Metadiscourse in Motion: Tracing Diachronic Variations in Pakistani Academic Writing Across Disciplines

This study investigates the persuasive use of interactive and interactional meta-discourse markers in digital advertising, employing Hyland's (2005) model. Interactive meta-discourse encompasses transition markers, frame markers, endophoric markers, evidential, and code glosses, while interactional meta-discourse includes hedges, boosters, attitude markers, self-mentions, and engagement markers. The process of data collection includes extracting data from websites with digital advertisements, analyzing the use of meta-discourse markers in these ads to understand their context and purpose, and categorizing these markers into interactive and interactional categories. Data analysis involves identifying and examining the presence of these markers in digital advertising, interpreting how they contribute to persuasion in the text, and presenting the findings by categorizing interactive and interactional meta-discourse markers while explaining their persuasive significance. The research reveals that in advertisements for beauty products and luxury cars, transition markers are the sole category of interactive meta-discourse used. In contrast, interactional meta-discourse exhibits a broader range of categories in advertising, encompassing attitude markers, self-mention, engagement markers, and boosters.

Interactive and interactional metadiscourse are linguistic features used to maintain the coherence in essays. It involved a one-way interaction between the writer and reader, thus a challenge for Second Language (L2) learners to write effectively and comprehensively. A study is done on how the L2 learners produced the metadiscourse features and the usage is compared. A corpus of 200 evaluative essays by UiTM undergraduate students from computer science and business administration courses is analysed based on Hyland’s (2005) framework. The purpose is to find out the amount and types of metadiscourse used and whether students from different course groups make any differences in their choices. The analysis revealed that students in both courses produced more interactive than interactional metadiscourse. The most prominent feature is Self-mention and the least is Attitude Markers. The same prominent feature for both courses is Transition Markers. The business administration course shows the least feature in Evidentials, whereas Frame Markers in computer science. These are evidence as to the importance of metadiscourse in students’ academic writings and awareness is shown in its usage. This could lead to a proposition for a metadiscourse writing comparison between secondary schools and universities to gain fascinating outcomes. 
 
 Keywords: Evaluative writings, Interactional metadiscourse, Interactive metadiscourse, L2 learners, undergraduates

This corpus-based study examines metadiscourse in linguistics book reviews across three key years: 2002, 2012, and 2022. Its aim is to trace the evolution and usage patterns of metadiscourse markers over this twenty-year span. Using Hyland’s (2005) Interpersonal model, the research delves into both interactive and interactional metadiscourse. The study analyses various types of interactive metadiscourse markers, including transitions, code glosses, endophorics, frame markers, and evidentials. It also examines interactional metadiscourse, focusing on elements like self-mentions, attitude markers, hedges, boosters, and engagement markers. The findings show a notable consistency in the use of these markers across the studied years. Specifically, transitions are the most frequently used in interactive metadiscourse, followed by frame markers and others. In interactional metadiscourse, hedges are most prevalent, followed by engagement markers and others. By observing metadiscourse changes over two decades, the study offers insights into the evolving academic conventions and adaptations in writing practices in response to changing demands in scholarly communication. The results reveal a slight increase in the use of interactive metadiscourse markers and a small decline in interactional markers from 2002 to 2022. This trend highlights the dynamic nature of academic writing and emphasises the increasing importance of metadiscourse in structuring academic discourse and engaging readers. These findings provide insights for linguistics researchers and the broader academic community, underscoring the critical role of metadiscourse in effective scholarly communication.

This study investigated the type and frequency of metadiscourse markers used in fifty research articles written by Saudi EFL college students. In analyzing the data, Hyland's (2005) model of metadiscourse was adopted. The findings showed that there are significant differences in the frequency of interactive and interactional metadiscourse. The students employed more interactive metadiscourse markers than interactional ones. The analysis further revealed that transitions occurred most often in the research articles, followed by hedges. The least used metadiscourse markers were endophoric markers and attitude markers. To conclude, some pedagogical implications for teaching English writing to Saudi EFL college students were drawn from these findings. It can be noted that Saudi EFL college students need more training in using interactional metadiscourse to be able to convince the reader of their ideas and arguments in a text. In addition, they must be more aware of the importance of using metadiscourse in improving their writing skills in general.

