DIALOGIC POSITIONING IN LITERATURE REVIEWS OF MASTERS’ THESES IN A GHANAIAN UNIVERSITY

ABSTRACT

Following insights from disciplinary variation studies on writer’s

positioning and stance, there has been an interest in analyzing how academics

engage in an academic interaction with their putative readers, by either fending

off alternative views from their readers or allowing for the inclusion of their

views. Using the engagement system of the appraisal theory propounded by

Martin and White (2005) in analyzing 45 purposively sampled M.Phil theses

submitted to the departments of Linguistics, Geography and Resource

Development and Nutrition and Food Science of the University of Ghana, the

study examined the various engagement resources used by M.Phil.students to

limit the dialogic space, on one hand, and to allow for the inclusion of the views

of their readers, on the other hand, while reviewing the works of other scholars in

the literature review section of their masters’ theses. The study also probed further

to examine the epistemological norms and conventions that inform the use of

these resources in the theses submitted to the three selected departments.The

analysis and discussion of the data revealed that M.Phil. students in the sciences

are more dialogically contractive and dialogically expansive when constructing

the literature review sections (henceforth, LR) of their theses. The analysis again

revealed that unlike the humanities and social sciences, knowledge in the natural

sciences is relatively more of an impersonal, inductive enterprise and this

influences the engagement resources postgraduate students use while reviewing

existing literature in their theses. The study contributes to postgraduate pedagogy,

the appraisal theory and serves as a fertile ground for further research.

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