Direct or indirect? Critical or uncritical? Evaluation in Chinese English-major MA thesis literature reviews

• Evaluation in Chinese MA thesis literature reviews presents a complicated picture.
• The students tend to express evaluation more in an explicit than an implicit way.
• Positive evaluation dominates the Chinese students' literature reviews.
• The Chinese students prefer to stand neutrally when making reference to other voices.
• Compelling claims are common in the texts, yet the assertiveness is often mitigated.

Academic writing is a “persuasive endeavor” (Hyland, 2011, p.171), and evaluation plays an important role in enhancing such persuasiveness. However, evaluation poses challenges for novice L2 writers. Previous studies on Chinese EFL learners' evaluation in English academic writing generated only partial and inconsistent findings, and generally neglected the subgenre of thesis literature reviews. Applying Martin and White's (2005) full appraisal framework, this study conducts a detailed textual analysis, complemented by a quantitative perspective, of evaluation in Chinese MA thesis literature reviews of Applied English Linguistics. Results present a complicated picture which could not be simply labeled in any one of the binary pairs as direct-indirect, critical-uncritical, or assertive-unassertive. For instance, opposite to the common stereotypical view, Chinese students prefer to express evaluation more in an explicit than an implicit way; they encode dominantly positive evaluation but tend to stand neutrally when referring to other voices; they tend to make compelling claims yet also frequently mitigate their assertiveness. Various cognitive and social factors contribute to such complexity. Findings of this study enable a comprehensive understanding of advanced Chinese EFL learners' evaluation in English academic writing, and provide implications for the teaching of English academic writing.