b. Explain ONE way in which evaluation is made less direct or tempered in the extract with an appropriate example (2 marks).

2. Common ways to make evaluation less direct or tempered include 

(1) using modal verbs (e.g., may, could, can, etc.); 

(2) using hedging; --- refer to the handout of the lesson on Oct 19.

(3) using appropriate verbs, tenses, and voices.  --- refer to the handout and PPT of the lesson on Oct 19.

(4) using indirect evaluation based on academic values, rather than personal/ moral values [or using other academic resources to support one's own argument (according to Chan (2016)), rather than directly saying "I think"] --- we have emphasized this when we discussed interpersonal meanings.   --- refer to the handouts and PPTs.

a. One example of evaluation in the excerpt is A negative side of genre approaches is that they undervalue the skills needed to produce a text and see learners as largely passive.

 

The grammatical resource in the example is as follows:

A negative side of genre approaches is the subject, and the head noun is side, the prepositional phrase of genre approaches is as the postmodifier of the head noun.

 

The verb is is, functioned as predicator and finite. 

 

The object is that they undervalue the skills needed to produce a text and see learners as largely passive. This is a that clause, in this clause, the subject is they, the verbs are undervalue and see, and needed to produce a text is a past participate phrase to modify skills.

 

b. The third-person, they undervalue, is used to express the indirect evaluation instead of I suggest, and adverb largely is used to express the degree of certainty. For example, scientists found that most people would possibly feel tired when they are fat. In the example, words like most people, possibly are used to show the degree of certainty.

This evaluation describes the strengths of genre approaches.

Grammatical resources：

This is a complex sentence containing two noun clauses which function as the objects. 

The subordinating conjunctions of both noun clauses (that) are omitted. 

The first noun clause starting with the writing is the object following the verb, acknowlege. 

Within this noun clause, there are two shorter clauses (the writing takes place in a social situation, and is a reflection of particular purpose) joined by the conjunction, and. 

The two clauses share the same subject, the writing. Thus, this subject only appears in the first clause and is left out in the second one.

The second noun clause starting with learning is the object following the verb, understand.

In this noun clause, there exists a gerund, learning, which functions as the subject.

b. ONE way in which evaluation is made less direct or tempered

The modal verb is used to expresses appearing “confidently uncertain”.

Example: Learning can happen consciously through imitation and analysis.

The modal verb, can, functions as an auxiliary to indicate the possibility, opportunity, or likelihood in this sentence. It helps make the sentences less direct or tempered.

2. Grammatical resource: (A negative side of genre approaches )is noun phrase and it is also the subject of the sentence.(side)is head noun. (is) is the finite. (that they undervalue the skills needed to produce a text and see learners as largely passive)is that-clause. (largely)is adverb. (passive)is adjective. 

b. Example: (they undervalue the skills needed to produce a text and see learners as largely passive. )The evaluation is made less direct or tempered by using adverb-largely. (largely)express the degree of certainty. Also, they undervalue is instead of we think. This expression might be impersonal.

This evaluation describes the disadvantage of genre approach.

Grammatical resources：This is a predicative clause. A negative side of genre approaches is the subject of the sentence, side is the head noun of this noun phrase. Is is functioned as the finite. Following the finite is, the that-clause ‘that they undervalue the skills needed to produce a text and see learners as largely passive.’ is functioned as the object of the whole sentence, explaining the content of the negative side of genre approaches.

 

b.  The evaluation is made less direct or tempered by using hedging adverb ‘largely’, it avoids the absolute description of passive learners and makes the expression more objective and provides more space for negotiation. Also, the use of third person ’they’ can make the description more impersonal.

Grammatical resource: this is a predicative clause, “a negative side of genre approaches” is the subject, “is” is the predicate verb. “that they undervalue the skills needed to produce a text and see learners as largely passive” is the subjective predicative, in which “they undervalue the skills” and “see learners as largely passive” are the coordinate clauses, and “they” before the latter coordinate clause is omissive due to the same subject.  

b.     The author makes his evaluation less direct by using appropriate adverb such as “largely”, a hedging word “more” and modal verb “can”, and he also use “they” instead of directly saying “I think” so as to make his evaluation impersonal and less tempered.  

The example pf evaluation in the excerpt above is “A negative side of genre approaches is that they undervalue the skills needed to produce a text and see learners as largely passive.”

