9.3 Using Functional Grammar Analysis to Evaluate ...
Informational writing is a factual genre whose purpose is to present factual information on a topic (Derewianka, 1990). It is a genre of power highly prized in schooling and workplace. Presented below are two texts, both belonging to informational writing, or more specifically, descriptive report. Text 9-1 (134 words) is composed by a U.S. high school student in response to an explicit request by his English language arts teacher to assume the role of a science author and write a formal report about one of his most familiar or favorite animals for an educational (peer) audience. Text 9-2 (129 words), excerpted from a U.S. middle school science textbook (Horton et al., 2000, p. 579), is likewise a descriptive report but about fish, and presumably written by a science education expert.
Text 9-1
I am writing about crocodiles. Crocodiles lived when the dinosaurs lived. Crocodiles can live in water. Crocodiles can live on land or in water. They have good vision at night. They have big mouths. They like to eat in the sun. They can open their mouth really wide. They can close it really tight. They eat chicken like us. They like to eat outside of water. They eat fish. They eat raw meat. They swim in lakes. They play in grass. They are born out of big eggs. They watch their nest carefully, so their eggs won't get scrambled. They carry their young in their mouth. They live in soggy sand, "the babies". They have rough skin. They can crawl up a tree with a purse on. They like alley water. They are reptiles.
Text 9-2
Fish are ectotherms that live in water and use gills to get oxygen. Gills are fleshy filaments that are filled with tiny blood vessels. The heart of the fish pumps blood to the gills. As blood passes through the gills, it picks up oxygen from water that is passing over the gills. Carbon dioxide is released from blood into the water.
Most fish have fins. Fins are fanlike structures used for steering, balancing, and moving. Usually, they are paired. Those on the top and bottom stabilize the fish. Those on the side steer and move the fish.
Scales are another common characteristic of fish, although not all fish have scales. Scales are hard, thin, overlapping plates that cover the skin. These protective plates are made of a bony material.
Descriptive report describes attributes, properties, behaviors, etc. of a single class or entity in a system of things. While the exact form (or textual realization) of the genre can vary from one instance to another and change over time, it has nonetheless evolved some general language patterns that remain fairly stable across instances and time, making it distinct from other genres. As discussed in Chapter 8, a report usually starts with general classification, followed by successive elements contributing to a description, such as types, parts and their functions, qualities, uses, habits, and so on. Some of the grammatical features of the genre include generic participants (e.g., crocodiles, fish), clauses with linking verbs (e.g., be, have), verbs in present tense (are, stabilize), technical vocabulary (e.g., ectotherms, reptiles), nominalizations (e.g., eruption, diversity), and expanded noun groups with embedded clauses (e.g., fleshy filaments that are filled with tiny blood vessels) and other modifiers (e.g., infinitive, prepositional phrase). These features are functional for informational reporting, as they enable the author to talk about a class rather than a specific individual (via generic participants); to identify a class of things that is being reported on and attribute various characteristics to it (via clauses of relational process); to situate a report as objective and universal rather than particularistic (via verbs in present tense); to construct specialized knowledge (via technical vocabulary); to coin technical terms, summarize and distill information, and create discursive flow (via nominalizations); and to pack information (via expanded noun groups). Understanding these features and their functions in meaning making can help teachers better evaluate the quality of students' reports and design instruction that increases students' awareness and use of these features in their report writing.
9.3.1 Content
Let us first examine the content of the two sample reports using functional grammar analysis. This can be done at the clause level by analyzing the transitivity patterns in these texts. Within the transitivity system, analysis can be done with the processes and accompanying participants and circumstances. We will focus on processes and participants in our analysis, as a substantial amount of content in report is conveyed through these two grammatical elements.
Each process type in the transitivity system construes a distinct kind of human experience, and in science reports the kind of experience construed is typically that of classifying, categorizing, and attributing, which calls for the use of relational processes, typically realized in linking verbs such as be and have. Other process types, such as the material process, are used to elaborate on or augment the generalization and classification statements made in the relational process. Table 9-1 shows the number and percentage (in parenthesis) of each process type across the two texts. In Text 9-1, material processes figure prominently, with 18 out of 25 clauses (72%) used to describe when crocodiles live, where they live, what they eat, where they swim and play, where they are born, how they watch their babies, and so on. These processes are juxtaposed with 4 (16%) relational processes, which describe the attributes of crocodiles (i.e., have good vision, have big mouths, have rough skin, are reptiles); 1 (4%) mental process that describes what crocodiles like (i.e., like alley water); and 2 (8%) process complexes that combine the mental with the material (i.e., like to eat in the sun, like to eat outside of water). However, it is not clear how these processes complement and reinforce one another in the presentation of content.
