Impersonalization in English Scientific Discourse: Calculus of Means and ESP Applicability

This article examines the key distinctions between English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and General English (GE), focusing particularly on the concept of impersonalization. Driven by the need to provide undergraduate engineering students with real-world writing abilities, this study looks at how passives and related impersonal style features are used. It seeks to illustrate that impersonal statements in written scientific and academic contexts can be expressed through a variety of linguistic mechanisms, such as agentless passive constructions, impersonal general pronouns, if-clauses, and personification. This research employs a corpus-based methodology to investigate the linguistic tools employed to eliminate any personal references to maintain a more formal or neutral tone in English academic discourse. Additionally, it seeks to analyze the prevalence of impersonality in English research articles spanning multiple fields, such as dentistry, civil engineering, and mechanical engineering. The study specifically aims to address the following question: What are the linguistic structures used to indicate impersonality? Are there notable differences in the ways various disciplines express objectivity, clarity, and formality, which are usually the driving forces behind impersonalization in academic writing? A collection of 30 primary empirical research articles from dentistry, civil engineering, and mechanical engineering was examined using both qualitative and quantitative analyses through the corpus linguistic method.