1.     The nouns in this sentence are: “side”, “approaches”, “skills”, “text”, “learners”

2.     The adjectives in this sentence are: “negative”, “passive”

3.     The verbs in this sentence are: “is”, “undervalue”, “need”, “to produce”, “see”

4.     “The negative Side” functioned as subject in the whole sentence. 

5.     The word “is” is a linking verb.

6.     Sentence “that they undervalue…text and see… passive” is functioned as a predicative clause. 

7.     “they” in the clause refers to the “genre approaches”

8.     “needed to produce…and see… passive” functioned as objective complement in the sentence.

 

    This sentence used hedging verb “undervalue” and adverb “largely” to make the sentence less direct or tempered. By using these words, the author is making his language tentative, and increase the credibility of this article in some extents.
    Using an example to make my explanation more evident:
 "Most male students probably prefer playing basketball instead of studying. "
    In this sentence, instead of just saying "male students" or "prefer" words such as "most", "probably" also functioned the same as the previous sentence.

 

predicative clauses: A negative side of genre approaches is that they……largely passive.The subject is “a negative side og genre approaches”, the linking verb is “is”, the subjective predicative is “ that they undervalue the skills……passive”.

noun phrases : negative side of genre approaches, social situation……e.g. the headnoun of “negative side of genre approaches” is “side”.

adjective: negative,passive,social, particular

adverb: largely, more positively, consciously                                                                                                                            

 

B: The third person: “they undervalue”, “they acknowledge” are used to display the less direct evaluation instead of “ I think”. and the adverb “largely” shows the degree of certainty, showing a tempered way. For instance,most of students probably play computer games during holiday. Here, “most” and “probably” show the degree of certainty.  

The evaluation pointed out the demerit of genre approach 

Grammatical resources：It includes a clause, called Predicative clause. The subject is A negative side of genre approaches. In the phrase, side is a head noun, and A functions as a determiner, negative functions as a premodifier, of genre approaches functions as a post modifier. is is a linking verb, functioning as a finite. that is a conjunction, which is followed by the predicative clause, functioning as an object. The that-clause mainly explains what is a negative side.  

b.     The evaluation is made less direct or tempered by using hedging adverb largely, and the word delivers more objective expressions instead of completely denying the saying, which means it can be negotiated further rather than directly refuse it. What’s more, in the sentence, the subject of they can provide more impersonal description.

The example of evaluation in the excerpt above is “A negative side of genre approaches is that they undervalue the skills needed to produce a text and see learners as largely passive.”

 

  For this sentence, the subject is “a negative side of genre approaches”, the copula is “is”, the predicative clause is “ that they undervalue the skills……passive”.

noun phrases : negative side of genre approaches, social situation……e.g. 

       the head noun of “negative side of genre approaches” is “side”.

       adjective: negative, passive, social, particular

       adverb: largely     

 

Question B: 

Hedging techniques: "they undervalue" is used instead of "I think" to express a less tempered attitude. To give a more detailed example, “most students may play with their mobile phones for a long time during the holidays”. Here, "most" and "probably" indicate the same degree of certainty as shown before.

    A negative side of genre approaches is that they undervalue the skills needed to produce a text and see learners as largely passive.

    The excerpt consists of 2 sentences from an academic text above have both positive and negative evaluative word choices to show a balance and objective view on genre approaches. And  in this chosen example, the evaluative language choices makes negative meaning, demonstrating the defect of genre approaches to audience.

                                                S                       F                  Cs

|| |A negative side of genre approaches |  is  |  that they undervalue the skills 

                                              NG                     VG           Predicative clauses

needed to produce a text and see learners as largely passive. | ||

 

    The class (below the wording) and function (above the wording) are analyzed above. As for clause complexity, it is a predicative clause structure that realized by a subordinate clause “that they undervalue the skills needed to produce a text and see learners as largely passive” , which consists of two parts through a parallel conjunction “and” , functioning as the complement of subject, and follow a linking verb “is” , functioning as finite, to complete the meaning of the subject “A negative side of genre approaches”. Moreover, in terms of evaluative word, both the cautious, indirect language, such as “undervalue” “negative” “passive” instead of “worst”, and softening generalization such as adjective “largely” are used to express negative impact on genre approach in this sentence. 

