Argumentative Structure in American and Italian Medical Research Articles

RAs are socially constructed in the sense that not only do they allow the author to submit knowledge, but above all they allow the author to be an accepted member of the scientific community. Such objectives are rhetorically realized through hedges and other argumentative strategies such as the exploitations of connectives. Without them the reader would imply that the given information pertains to established knowledge. Indeed, Italian NNSs of English formulate their discourse by using fewer hedges and connectives than English NSs because their conclusions are supported by the established knowledge as evidenced by the continuous reference to the literature in the field. Similarly, whenever a claim finds confirmation in present literature, Italian NNSs of English seem to tend less to adopt rhetorical strategies, because the established knowledge appears to confirm their hypothesis. Italian authors seem therefore to use an ipse-dixit strategy: if it is written somewhere, then no other claims are necessary.