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Academic clusters: text patterning in published and postgraduate writing
Author(s) -
Hyland Ken
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
international journal of applied linguistics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.712
H-Index - 39
eISSN - 1473-4192
pISSN - 0802-6106
DOI - 10.1111/j.1473-4192.2008.00178.x
Subject(s) - linguistics , coherence (philosophical gambling strategy) , academic writing , component (thermodynamics) , word (group theory) , psychology , computer science , mathematics , philosophy , statistics , physics , thermodynamics
An important component of fluent linguistic production is control of the multi‐word expressions referred to as “clusters”, “chunks” or “bundles”. These are extended collocations which appear more frequently than expected by chance, helping to shape meanings and contributing to our sense of coherence in a text. Clusters seem to present considerable challenges to student writers struggling to make their texts both fluent and assured to readers in their new communities. This paper explores the forms, structures and functions of 4‐word clusters in a corpus of research articles, doctoral dissertations and master's theses of 3.5 million words to show not only that clusters are central to academic discourse but that they offer an important means of differentiating genres, with implications for more evidence‐based instructional practices in advanced writing contexts.