    Modal verb modifies an opinion in various ways expressing the speaker-writer’s attitude of negotiability of the proposition. In the excerpt, the modal auxiliary “can” construe the median value of probability, avoiding assertive languages, which can boost the impersonal meaning in academic writing. 

 

    The modal auxiliary “might” construe a median value of certainty and open up more room for negotiation with the reader, thereby make the sentence less direct and tempered.

 

 

 

This evaluation showed the author’s negative opinion of genre approaches and it mentioned two drawbacks of genre approaches.

 

Grammatical resources: the subject of this sentence is a noun phrase:“a negative side of genre approaches”, and the “side" is the head noun of this noun phrase with the "negative "as pre-modifier and the prepositional phrase “of genre approaches” as post- modifier. Besides, “is”is the finite of this clause ; the object of this clause is a that-clause which contains two parts .

 

b.the evaluation is  less direct or tempered because the hedging word “largely”was used in it . And present tense and academic verbs like “undervalue" or "produce "are used in it to make the evaluation more academic and impersonal.

 

2. 

(1) using modal verbs : can

(2) using appropriate verbs : acknowledge, understand, happen

(3) "they"= genre approaches, the sentence uses object clauses.

1.      One example of evaluation: A negative side of genre approaches is that they undervalue the skills needed to produce a text and see learners as largely passive.

2.      Grammar resources:

Nouns: side, genre, approaches, skills, text, learners

Verbs: is, undervalue, needed, produce, see

Adjectives: negative, passive(?)

Adverbs: largely

First of all, the whole sentence is a predicative clause. “Is” is the finite of the clause which connects two parts of the sentence. Meanwhile, in the second part, it is a parallel sentence connected by “and”, hence the word “undervalue” and “see” indicate a parallel relationship. In addition, the “needed” is the past participle as post attributive of “skills” in “they undervalue the skills needed”.

The word “see” here is not the ordinary meaning of looking, but the meaning of thinking or indicating.

 

This sentence refers to express the negative influence of genre approach from. In the sentence, the author uses the hedging word “largely” to show the degree of “ passive learners”, which makes the sentence more rigorous and accurate.

 

(Existing question: The reason why I mark “passive” with question mark is that I haven’t figured out the structure of “see learns as largely passive”. What’s the part of speech of “passive”? Should that sentence be written as “see learners as largely being passive” or “see learners as largely as passive”?)

 

a.      Identify ONE example of evaluation (1 mark) in the excerpt above and identify what grammatical resource has been used in the given example (1 mark).
-“More positively, they acknowledge the writing takes place in a social situation, and is a reflection of particular purpose and understand learning can happen consciously through imitation and analysis.”
-Adjunct(Hedging):More positively
-Modal Verb: can(medium value)
-Tense: present(describe facts and truth)
-Complements: complement of object happen(through imitation and analysis)
-Relative pronoun: “and” the second line actually functions as “which”.

b.     Explain ONE way in which evaluation is made less direct or tempered in the extract with an appropriate example (2 marks).
-The positive evaluation made by the author is less tempered when compared with the negative evaluation. The presence of hedging phrase “more positively” and modal verb "can" make the opinion sounds less objective to demonstrate politeness. While in the negative evaluation, the author uses “a negative side” as well as “undervalue”, these expressions tend to create a higher chance to offend the original researchers or writers, which is not showing a proper way to signal indirectness.

Nouns: side, genre, approaches, skills, text, learners

Verbs: is, undervalue, needed, produce, see

Adjectives: negative, passive

Adverbs: largely
The whole sentence can be seen as a predicative clause. “Is” is the finite of the whole sentence, in the following clause, “they” is the subject and the “skills”is the object modified by a post modifier.

2. The evaluation is made less direct and tempered by using the hedging word “largely”. And the modal verb “can” also functions similarly to achieve the purpose of being less absolute and direct. 

 

a.1.example: A negative side of genre approaches is that they undervalue the skills needed to produce a text and see learners as largely passive.

2.grammatical resources: “a negative side of genre approaches” is a noun phrases and also the subject of the whole sentence. “is” the verb in the sentence. “that + the following sentence” is the clause in this sentence. In the clause, “they” is the subject. “undervalue” and “see” are the predicates, and “skills” and “learners” are the objects. 

b. This sentence uses appropriate verb “undervalue” to make less direct and tempered. “undervalue” means that genre approaches do not ignore necessary skills totally but attach less importance to that. 

