Modality Study Of Recommendations In Final Consulting Report

Regarded as the most multifarious aspect of language and one of the most difficult areas for second-language learners, modality has always been a tough topic for researchers. The present paper attempts to analyze the modality pattern in the Recommendations of final consulting reports, which is the core part of the report.Within the theoretical framework of genre analysis and Halliday's functional approach towards modality, the present paper first investigates the Recommendations of final consulting reports as a persuasive genre in accordance with the "persuasive paradigm" in all persuasive texts. However, the present research doesn't follow the traditional communicative purposes criterion when defining particular moves. Instead, the five-step procedure newly-proposed by Swales is highlighted. To review the genre status in the last step, Hasan's GSP theory is employed after a critical evaluation for the theory itself. Based on the genre analysis, the present paper further analyzes the modality usage in all the obligatory moves and also in some optional move. This involves the use of such word-frequency programs as WordPilot and Concordance to display the modality dispersion in each of the moves chosen. Further on, the present paper attempts to interpreter the modality pattern within the functional approach towards modality. However, to mend the slight inadequacy of the functional approach, some consensus knowledge about modality is also involved in the discussion. We observe that the modality usages are carefully weaved into the consultant's strategy of building up his credibility and making the right recommendations to his client.Within the implications from genre theory and modality discussion conducted in this study, a genre-based approach to teach writing of business report is proposed. Further on, the traditional way of teaching modality operators iscriticized and challenged. A procedure of teaching modality operators on the textual level is proposed at the end of the thesis.