Types Of Metadiscourse Markers Research Articles

The glue that makes it “hang together”: A framework for identifying how metadiscourse facilitates uncertainty navigation during knowledge building discussions

AbstractClassroom discussions have become a centerpiece of reform efforts in science education because talk mediates the joint co‐constructing of knowledge in science classrooms. Although decades of research underscore the importance of talk in supporting science learning, the science education community continues to grapple with how to support teachers and students in navigating the uncertainty that is associated with doing knowledge building work. To address these challenges, we must examine not just what gets constructed (the scientific ideas), but how knowledge is co‐constructed by teachers and students (the process of building those ideas) amidst uncertainty. In this study, we propose a conceptual tool for identifying organizational, epistemic, and interpretive metadiscourse markers (MDMs) in science talk. We highlight how teachers and students use these three types of MDMs as they navigate uncertainty while connecting ideas within and across multiple turns of talk, leveraging resources for knowledge building, and making interpretations about one another's ideas. We conclude with a set of suggestions for how researchers and teachers can utilize this framework to attend to the ways that MDMs index the organizational, epistemic, and interpretive dimensions of uncertainty in the knowledge building process.

Identification of metadiscourse markers in bachelor’s degree theses in Spanish

Abstract This article introduces a text mining tool that can automatically extract information using Hyland’s analysis model as a theoretical framework to analyse the use and characteristics of metadiscourse in large quantities of academic texts. To verify its validity, we present the results obtained using this tool on various bachelor’s degree theses with a particular focus on the field of engineering. Our results on a 6.9 million-word corpus extracted from 680 bachelor’s theses available online show that interactive metadiscourse markers are prevalent in engineering bachelor’s theses as well as in the authors’ metadiscourse patterns. In addition, we compared our results with previous research on metadiscourse markers. Our study can be used to identify the usage of various types of metadiscourse markers during the production of texts and for the development of software applications involving quantitative linguistic methods for the production of academic texts.

EXPLORING GENDER DIFFERENCES IN USING METADISCOURSE FOR POLITICAL OPINION WRITING

Background and Purpose: Metadiscourse marker is one of the most commonly-used linguistic devices in persuasive writing, and it shapes writer’s arguments to the needs and expectations of the target readers. Research has consistently shown that women, on average, are less politically interested, informed, and efficacious than men. However, this does not necessarily imply that male columnists are more persuasive than female columnists when writing political opinion articles. Hence, the present study aims to investigate how male and female columnists use metadiscourse markers in political opinion writing to effectively direct their political views toward their readers.
 
 Methodology: This descriptive study used frequency analysis, comparative analysis, and a semi-structured interview with eight ardent readers to examine metadiscourse markers used by male and female columnists in their political opinion articles, as well as the impact of persuasion on their readers. 100 opinion articles about Malaysia's 14th general election were chosen from two English-language online newspaper portals in Malaysia, The Star and the New Straits Times.
 
 Findings: The findings revealed that female columnists employed more metadiscourse markers than male columnists. Respondents concluded that articles with more metadiscourse markers used in the text, particularly in the interpersonal category, appeared to be more persuasive. Furthermore, the findings indicated that female columnists presented a more convincing image than those produced by male columnists.
 
 Contributions: As research conducted on gender differences in political writing is still rare, this research provided information regarding gender preferences in using metadiscourse markers in political opinion articles. This study contributes to the body of knowledge by informing researchers and opinion writers about the many types of metadiscourse markers that may be used to establish rapport between writers and readers.
 
 Keywords: Metadiscourse markers, persuasive writing, gender, male, female, political-opinion articles.
 
