Searching for gendered use of modality in grant proposals. A comparative study

Scientific communication is typically written in a moderate tone, and the written styles for grant proposals tend to use conventional rather than provocative rhetorical language. However, previous studies have rarely examined gender differences in grant writing, despite research showing that women tend to be more cautious than men in their (academic) writing. Against this background, our study primarily examines gender differences in the contrasting use of boosting and hedging in full-text grant proposals. Based on the self-identified gender of the Principal Investigators (PIs), we focus on the auxiliaries that can be used to strengthen or weaken statements and arguments. The results show that male and female applicants use auxiliaries more or less equally, supporting previous research that found no substantial differences in gendered language in grant proposals. Peer Review https://www.webofscience.com/api/gateway/wos/peer-review/10.1162/qss.a.21