Abstract
Metadiscourse has been defined as the discourse used by writers to help their readers connect, interpret and evaluate their attitudes towards the referential material presented (Vande Kopple, 2002). In his study on CEO’s letters, Hyland (1998b) examined metadiscourse as the manifestation of a writer’s linguistic and rhetorical presence in the text and looked at the persuasive nature of business communication. An awareness of the rhetorical power of metadiscourse in this text genre is vital for professional development, particularly in the teaching of business English. This study was designed to examine the use of interactive and interactional metadiscourse in Business English writing through an analysis of the Enron Email Dataset and the Business Letter Corpus. The data analysis was conducted following Hyland (2005, 2019), in order to understand how content and discourse are set up to orient and persuade the reader. Although this study focuses specifically on interactional metadiscourse, the results are expected to be relevant for the ESP classroom, particularly in English for Business Communication (EBC) classes (Bhatia & Bremner, 2012). Acquiring conscious awareness of the rules and conventions to master formal writing can be of great help to business students in order for them to become successful writers in both academic and professional environments.
Highlights
A wealth of research has shown the relevance of metadiscourse in creating persuasive and argumentative discourse, and in fulfilling rhetorical functions in written text production
This study focuses on interactional metadiscourse, the results are expected to be relevant for the ESP classroom, in English for Business Communication (EBC) classes (Bhatia & Bremner, 2012)
The purpose of this study is to ascertain how metadiscourse is used as a means of persuasion and a rhetorical strategy in corporate emails and business letters, which are an essential means of communication in the business community
Summary
A wealth of research has shown the relevance of metadiscourse in creating persuasive and argumentative discourse, and in fulfilling rhetorical functions in written text production. This work will provide an analysis of corporate emails and business letters to see what interactional metadiscoursal resources are used and what rhetorical functions they perform. As a matter of fact, the use of metadiscourse was found to depend on the contexts and values of those who enact it and of their audience; it is coherent with the norms and expectations of particular cultural and professional communities The relevance of studying how metadiscourse is used in business English texts becomes clearer when considering that EBC students have different cultural and linguistic backgrounds and might have different definitions of politeness and face The relevance of studying how metadiscourse is used in business English texts becomes clearer when considering that EBC students have different cultural and linguistic backgrounds and might have different definitions of politeness and face (Vande Kopple, 2002, p. 108)
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