering letters,and 30 company profiles to give an Appraisal analysis.The result of the research shows:1.Concerning Attitude,RA abstracts show a strong preference for Attitude as Appreciation rather than Affect and Judgment because of the objectivity nature of the academic discourse.While Capacity,a subtype of Judgment,takes the largest proportion in the whole Attitude values concerning the function of coveting letters and company profiles.2.Concerning Graduation,for RA abstracts,the lexical items of Focus are rarely used owning to exactness and accuracy of academic research.Also,the RA abstract writer uses many scaled Graduation values to negotiate with the reader.Besides, numbers are used to transfer reliability and credibility of the study to the reader.In covering letters and company profiles,Force-raising values are used to highlight the applicant's or the company's advantages.3.Concerning Engagement,RA abstracts writers use a lot of Heteroglossic engagement for listing other's opinions yet to support their own research.In covering letters,the frequent use of the first person subject indicates the writer(applicant)'s own commitment to his words in a monoglossic way to show the applicant's capacity,and suitability for the job position.The use of Modal markers establishes interpersonal relationship with the intended reader.This can also be attributed to the dialogistic nature of the covering letter.In Engagement analysis on company profiles,the author focuses on Heteglossia and dialogism and finds company profiles writers align or dis-align with their intended or imagined readers.From the analysis we know that the writers of practical wirings make great effort to establish interpersonal alliance with the reader by using the language full of Appraisal resources.It's the interpersonal meaning that determines the complicated evaluative patterns in these three practical writing discourses.Moreover,it offers pedagogical implications for students to realize the interactive role of Appraisal in the process of reading and writing practical writing.