 

grammatical resources:
nouns: side, genre, approaches, skills, text, learners.
verbs: is, undervalue, needed, produce, see.
adjectives: negative, passive.
adverbs: largely
The whole sentence is a predicative clause. "They" is the subject, and "is" is the verb of the clause. The verb "needed" modifies the noun "skills".
b.One way: using hedging
Using hedging words could make evaluation less direct and tempered. For example, the word "largely" make this sentence not so absolutely. And largely means the most part of, not the whole part.

 

a.1.example: A negative side of genre approaches is that they undervalue the skills needed to produce a text and see learners as largely passive.

2.grammatical resources: “a negative side of genre approaches” is a noun phrases and also the subject of the whole sentence. “is” the verb in the sentence. “that + the following sentence” is the clause in this sentence. In the clause, “they” is the subject. “undervalue” and “see” are the predicates, and “skills” and “learners” are the objects. 

b. This sentence uses appropriate verb “undervalue” to make less direct and tempered. “undervalue” means that genre approaches do not ignore necessary skills totally but attach less importance to that. 

 

 

a.1.example: A negative side of genre approaches is that they undervalue the skills needed to produce a text and see learners as largely passive.

2.grammatical resources: “a negative side of genre approaches” is a noun phrases and also the subject of the whole sentence. “is” the verb in the sentence. “that + the following sentence” is the clause in this sentence. In the clause, “they” is the subject. “undervalue” and “see” are the predicates, and “skills” and “learners” are the objects. 

b. This sentence uses appropriate verb “undervalue” to make less direct and tempered. “undervalue” means that genre approaches do not ignore necessary skills totally but attach less importance to that. 

 

Adjectives: negative, passive
Adverbs: largely
[A negative side of genre approaches]subject [is] link.V [that [they]subeject [undervalue]verb [the skills] object[needed to produce a text ]complement[and] conjunction[see]verb[ learners]object[as largely passive]complement.]]predicative clause

b."Undervalue" is the appropriate word that makes the negative evaluation less direct or tempered. It means the approach does not stress the skills but not completely ignore. Besides, the hedging word largely shares a similar function that means most learners are passive rather than all of them.

2. Verbs: is, needed, undervalue,  produce, see

Nouns: side, genre, approaches, skills, text, learners

Adjectives: negative, passive

Adverbs: largely

 b.This sentence refers to express the negative influence of genre approach from. In the sentence, the author uses the hedging word “largely” to show the degree of “ passive learners”.

     “A negative side of genre” and “positively” are used to expressed author’s comment of two points of view about genre approaches .

      As for the  grammar resources used, an adjective(negative) as a modifier in a noun group “a negative side of genre” along with “positively” as a finite are applied to achieve the evaluation to indicate author’s comment on certain features of genre approaches.

     Hedging techniques are used in the extra to make the evaluation less direct or tempered. Examples are followed: 

     A modal verb “ can” as well as a adverb “largely” are used to soften generalisations

 Lastly , simple present tense  used also contributes to the objectivity of the extra, which helps it to be less direct or tempered.

a. 
One of the example of evaluation in the excerpt is “A negative side of genre approaches is that they undervalue the skills needed to produce a text and see learners as largely passive.” . Adjectives, such as “Negative” and “passive” have been used. It shows the author’s opinions towards genre approaches. 

b.  

Modal verbs have been used to make the evaluation less direct or tempered. For example, in this sentence “More positively, they acknowledge the writing takes place in a social situation, and is a reflection of particular purpose and understand learning can happen consciously through imitation and analysis”, modal verb “can” has been used.  

The author use hedging such as “more positively” and modal verb “can” to make his statement more objective and less direct. 

 

Example: “A negative side of genre approaches is that they undervalue the skills needed to produce a text and see learners as largely passive.” 

Kind of sentence belongs to “‘be’ verb+that...” prepositional clause.It consists of two parts in the whole sentence while the latter of sentence illustrated parallel relationships by using conjunction “and”. On the other hand, “needed” as the post attributive by using “past participle” form.

 

b. Explain ONE way in which evaluation is made less direct or tempered in the extract with an appropriate example (2 marks).

The sentence use hedging word “ largely” this adverb to soften and hedge a generalisation.  However,  the word “ see” seems not appropriate and it will better if use passive voice to achieves a more impersonal, action-focused style.

