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This paper focuses on the nature of invoked attitude as part of the Appraisal framework under Systemic Functional Linguistics, offering an amended set of diagnostic tools for tracking the ways that attitude may be invoked or implied in written discourse. Under the appraisal framework, categories of attitude are located in a system network, suggesting that there are a set of features that can determine whether wordings belong to one or another category. However, in the many cases where such attitudes are invoked, rather than being directly activated through the use of highly stable lexical items, such categorisation becomes problematic. Categorisation of attitude is dependent almost entirely on discourse semantic features of text and on interpretive probabilities, even in the case of explicit or 'inscribed' Attitudes, since the value (negative or positive) of many lexical items can be 'flipped' in the co-text in which such wordings appear. This paper presents what is termed a Spectrum of potential invoked attitudinal activators, arguing that these textual devices and resources provide a more fine-grained approach to analyses where invoked attitudes have been identified in texts. The paper argues that intertextuality, in its broadest sense, needs to be taken into account when making claims that attitudinal values have been identified in texts. As such, the paper presents a somewhat different theoretical approach to that offered by Martin and White (2005). The proposals offered are illustrated with excerpts from a study based on a close analysis of a corpus of texts of written interaction comprising over 80,000 running words, texts in which invoked attitude was more frequent than inscribed attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A key element of academic writing involves incorporation of external voices, which is a complex rhetorical and linguistic task. Student writers must face this challenge of using sources to strengthen their own arguments. Appraisal, specifically Engagement, provides a useful framework for analyzing source use in texts, as it considers evaluation and dialogic voicing. This article describes a semi-ethnographic case study that contrasts two undergraduate writers and their writing drafts. Results show similarities and differences based on the linguistic abilities of the students and their experience in writing, but overall improvement in terms of dialogic voicing in the final drafts. Applications to research and instruction for ESL and mainstream writing are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]