Based on Hyland’s (2018) interpersonal model of metadiscourse, this study explores MOOC video lecturers’ use of metadiscourse and compares it to traditional university lecturers’. Disciplinary variation in metadiscourse in the MOOC video lectures has also been investigated. The MOOC corpus consists of sixteen MOOCs across three disciplinary areas, including Arts and Humanities, Engineering and Physical Sciences, and Social Sciences. The results suggest that despite slight differences, the most frequently appearing metadiscourse in the MOOC corpus resembles the patterns found in university lectures, which reveals the remarkable similarities in using metadiscourse between MOOCs and traditional face-to-face lectures. However, different instructional contexts and teacher-student relationships indeed contribute to the variance in the employment of metadiscourse. Overall, MOOC video lecturers employed more interactive metadiscourse but less interactional metadiscourse than university lecturers. Cross-disciplinarily, the use of metadiscourse in MOOC video lectures is considerably influenced by disciplinary features. MOOCs containing more discipline-specific content and requiring intensive cognitive effort tend to use more interactive metadiscourse and engagement markers; while for MOOCs that may include more perspectives than basic facts, boosters and attitude markers seem to be employed more frequently. Possible reasons and purposes of the differentiated use of metadiscourse across disciplines are discussed in detail.

The present study aims to explore the employment of interactive metadiscourse in Chinese science postgraduates’ academic thesis writing. Based on the interpersonal model of metadiscourse, this study analyzed the form, frequency and distribution of interactive metadiscourse, using thirty English abstracts of chemistry master’s theses selected from China National Knowledge Infrastructure during the period of 2021-2023 as corpus. The results showed that among all interactive metadiscourse, transition markers appeared most frequently and were distributed widely; endophoric markers and evidentials occurred less frequently and were distributed sparsely; the transition marker “and” and the code gloss “( )” were overused and frame markers were underused. Therefore, academic writing instructors should pay attention to cultivating students’ rhetorical awareness of using interactive metadiscourse in academic thesis writing to improve the organization of the abstract and make it more scientific. Through the above analysis, this research provides useful insights for academic writing in hard science, especially for improving the English academic writing skills of Chinese novice writers.

Based on Hyland’s (2005) interactional metadiscourse model and the identity construction category proposed by Sun (2015), this study attempts to make a comparative analysis on the characteristics of the frequencies of interactional metadiscourse between Chinese masters’ theses and international journal articles, as well as on the similarities and differences of author identity constructed with interactional metadiscourse. The findings are as follows: (1) from the frequencies of interactional metadiscourse, Chinese masters employ significantly fewer hedges, boosters, attitude markers, and self-mentions in their academic writing than international journal authors, while utilizing markedly more engagement markers. Regarding the subcategories of attitude markers, the two author groups possess notable differences in judgment markers, appreciation markers and affective markers, in which the significant difference in judgment markers is relatively low. The results suggest that the frequency of interactional metadiscourse utilized by Chinese masters in academic writing is inferior to that by international journal authors. (2) The identity categories constructed with interactional metadiscourse by the two author groups are in the descending order of researcher, interactor, and evaluator. Compared with international journal authors, significant differences are discovered in the identities of self-initiated interactor, other-initiated interactor, self-evaluator, other-evaluator, cautious originator, and confident researcher constructed by Chinese masters, whereas no difference is found in the careful advisor identity constructed by the two author groups. This study enriches the research of interactional metadiscourse from the perspective of identity construction, and the findings could provide references for improving students’ awareness of academic writing.

