GRADUATION and ENGAGEMENT in students' academic writing in the Humanities. An Appraisal Theory contrastive analysis

Abstract

Over the past few years there has been an increasing interest in the analysis of the specific features of higher education genres written by students in Spanish. In particular, using contextually- and disciplinary- ound interpersonal meanings, common in assignments’ prompts and in expert writing, poses a challenge to undergraduate students. Adopting the Appraisal Theory framework, I aim at contrasting the use of GRADUATION and ENGAGEMENT systems in responses to 16 passed and failed on-site exams from humanities majors of the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Results show that high marks are linked to a more complex use of GRADUATION (varied options and directions; higher frequency of FOCUS) and ENGAGEMENT (more open, dialogistic options) systems. Therefore, it is advisable to include within the courses the explicit teaching of disciplinarily appropriate uses of interpersonal meanings.