Table 9-1 Process Types in Text 9-1 and Text 9-2
Unlike Text 9-1, Text 9-2 contains mostly relational processes (realized in linking verbs be and have), with 56% (9 out of 16) of the clauses used to classify, define, and characterize fish (e.g., Fish are ectotherms …; Gills are fleshy filaments …; Fins are fanlike structures …; Scales are hard, thin, overlapping plates …). Clauses with material processes (e.g., pumps, passes, picks up, is released, steer and move), which constitute 44% of the total clauses in the text, complement clauses with relational processes by providing further information about how the different body parts of fish (e.g., gills, fins, scales) work.(https://www.daowen.com)
In science reporting, students are expected to present specialized content that is technical, dense, and abstract. A major carrier of this content is the grammatical participant, typically realized in nouns of varying complexities. Science reports typically draw on technical nouns (mitosis, arthropod) to create scientific taxonomies, nominalizations (e.g., deforestation, frequency) to make generalizations and distill information, and expanded noun phrases (e.g., well-defined intracellular bodies that perform specific functions for the cell) to pack a large amount of information. An examination of the noun phrases in the two sample reports reveals the following patterns (see Table 9-2). Text 9-1 uses 1 technical noun (reptiles), 1 nominalization (vision), 22 pronouns (e.g., I, they), and 0 expanded noun phrases. Text 9-2, on the other hand, has 9 different technical nouns (e.g., ectotherms, gills, oxygen, filaments, vessels, carbon dioxide, fins, scales, plates), 1 nominalization (these protective plates in clause #16 is used to summarize hard, thin, overlapping plates that cover the skin in clause #15), 2 pronouns (it, they), and 9 expanded noun phrases (e.g., ectotherms that live in water and use gills to get oxygen; fleshy filaments that are filled with tiny blood vessels; fanlike structures used for steering, balancing, and moving; those on the top and bottom; hard, thin, overlapping plates that cover the skin). These data suggest that the content presented in Text 9-2 is denser and more technical than that conveyed in Text 9-1. Although the two texts are roughly equal in length (134 words vs. 129 words), Text 9-2 uses considerably more technical nouns and expanded noun phrases, which carry substantial ideational content, and sharply fewer pronouns, which carry little ideational content, than does Text 9-1.
Table 9-2 Nouns (Bolded) in Text 9-1 and Text 9-2
The analysis of processes and participants shows a pronounced difference in the nature of content presented in the two reports. Text 9-1 construes commonsense knowledge through the use of doing verbs and noun phrases with simple structures (e.g., pronouns; nouns without modifiers; nouns with just an article, determiner, demonstrative, and/or adjective). The report has the flavor of a story, where the emphasis is on presenting a sequence of actions (e.g., swim, play, watch, carry). Text 9-2, on the other hand, construes non-commonsensical knowledge through the use of technical nouns and expanded noun phrases with embedded clauses and prepositional phrases, as well as linking verbs that connect these noun phrases. It is more characteristic of a science report, where the emphasis is on classifying, defining, and characterizing a class of organisms or objects in the natural world.
9.3.2 Organization
Let's now turn to the organization of the two reports. There are many elements that contribute to a text's organization. These include Theme/Rheme structuring, cohesion (e.g., co-reference, co-classification, conjunction), and clause combining strategies. We will focus on the patterns of Thematic progression in these texts. To this end, we will first identify the kinds of Themes used and then track how these Themes develop through each text. We identify the part of a clause that serves as the orientation of the message as Theme and the remainder of the message (i.e., the part in which Theme is developed) as Rheme. Different kinds of Themes indicate different approaches to text organization (Schleppegrell, 2004). Academic, particularly scientific, texts typically thematize nouns that are lexicalized, abstract, and dense; whereas everyday texts typically thematize items that are pronominalized (Eggins, 2004). Table 9-3 lists the clause Themes used in the two texts.
Table 9-3 Clause Themes in Text 9-1 and Text 9-2
As the table shows, the two reports differ noticeably in their choice of Themes. Text 9-1 thematizes mostly "crocodiles" and its pronominal reference "they". The Themes in Text 9-2 are much more varied. It thematizes "fish" and its various body parts (e.g., gills, heart, fins, scales). In terms of Thematic progression, it is clear from Table 9-3 that Text 9-1 features a reiterating pattern because the Theme "crocodiles" and its reference "they" are repeated in successive clauses. This reiterating pattern of Thematic progression, while enabling the author to sustain a focus on crocodiles, results in a random listing of statements without any clear indication of how one clause relates to another. This can make the text not only confusing but also monotonous to read.
Text 9-2, on the other hand, adopts both zig-zagging and reiterating patterns of Thematic progression (see Figure 9-2), which is typical of the organizational patterns found in science reports (Fang & Schleppegrell, 2008) and is an effective way for the author to accumulate information and at the same time create discursive flow. Specifically, the Rhemes in clauses #1 (gills),#2 (tiny blood vessels), #3 (blood), #5 (oxygen), #7 (fins), #9 (paired), #13 (fish), #14 (scales), and #15 (hard, thin, overlapping plates that cover the skin) are picked up to become, respectively, the Themes in clauses #2 (gills), #3 (the heart), #4 (blood, which is repeated in clause #5 as it), #6 (carbon dioxide), #8 (fins, which is repeated in clause #9 as they), #10 (those on the top and bottom) and #11 (those on the side, which is repeated/elided in clause #12), #14 (fish),#15 (scales), and #16 (these protective plates). This way of structuring clause Themes and Rhemes allows the topic to be logically developed and makes the text more cohesive and interesting to read.