This study presents a comparative corpus analysis of interactional metadiscourse features in two English textbooks used in Indonesian senior high schools: an EFL textbook published by the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture (Bahasa Inggris: Work in Progress) and an ESL textbook published by Cambridge University Press (English as a Second Language: Second Edition). Despite the central role textbooks play in shaping classroom discourse and developing students’ communicative competence, limited attention has been paid to how interactional metadiscourse is utilized in these materials, especially in EFL contexts like Indonesia, where textbooks often serve as the primary source of English input. Addressing this gap, the present study investigates how interactional metadiscourse, features that guide readers through the text and engage them, differ between a locally produced EFL textbook and an internationally published ESL textbook. The analysis was conducted using a corpus-based approach, drawing on Hyland’s (2005) model of interactional metadiscourse to manually identify and categorize features, including hedges, boosters, attitude markers, self-mentions, and engagement markers. The results revealed notable differences in the frequency and types of interactional metadiscourse employed in the two materials. These findings support the alternative hypothesis (H1), which posits that the international ESL textbook contains more interactional metadiscourse features than the Indonesian EFL textbook. The study contributes to the limited body of empirical research on metadiscourse in English textbooks and offers insights relevant to improving textbook design and English language instruction in the Indonesian context.

By comparing Hillary and Fu Ying’s political speeches from the perspective of interactional meta-discourse, this paper is aimed at exploring the similarities and differences of Chinese and American stateswomen’s employment of interactional meta-discourse in their political speeches, and discussing the possible causes of such similarities and distinctions. This study suggests that interactional meta-discourse are frequently used in English speeches of both Chinese and American stateswomen, but American stateswomen utilize much more interactional meta-discourse than their Chinese counterparts. As for the five sub-categories, engagement marker and self-mention occur the most repeatedly, whereas booster the least frequently in both corpora. However, Chinese stateswomen use more hedges but less attitude marker, self-mention and engagement marker than American stateswomen. The reasons for such similarities may be the necessity of interacting with the audience in a political speech, while the causes of distinctions may be the different cultural backgrounds and expression styles of China and America.

Purpose This study examined interactional metadiscourse markers in Q1 and Q3–Q4 political sciences and creative arts abstracts. Design/methodology/approach The corpus comprised 80 abstracts of articles published in Social Science Citation Index journals from 2011 to 2022 (40 in creative arts; 40 in political science). An analysis was conducted using Hyland’s (2005) interpersonal model for the distribution of hedges, boosters, self-mentions, attitude markers and engagement markers. Findings The analysis identified 598 interactional markers, with 61.9% in political science abstracts and 38.1% in creative arts abstracts. The political science writers were more into getting the readers involved in the argument (60.2 interactional markers per thousand words) than the creative arts writers (32.9 interactional markers per thousand words). For both disciplines, booster was the most frequently used marker followed by hedging, self-mention, attitude marker and engagement marker. Based on the total number and type of interactional marker, the creative arts abstracts in Q1 and Q3–Q4 journals were similar. However, the Q1 political science abstracts had a stronger authorial presence than the Q3–Q4 political science abstracts. The greater visibility of the Q1 political science writers was reflected in more frequent boosters, hedges and self-mentions. They were stronger in asserting their propositions with confidence. Research limitations/implications As is evident from past studies, each discipline has its own uniqueness in writer-reader engagement. The study did not investigate possible influences of cultural background on the use of interactional markers for engagement by referring to the background of the writers. Practical implications Academic writing courses can employ the findings on interactional metadiscourse markers for teaching college and university students to produce research reports that fit the conventions of the community of practice. Social implications The findings indicate that differences in interactional metadiscourse use by discipline and journal tier was more obvious in the political sciences than creative arts. This means that there is a greater focus on authorial identity in the political sciences. As for journal tier, the creative arts researchers are similar in the style and there is less demarcation in the quality of writing with respect to reader-writer engagement. Originality/value The study provides new insights on greater reader interaction by discipline and journal tier in the political sciences than in the creative arts.