   Grammatical Resource: [A negative side of genre approaches] is a noun phrase and as subject in this sentence, and [negative side] is the head noun in this phrase;[is] is the finite in this sentence; [ that they undervalue the skills (that is) needed to produce a text and see learners as largely passive] is a substantive clause, “that is” in the curves is omitted.

 

B. The way to make evaluation less direct and tempered: Use “undervalue” instead of “neglect” or “ignore” these derogatory words.  Use HEDGING “largely” to express the degree of certainty.

Grammatical resource used in the given example: The predicative clause performs the function of the predicative. The model of the complex sentence with a predicative clause is as follows, “Subject(side) + link verb(is) + predicative clause(that)”. To be specific, the example sentence is a predicative clause in which the subject side is a notional word with a very general meaning. The predicative clause is introduced by the link verb is and the connector that. Beyond that, as “needed to produce a text” is part of the attribute clause, the past participle form of the verb need is used as a post-attributive to modify the noun skills, followed by the infinitive. Besides, the sentence applies “see sb. as adj.” as a set phrase. 

Five types of elements included in the example are shown below.

Nouns: side, genre approaches, skills, text, learners 

Verbs: undervalue, produce, see, needed

Adjectives: negative, passive

Adverbs: largely 

Prepositional phrases: of genre approaches

b. One way in which evaluation is made less direct or tempered: In the context of academic writing, modal verbs, such as may, could, and can, are most frequently used to indicate logical possibility and least frequently used to indicate permission.

An example in the extract: “More positively, they acknowledge the writing takes place in a social situation, and is a reflection of particular purpose and understand learning can happen consciously through imitation and analysis.” For example, the author uses the word can to illustrate that genre approaches recognize the possibility of learning consciously when imitating and analyzing.

2. In this example, the grammatical resources are as below: 

1) A negative side of genre approaches is noun group, functions as subject, the head noun here is side, A is determiner, negative is pre-modifier of head noun, and of genre approaches is prepositional phrases, function as post-modifier of head noun.

2) What makes the sentence complex is the subordinating that-clause used here, that they undervalue the skills needed to produce a text and see learners as largely passive is a noun clause, functions as the subject complements, identifying what the negative side is. 

3) In that-clause, they is the subject, actually there are two sub-clauses which are linked by and here, it can be separated as two sentences: they undervalue the skills needed to produce a text, they see learners as largely passive. Thus, undervalue and see function as finite/predicator. 

4) The skills needed can be completed as the skills which are needed, which are is omitted here, it is passive voice here.

 

QB---In this extract, the author used modal verb, “can”, to make the evaluation less direct or tempered.  It means the possibility here.

For example, He can be at the classroom now. 

 

And author used the word largely, which means mostly, not all of them, it is not an absolute tone for expressing their attitude. 

 

A negative side of genre approaches is that they undervalue the skills needed to produce a text and see learners as largely passive.

 

This evaluation shows that author is not very much satisfied with the genre approaches because he starts his sentence from a negative sentence. And later emphasizes the positive side of the genre approach.

 

Identify what grammatical resource has been used in the given example (1 mark). 

 

“a negative side of genre approaches” is a noun phrase and it is also the subject of the whole sentence. There is also a “that” clause followed after the verb “is”.

 

b. Explain ONE way in which evaluation is made less direct or tempered in the extract with an appropriate example (2 marks).

 

The author used adverb such as “largely”, a hedging word “more” and modal verb “can” to make his evaluation less direct.

- Grammatical resource: The noun phrase, “A negative side of genre approaches”, functioned as the Subject. The whole sentence is a Superordinate Clause, and the Subordination is the Noun Clause which functioned as a Complement of Subject.

                                                    S                    F                      Cs

II I A negative side of genre approaches I is I that they undervalue the skills
                                                  NP                  VP                     NCl
needed to produce a text and see learners as largely passive. I II                                                                                                         
QB:
- In the excerpt, the author used evaluative wording, “negative”, to indicate the defect of the genre approach. Moreover, the writer used a modal verb, “can”, to construe hedging.

 A negative side of genre approaches is that they undervalue the skills needed to produce a text and see learners as largely passive. For example some author  can not understand or agree some main point or thinking.

b. Explain ONE way in which evaluation is made less direct or tempered in the extract with an appropriate example (2 marks).
  modal verbs : can could

 appropriate verbs : such as tense (was were is am are), doing/done/do
using hedging