 Cite as: Ramash, N. S., & Ng, L. S. (2023). Exploring gender differences in using metadiscourse for political opinion writing. Journal of Nusantara Studies, 8(1), 333-356. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol8iss1pp333-356

Effective Metadiscourse Strategies in Texts of English and Arabic Trade Agreements to attain persuasion

Persuasion is a process studied by many scholars from the Greek time until the present. One persuasion strategy is metadiscourse, which refers to the writers' awareness of their text, the way they present themselves to the readers. The writers use metadiscourse markers to help the readers understand the real meaning of the text (Hyland 2005). The paper carries out a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the employment of persuasive metadiscourse markers in two English trade agreements and two Arabic agreements has provided in terms of Hyland's (2005) model of interactive and interactional markers. The aim is to find out whether all types of metadiscourse markers are used or not, and also to see whether English or Arabic employs more markers in their agreement texts. At the end, the analysis shows that Arabic agreements employ more metadiscourse markers than English agreements. Author Biographies

Cross-disciplinary variation in metadiscourse: A corpus-based analysis of Russian-authored research article abstracts

The article deals with metadiscourse variation in academic texts across disciplinary boundaries. Its main focus is on the distribution of metadiscourse markers in Russian-authored academic prose in the field of applied linguistics and engineering. The study assumes that the distribution of metadiscourse devices is determined by disciplinary norms. The theoretical basis of the study is Hyland’s taxonomy of metadiscourse markers. With the aim of investigating metadiscourse in English-medium research article (RA) abstracts by Russian authors, the present study adopted a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. The results revealed that RA abstracts feature four types of metadiscourse markers whose distribution varies across two disciplines representing the humanities and hard sciences. The study also investigated the degree of familiarity of linguistics and engineering scholars from leading Russian universities with metadiscourse devices and their awareness of the need to use them in research articles. To achieve this goal, a survey was conducted to obtain data on knowledge of metadiscourse as a discursive strategy. The findings carry therefore pedagogical implications for academic writing course designers and instructors and can enhance non-native English writers’ knowledge of academic writing conventions in the discipline.

Interactional Metadiscourse Markers. A Survey Study on Iranian M.A. TEFL Theses

The present study examined the differences in the use, type, and frequency of interactional metadiscourse markers in theses written by M.A. TEFL graduates including 10 males and 10 females from Malayer University. The selected corpus was analyzed using Hyland’s in 2005 interactional model of metadiscourse. The data were explored through a manual corpus analysis method using Adobe PDF reader software. Moreover, a Chi-Square statistical measure was run to examine whether there were any significant differences in the use of metadiscourse markers in different thesis chapters and across different genders. The results revealed that although there were some subtle differences in the frequency and types of these metadiscourse markers, there was no statistically significant difference between two genders in the use of interactional metadiscourse markers. Besides, it was concluded that there was a significant relationship between the chapters of theses and the use of metadiscourse markers. The findings of this study render some pedagogical implications for writing courses at M.A. and PhD levels in the realms of TEFL and ESP. Keywords: Metadiscourse, Interactional markers, Applied Linguistics, M.A. thesis, Gender

The Use of Meta-discourse An Analysis of Interactive and Interactional Markers in English Short Stories as a Type of Literary Genre

The present study investigated the frequency and type of metadiscourse markers in short stories as a kind of literary genre and how these markers are used by short story writers to produce persuasive texts. It is a pioneering study, since very few studies in the literature tackled literary genre and no study involved analyzing short stories. The corpus of 88,940 words consisted of 18 short story texts written by the three famous American authors Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain and Raymond Carver. To analyze this corpus, Hyland’s (2005) comprehensive model of metadiscourse was used. Results of the study indicated that metadiscourse markers are employed by short story writers to produce coherent texts and to make their stories persuasive. These results agreed with those of previous studies that involved literary texts indicating that metadiscourse markers are used frequently in such texts. The study findings proved that short stories are considered as persuasive texts not only due to non-linguistic factors, such as transportation, but also due to a linguistic one, namely, the use of metadiscourse markers. This finding is the most significant one, since it refutes the opinion that short stories are persuasive texts solely due to transportation and other similar factors.

