Hedging to Save Face: A Linguistic Analysis of Written Comments on In-Training Evaluation Reports

Autor/inn/en	Ginsburg, Shiphra; van der Vleuten, Cees; Eva, Kevin W.; Lingard, Lorelei
Titel	Hedging to Save Face: A Linguistic Analysis of Written Comments on In-Training Evaluation Reports
Quelle	In: Advances in Health Sciences Education, 21 (2016) 1, S.175-188 (14 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1382-4996
DOI	10.1007/s10459-015-9622-0
Schlagwörter	Graduate Medical Education; Medical Students; Pragmatics; Language Usage; Student Evaluation; Writing (Composition); Coding; Theories; Social Behavior; Social Attitudes + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Pragmalinguistik; Sprachgebrauch; Schulnote; Studentische Bewertung; Schreibübung; Codierung; Programmierung; Theory; Theorie; Social behaviour; Soziales Verhalten; Social attidude; Soziale Einstellung
Abstract	Written comments on residents' evaluations can be useful, yet the literature suggests that the language used by assessors is often vague and indirect. The branch of linguistics called pragmatics argues that much of our day to day language is not meant to be interpreted literally. Within pragmatics, the theory of "politeness" suggests that non-literal language and other strategies are employed in order to "save face". We conducted a rigorous, in-depth analysis of a set of written in-training evaluation report (ITER) comments using Brown and Levinson's influential theory of 'politeness' to shed light on the phenomenon of vague language use in assessment. We coded text from 637 comment boxes from first year residents in internal medicine at one institution according to politeness theory. Non-literal language use was common and "hedging", a key politeness strategy, was pervasive in comments about both high and low rated residents, suggesting that faculty may be working to "save face" for themselves and their residents. Hedging and other politeness strategies are considered essential to smooth social functioning; their prevalence in our ITERs may reflect the difficult social context in which written assessments occur. This research raises questions regarding the "optimal" construction of written comments by faculty. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01