Thesis Organization Definition of Hedges

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1.6 Thesis Organization

This thesis is arranged in five chapters. The first is introduction: it consists of background of the study, statement of the problem, scope of the study, objectives of the study, significance of the study,and thesis organization. Review of related literature is exposed in chapter two. This chapter is arranged to support and direct the research in analyzing the data of the problem. The theories used in this chapter are: taxonomy of hedges and functions for hedging. The third chapter begins with the method used in this research. This chapter contains five sub-chapters; they are research design, unit of analysis, and source of data, technique of data collection, techniques of data analysis. The fourth chapter covers the analysis the data, it contains the comparative analysis done by the writer, or in other word, it presents research findings and discussion. The last chapter is the conclusion of the study. 7 CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE In line with the discussion of this thesis, this chapter focuses on the explanation of hedges, the types of hedges and the functions of hedges. Hedges are important things that must be used in research article in order to tender the statement or claim made by the writer since it cannot be considered true as the fact. So, in this chapter the researcher wants to explain information about hedges, such as the definition of hedges, hedging and the construction of knowledge, four reasons for hedging, hedges and their characteristic in English, the types of hedges, the functions of hedges, hedges in academic writing, and hedges in introduction section.

2.1 Definition of Hedges

“Hedging is defined as the expression of tentativeness and possibility in language use and it is crucial to scientific writing where statements are rarely made without subjective assessment of truth” Hyland, 1995:33. Hedges maybe are used by thesis’ writer to show that heshe still doubts with hisher statement in scientific writing. Furthermore, hedges indicate if the statement of thesis’ writer is still in possibility and could not be said to be in accordance with the fact. So, these could avoid them from getting opposition from the reader. Hedges also indicate interpretations and allow them to convey their attitude to the truth of the statements they accompany, thereby presenting unproven claims with caution and 8 softening categorical assertions. These are central functions in environment where the need to evaluate evidence and state the certainty of judgements can contribute to gaining the acceptance of knowledge claims. Therefore, hedging may able to be said as an important device in constructing the knowledge.

2.2 Hedging and the Construction of Knowledge