THE ANALYSIS OF HEDGING FOUND IN STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC PAPERS

PRESENTED IN THE 4TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON LANGUAGE,

EDUCATION AND SOCIAL SCIENCES (ICLESS) 2022

Proposal Seminar

GCF. ARUMDANI W.

201020082

English Department | Nusa Cendana University | 2023

Overview

Chapter 1
This chapter focuses on the background of the study,
Chapter 2 research problems, aims and benefits, focus of study,
and the definition of the key terms.
Chapter 3
Overview

Chapter 1
This chapter will showcase the review of related
literature. There are two main discussions that were
Chapter 2 discussed in this chapter. The first is the theoretical
framework, including the descriptions of discourse
analysis, pragmatics, hedging, the taxonomy of hedges,
Chapter 3
and the function of hedging in academic writing, the
second is academic writing and the previous studies.
Overview

Chapter 1
This chapter focuses on the methodology that the
researcher uses which consist of the types of research,
Chapter 2 research instrument, data and data resources, the
technique of data collection, and the technique of data
analysis.
Chapter 3
The researcher wanted to investigate the use of
hedging which is shown by the use of hedging in These academic papers are chosen as the
academic writing, focusing on the academic papers source of the data because many hedgings
presented by students of the English Department of commonly appear in these academic
Nusa Cendana University in the 4th International papers.
Conference on Language, Education and Social
Sciences (ICLESS) 2022.

The authors of these writings are the students of English Department

of Nusa Cendana University who are considered as academians with
more understanding about the use and the functions of hedging in
academic papers.

Background
Reasons why the researcher has a passion for conducting this research:
 Introduction
An academic paper is a piece of academic writing that provides analysis, interpretation, and argument based on in-depth independent
research. Generally, the term academic writing refers to the type of writing of which the students are expected to produce as the result
of their studying that contains what they learn about in an academic setting (Debrabell, 2012).

Academic writers can sometimes implicitly convey the meanings of what they write which will create confusion for readers in
understanding their writings.

Brown and Levinson (1988, cited in Behnam, et al, 2012) claimed that when the writer presents their scientific claims, it will be a
face threatening acts, so that to avoid later criticism which may occur related to the scientific claims, the writer often chooses to make
his claims vaguer or tentative. The word which has functions to make things less fuzzy or vaguer is called hedging (Lakoff: 1972).
 Introduction
An academic paper is a piece of academic writing that provides analysis, interpretation, and argument based on in-depth independent
research. Generally, the term academic writing refers to the type of writing of which the students are expected to produce as the result
of their studying that contains what they learn about in an academic setting (Debrabell, 2012).

Academic writers can sometimes implicitly convey the meanings of what they write which will create confusion for readers in
understanding their writings.

Brown and Levinson (1988, cited in Behnam, et al, 2012) claimed that when the writer presents their scientific claims, it will be a
face threatening acts, so that to avoid later criticism which may occur related to the scientific claims, the writer often chooses to make
his claims vaguer or tentative. The word which has functions to make things less fuzzy or vaguer is called hedging (Lakoff: 1972).
 Introduction

Brown and Levinson (1988, cited in Behnam et al, 2012) claimed that when writers present their scientific claims precisely, it
will be face-threatening acts. In order to reduce the possibility of face threatening acts, hedging needs to be applied.

Hyland (1995) stated that hedging can anticipate the possible opposite arguments from the readers.
 Research Problems
1 What kind of hedging are found in the students’ academic papers?

2 What kind of hedging is the most dominantly used in students’ academic papers?

3 What are the functions of hedging found in students’ academic papers?

4 What are the meanings of hedging found in students’ academic papers?

 Aims of the study

1 2 3 4

To identify what of To find out what To describe the To describe the

hedging were found hedging is the most functions of hedging meanings of hedging
in the student's dominantly used in used by the students used by the students
academic paper students’ academic in their academic in their academic
papers paper paper
 Benefits of the study
For the researcher : the researcher can apply the knowledge that the researcher has got so far during
1 her study at English study program at Nusa Cendana University.

For the students :

2  students will know and have a good understanding of how hedging is used in academic discourse
because this study will also provided an explanation of how hedging is used in academic discourse.
 students are expected to be able to have good skills in writing academic discourse, including some
ways of softening their claims and arguments.
 This study is expected to be able to lead the students to understand how hedging functions in their
academic context until they use hedging in their academic papers.

For Lectures : the results of the study may be additional material and examples for discourse
3 studies.

For The readers : it is a supplementary source for readers or other researchers

4 who are going to write scientific writing about hedging used in academic
discourse.
 Scope and Limitation

In this study, the researcher will only focus on the analysis of hedging used in students’ academic papers.

In this study, the researcher will also analyze the whole parts of the papers, including the introduction, discussion, and
conclusion of the papers.
The researcher will rely on Hyland’s (1995) theory regarding of hedging to analyze the data. The sample size is limited to six
academic papers .
Definition of key terms

1 2

Hedging Academic
Writings
 Review of the related litelature
1 Academic Writing 2 Discourse Analysis

3 Pragmatigs
4 Hedging

5 Previous studies
 Types of Research
In this study, the researcher will use the qualitative descriptive
method because there is no measurement of the number of quantity, it
is also not about in the form of number et al. Kothari (2004) stated
that qualitative research is concern with the qualitative phenomenon
which involves or relates to quality or kind.
 Research Instrument
The research instruments of the study is the researcher herself by
using documentary of students’ academic writings. In this study, it
also will not need to have an interview or observation to get the data
since the object of the study is in the form of discourse.

Observe, collect, take notes, including mark potential words, phrases,

and sentences which belong to hedging, and analyze the data.
 Data and data resources
Kothari (2004) stated that qualitative research is the data of the study will be
in the form of papers that are categorized as one of the genres of academic
writing. According to the oxford dictionary (2008), data is the information or
facts which are analyzed. Then, in this study, the data will be in the form of
words, phrases, and sentences which will take from the students’ academic
writing.
The data source of the study will take from six academic papers presented by
students of English Department of Nusa Cendana University at the 4th
International Conference on Language, Education and Social Sciences
(ICLESS) 2022. Then, in analyzing the data, it will transform into the form of
words, phrases, sentences, and tables if it is needed.
 The technique of data
collection
The researcher will use the listed instrument to collect the data. The
researcher will collect the 6 academic papers, researcher will classify which
papers have the structure of academic writing, and will also underline the
statements or phrases, or words that contain of hedging markers, followed by
analyzing and interpreting the data.
 The technique of data analysis

After collecting the data, the researcher will use the qualitative descriptive technique in analyzing the functions
and meaning of hedging, including the hedging markers which will find in the 6 academic papers which will
take from the published book.

collect - read - classify - find out - identify attempt

 THANK YOU
“Maybe winning isn’t everything. One just needs to hedge the bet and minimize the risk.”
― Doug Cooper, Outside In