How Gender Influences Arab Academics’ Using of Certainty Markers

Abstract

One of the most significant abilities of professional communication in academic writing is articulating uncertainty and conviction. In this context, this study aims to identify whether a researcher's gender affects their use of interactional metadiscourse, particularly certainty markers, in published research articles written by Arab academics. The study data is collected from twenty research articles from international refereed journals. As the study analyses the effect of two variables (male vs. female) on the use of interactional metadiscourse (certainty markers), a t-test was used to analyze the data. The data analysis revealed significant differences in the effect of gender on the use of interactional metadiscourse markers in favor of female researchers. Based on these findings, the study recommends that educational institutions offer systemic training packages to help postgraduate students and novice researchers to write theses and research articles that reflect these developments.