The study investigates how interactional metadiscourse resources are used to articulate and construct gender identity among ESL learners in Malaysia. The main purpose of the study is to provide language practitioners with empirical data of how gender is projected in the academic writings of ESL learners and to what extent learners’ writings are affected by their gender. The data can then be utilised for the design and development of more effective academic writing courses in Malaysia. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were performed on the similarities and differences in the use of interactional metadiscourse resources, namely; hedges, boosters, attitude markers, engagement markers and self mentions between male and female ESL learners involved in the study. The findings of the quantitative analyses show no obvious differences in the writing style of female and male writers in the study, while the qualitative findings reveal slight differences in the way writers position themselves in the reader/writer interaction and in the expression of agreement statement. Keywords: i nteractional metadiscourse; gender; identities; argumentative writing; ESL learners DOI: http://doi.org/10.17576/3L-2016-2201-16

Middle English Medical Recipes: A Metadiscursive Approach This paper seeks to explore Middle English medical recipes from a metadiscursive perspective. This study will draw on Hyland's (2005) metadiscourse model where code glosses, endophoric markers, evidentials, frame markers and transition markers are included in the interactive dimension, and attitude markers, boosters, engagement markers, hedges and self mention are to be found within interactional metadiscourse. I shall apply this framework for the identification and analysis of data in a corpus which comprises a selection of recipes taken from both Middle English Medical Texts (Taavitsainen - Pahta - Mäkinen 2005) and The corpus of early English recipes. The metadiscursive approach to the study of medical recipes will allow us to establish links between authors, texts and audience of the recipe genre and, consequently, to affirm their status as products of social engagement.

Metadiscourse is essential in creating and organizing persuasive discourse, taking into account the norms and expectations of parties involved. The purpose of this study is to explore the use of interactional (interpersonal) metadiscourse markers in dentistry case reports, analyze their functions within the text, and evaluate their effectiveness in establishing the writer's credibility and authority in managing textual interactions. The research material included a collection of 60 clinical case reports sourced from special dentistry journals for 2017 – 2022. The larges share of all lexical interactional metadiscourse markers is represented by hedges, attitude markers are nearly one-third as much, while self-mentioned markers, and, especially, boosters and engagement markers are underrepresented. Deliberate, cautious expressions of scientific claims mainly achieved in the dentistry case reports by using hedges can bring in establishing credibility more than authoritative stances. The prevalence of hedges can be a way for dental professionals to indicate that their statements are not absolute or definitive. This is particularly important in a field like dentistry, where there may be multiple treatment options or varying levels of certainty about diagnoses. Attitude markers are used to evoke agreement among readers and create a sense of shared understanding, drawing the readers into a collaborative framework of agreement. Boosters as signals of confidence and certainty in the claims being made and engagement markers that propagate the author’s view are barely present in the dentistry case reports. Most of the interactional markers are located in the Discussion and Conclusion sections.

Interactional metadiscourse resources in various contexts have gained increasing attention recently. However, little work has ever been done in investigating the use of interactional metadiscourse in job postings. Based on Hyland’s (2005a, 2005b) model, I propose the taxonomy of interactional metadiscourse which consists of two broad categories: stance features and engagement features, and seven sub-categories: hedges, boosters, attitude markers, self-mentions, reader-inclusive pronouns, questions and directives. Drawing on a detailed analysis of 220 job postings totaling about 77,100 words, together with 30 informants’ feedback of the attitude toward the use of interactional metadiscourse, the article explores the ways in which the writer interacts with the reader via interactional metadiscourse in this genre. The study has yielded some interesting results: in job postings, the occurrences of stance markers and engagement markers are close in frequency; within the genre, two sub-corpora of job postings (one is oriented to college students and the other is not) have demonstrated remarkable differences in terms of interactional metadiscourse use. Moreover, a distinction is made between macro-interactional metadiscourse and micro-interactional metadiscourse, which is useful in evaluating the interactionality of the text.

This study investigates how young English as a foreign language (EFL) learners from Chinese, Spanish, and Polish mother tongue backgrounds use interactional metadiscourse in descriptive and argumentative English essays by drawing data from the ICCI corpus. The quantitative and qualitative analyses show that (i) there are significant differences among the three groups of EFL learners in the use of boosters, attitude markers, self-mentions, and engagement markers; and (ii) there are significant differences between the descriptive essays and the argumentative essays in the use of hedges and self-mentions. Discussion of the results is related to intergroup homogeneity and heterogeneity in the use of metadiscourse and the influences of essay types as well as topics/prompts. Pedagogical implications are provided for teaching interactional metadiscursive resources to young EFL learners from different mother tongue backgrounds and in relation to descriptive and argumentative writing.