Figure 9-2 Patterns of Thematic Progression in Text 9-2
The analysis demonstrates that differences in Theme choices and Thematic progression result in qualitative differences in the organization of the two reports. Text 9-1 aggregates a random list of statements about the topic (crocodile) without a clear focus, resulting in what writing researchers Bereiter and Scardamalia (1987) called "knowledge telling" or what educational psychologists Pea and Kurland (1987) dubbed as "a memory dump". The student writer, who is seemingly knowledgeable about crocodiles, simply encoded his knowledge into words without making serious efforts to craft the presentation of this knowledge. Text 9-2, on the other hand, uses zig-zagging and reiterating patterns of Thematic progression to facilitate presentation of content and development of information flow. It shows evidence of "knowledge transforming" (Bereiter & Scardamalia, 1987) and rhetorical crafting.
9.3.3 Style/Perspective
Many factors contribute to the shaping of discursive style. These include the use of Mood and modality, as well as other word choices. Because we are interested in examining how the writer establishes the "authorial self" (Christie & Derewianka, 2008, p. 15) in his/her interaction with the reader in the formal, academic context of schooling, we will focus on word choices in our analysis. Specifically, we will look at the choice of nouns and other vocabulary items in the two sample reports. Research has suggested that nouns are a sensitive indicator of textual style (Biber et al., 1999; Fang, Schleppegrell & Cox, 2006; Quirk et al., 1989). Texts written for different purposes and contexts often use nouns in distinct ways. In informal registers, for example, simple nouns are often used to name things and pronouns to establish endophoric (within-text) or exophoric (outside-text) references; in more formal registers, nouns of varying complexities — particularly technical nouns, abstract nouns, and expanded noun phrases — are often used to construe technicality, generalization, agency, and density.
In academic contexts, students are often expected to write in a formal style featuring technicality, density, and generalization (Christie & Derewianka, 2008; Schleppegrell, 2004). This is especially true of science reports, which often adopt a technical, dense, abstract, authoritative, and formal style. Nouns are one of the key grammatical resources that enable the writer to meet this expectation, as technical nouns create technical taxonomies, nominalizations synthesize information into abstract entities, and expanded noun phrases pack a large quantity of information. Based on the analysis of nouns presented earlier, it is clear that Text 9-2 draws heavily on technical nouns and expanded noun phrases, which are connected by linking verbs be and have, to construct specialized knowledge and create a more static world full of technical or virtual entities; whereas Text 9-1 relies primarily on simple nouns and pronouns, which work with action verbs (material processes) to construct commonsense knowledge and create a dynamic world full of action. In short, the analysis of nouns suggests that Text 9-2 assumes a more technical, dense, and formal style of writing than does Text 9-1.
The stylistic difference between the two sample reports is also evident in other word choices. Text 9-1 uses an intensifier "really" before adjectives (e.g., really wide, really tight), a conjunction with vague meaning (so), colloquial expressions (get scrambled, "the babies"), and a personal pronoun (I). These language choices betray an informal, interactive style that is more typical of spontaneous speech. Text 9-2, on the other hand, assumes a more detached, formal stance of writing that enables the writer to present content in a more objective and authoritative manner. This finding is further supported by the analysis of Theme choices earlier, which indicates that Text 9-1 uses Themes that are more typical of spontaneous speech and Text 9-2 uses Themes that are more characteristic of academic registers.
A summary measure of whether a text is written in a more or less formal/academic style is lexical density, discussed in Chapter 4. The lexical density score for Text 9-1 is roughly 2.6, which is within the range of 2 to 3 that Halliday and Martin (1993) suggested is characteristic of everyday texts for conversational purposes. The lexical density score for Text 9-2 is roughly 4.3, which is within the range of 4 to 6 that Halliday and Martin (1993) suggested is characteristic of formal written texts. These indices corroborate the findings from the analysis of word choices above and are consistent with what has been found to be typical of everyday spontaneous speech and of the more formal, academic writing (c.f., Christie & Derewianka, 2008; Halliday, 1989).
9.3.4 Summary
The linguistic analyses above reveal significant differences in the quality of the two sample reports. Text 9-1 contains mostly material processes (constructed in doing verbs) and generic participants (constructed in simple nouns). It presents a random listing of what crocodiles do, with little evidence of rhetorical crafting. Moreover, the text uses colloquial vocabulary and a repeating pattern of Thematic progression, both typical of everyday conversational speech. These pieces of evidence suggest that the writer of Text 9-1 fails to meet the linguistic requirements expected (implicitly or explicitly) of him for the writing task. Text 9-2, on the other hand, can be considered an exemplary science report. It focuses on classifying, defining, and characterizing fish. Information in the text is generalized and then elaborated through judicious use of material processes to support relational processes. The zig-zagging and repeating patterns of Thematic development facilitate the presentation of information and the establishment of discursive flow. The use of technical nouns and expanded noun phrases contributes to a dense, formal style of writing that positions the writer as a content expert who presents information in an authoritative, objective manner.