A cross-disciplinary study of authorial identity construction through ‘reader engagement’ in the introduction of research articles

Abstract

Despite readers' active and constitutive role in how authors construct their identities, most of the current research on authorial identity construction has focused on author-oriented self-mentions, and few studies have examined how authors engage readers in the text and construct their identities in the reader-oriented interactions. Drawing upon Hyland's (2005a) reader engagement model, this study explores how authorial identity is constructed through reader engagement resources in 120 introductions of research articles from both soft disciplines (i.e., linguistics and philosophy) and hard disciplines (i.e., bioscience and materials science). Employing both corpus-based and text-based analyses, our findings indicate that authors of selected disciplines rarely use reader pronouns to construct interlocutor identities. Instead, they frequently employ informative asides and shared knowledge expressing tradition and typicality to portray themselves as guides. Notable variations exist both between and within hard and soft disciplines. These findings can guide EAP practitioners to help novice authors enhance their reader awareness and construct appropriate authorial identities in the interaction with readers.