Metadiscourse In Academic Writing

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12.2. Metadiscourse in Academic Writing Bloor & Bloor (1991) reported that metadiscourse is an essential part in the academic argument that assists in creating the research paper. Hyland (1998) sees that metadiscourse tools allow the writer to engage in a dialogue with the readers in order to present their unproven arguments. According to Wishnoff (2000), the use of metadiscourse in academic writing is essential to support the claims. It is the matter that distinguishes the native writers from the non-native writers. When a comparison is made between the writings of these two groups of writers, the non-native writers clearly have problems in the use of metadiscourse. Besides these writers are often considered to be offensive …show more content…

Hyland (2002), for example, analysed the use of directives and hedges in published articles, textbooks and second language students' essays. The study revealed that directives are used for different purposes across different branches of Knowledge. Hyland (2005) also concluded that EFL writers tend to use direct and unqualified writing, and that stronger modals are used as a way of showing commitment. Mojica (2005) investigated Filipino writers' ways of showing commitment in their English academic papers. The study concluded that modals and probabilities are preferred forms of hedging. Gries and David (2009), in their study which was based on data obtained from contemporary British English, found out that hedges are used differently in different genres. 13.2. Arabic & English Writers The rhetorical features of English lanaguge differ from the rhetorical features of Arabic. English rhetoric tends to begin with the key point at first and in a direct manner. Kaplan (1996) refers that the writing of a paragraph in English starts with a thesis statement and then moves to the subordinating statements. Each of the statements is then developed by examples and explanations that are connected to the central idea of the paragraph. All the ideas of the paragraph support only one argument. Hyland (1998) argue that English rhetoric is characterized by the following qualities:
• Explicitness in structure and purpose …show more content…

The use of these two types of metadiscourse was investigated in the argumentative writing through argumentative essays written by Arabic native speakers and English native speakers. El-Seidi (2000) observed that there are differences in the use of the two kinds of metadiscourse markers in terms of frequency and the preferred norms, but the two categories of metadiscourse seem to involve themselves into the text and this refers to the commitment the text and the writers’ attitudes towards the text. Also, Abbas (2011) compared the interactive and interactional metadiscourse in both Arabic and English research articles. The research corpus consisted of seventy discussion sections. The results of the study showed that metadiscourse plays a big role in research articles in both English and Arabic lanaguge. However, the results showed that the Arabic writers tend to use metadiscourse markers more than the English

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