A comparative study of mood and modality in academic writing : male vs. female authors of research articles in applied linguistics [ ]


Academic writing has always been the focus of many linguistic researchers, especially those who have been involved with English for Academic Purposes (EAP). Like conversation and other modes of communication, writing is a rich medium for gender performance. In fact, writing functions to construct the disciplines as well as the gender of its practitioners. Despite the significance of author’s gender as one constitutive dimension of any writing, it has relatively been under-researched. One way by means of which author’s gender is practiced and revealed in written discourse, is the incorporation and use of modal auxiliaries. Examining 40 Applied linguistics research articles (20 written by non-native Iranian male and 20 written by non-native Iranian female writers), the present study sought to examine whether male and female non-native Iranian writers differed in their use of such elements. To do this, Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, and Svartvik (1985) model of mood and modality was employed as an analytical framework to identify the type of these elements. The significance of difference in their distribution in academic research articles written by non-native Iranian male and female authors was checked using the statistical analysis technique of chi-square. The results of the study did not show any significant difference in the categorical distribution of mood and modality, however, significant results were observed in the overall distributions of modal elements. The finding of the present study can provide a sound basis for the development of pedagogic materials.