Investigating Metadiscourse Markers in Book Reviews and Blurbs: A Study of Interested and Disinterested Genres

Informed by the need to study metadiscourse, the present study aimed to compare book reviews ‎and blurbs as examples of disinterested and interested genres in four disciplines of applied linguistics, literature, history, and psychology‎. The study relied on two corpora: (a) 200 book reviews in each discipline between 2005 and 2015 (b) 4282 blurbs in the above disciplines within the same time span. To analyze the texts, Hyland’s (2005a) classification of metadiscourse markers was employed. The findings of the study showed that the frequency and type of metadiscourse ‎markers in blurbs and book reviews are genre dependent. Generally, ‎metadiscourse markers preponderated in the book reviews than in the blurbs (44.5 ‎vs. 32.8 per 1000 words), which can be ascribed to the functionally dissimilar communicative ‎purposes of the two genres. ‎The insights gained from this study can be of tremendous help to ‎deepen our understanding of these genres and to show how evaluation and other textual ‎features of writing are verbalized across disciplines and across genres. ‎ DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.sal.33.0.19415

Corpus Analysis of Metadiscourse in Undergraduate Academic Projects

Writers engage different types of metadiscourse markers in interacting with the readers. They provide indicators in their writing of the contents to help readers comprehend and respond to the text. This paper is a preliminary study to identify types and categories of metadiscourse found in a corpus of undergraduate academic projects (UAP corpus). This study is significant as it identifies types and categories of metadiscourse found in both good and weak undergraduate academic writing. Hence, this study is relevant to further support related research on the use of metadiscourse among tertiary level students to write effectively in academic writing. Since metadiscourse has never been directly taught as a subject to undergraduate students, it may contribute to the lack of awareness on metadiscourse functions in effective writing. In this study, the metadiscourse items in UAP corpus are identified and rated by inter-raters. It is a corpus-based research study that involves collecting, analyzing, and using qualitative and quantitative approaches to identify metadiscourse items in the corpus.

Terror at Home On the Rhetoric of Domestic Violence Legislation in the United Kingdom and Spain

The present study analyses two Parliamentary Acts on the subject of domestic violence: the Spanish Organic Law 1/2004 on Comprehensive Protection Measures against Gender Violence and the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004 from the United Kingdom. The analysis of the texts (organised into two corpora, SPA and UKA respectively) was carried out in three different stages, the first one consisting in the automatic processing of the two texts using Monoconc. After doing so, the lexical component of the two corpora was examined on a superficial level, followed by a discursive analysis of the macrostructural organization of both legal texts. The third stage of analysis focused upon the number and types of metadiscourse markers, capable of unveiling interpersonal relationships in both corpora. These three different but complementary levels of analysis have led us to conclude that the Acts represent different stances from which the subject of domestic violence is envisaged in the Spanish and English contexts. Both legal texts display specific traits that pertain to the different legal cultures these legal instruments arise from. Additionally, such traits reflect rhetorical and cultural dissimilarities in the way in which domestic terror is fought and offer clues for the translation of these Acts.

Research on Writing Samples from the Perspective of Metadiscourse

Writing, as an advanced model of output, not only conveys the subject but also realizes the communication between readers and writers. Metadiscourse can help writers arrange and organize the discourse to influence readers’ understanding of the text and their attitude towards its content. Taking writing samples of College English Test Band 4 (CET-4) as corpus, the research aims to explore the use of metadiscoure markers in high score writing group (HG) and low score writing group (LG). The research questions to be addressed in the study are as follows: 1) What are the similarities and differences between the two groups in the quantity and the types of metadiscourse markers? 2) What are the similarities and differences between the two groups in choosing metadiscourse markers? 3) What’s the overall distribution of the inappropriately used metadiscourse markers in two groups? The research results show that there is a positive relation between proper use of metadiscourse markers and writing quality. This paper puts forward the strategies of improving the students' ability in the proper use of metadiscourse markers in English writing teaching.

A Study of Interactional Metadiscourse Markers and Gender in the Defense Seminars of Persian Speakers

This paper aims to analyze the relation between a linguistic behavior, namely interactional metasdicourse, and a non-linguistic variable, namely, gender in thesis defenses of Persian speakers. Based on the model of community of practice, a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the metadiscourse markers employed by male and female candidates in thesis defenses have been carried out. The data include eighteen thesis defenses of nine males and nine females in humanities and social sciences. The quantitative analysis represents a statistically significant difference in the use of interactional metadiscourse markers by male and female candidates. The qualitative analysis, however, indicates the existence of some similarities among these two social groups in using the types of metadiscourse markers in the defense seminars of Persian speakers. DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2014.v4n1p231