Estudio exploratorio de artículos de revisión odontológicos publicados en revistas hispanoamericanas entre 1989 y 2005

Abstract

This study aims to analyze rhetorically and discursively 50 dental review articles (RA); published in Spanish between 1989 and 2005. We analyzed the superstructure of the RA; characteristics of its rhetorical sections; and reporting verbs; stances and hedges used. We found that the rhetorical organization introduction-development-conclusion predominated. The movements of the introduction coincide with Swales’ (1990) and with Murlow’s (1994) criteria for RAs. We found that the expository; descriptive and narrative sequences predominated in the development section. The structure of conclusion agreed with Myers (1991) and Murlow (1994). The use of impersonal constructions; together with 1st person plural and the 3rd person predominated. We found that impersonal constructions; shields; approximators; doubt expressions were used as hedging devices in the three sections of the RA; although the development; the largest section; was the most hedged. The epistemic modal verb “may” was used more frequently. We conclude that the characteristics of the RA; its communicative functions and the position of the authors conditionate the writing of this discursive genre.