Metadiscourse Variations across Academic Genres: Rhetorical Preferences in Textual and Interpersonal Markers

Abstract

It is now commonly accepted that academic discourses tend to provide venues
for participants to interact where the producer needs to display an awareness of
the audience, and metadiscourse (MD) is the set of tools enabling the involved
parties to establish relationships. MD strategies allow writers to project themselves
into their work, signal their communicative intention, influence their readers and
align, and distance themselves from cited materials (Hyland,1998, 2005a, 2005b).
The problem is, however, that the rules of engagement differ from one culture to
another, and from one specific genre to another (e.g., educational vs. professional),
and according to Bizzell (1992), academic writers or speakers would not be able
to produce texts fulfilling their aims unless they are closely acquainted with the
intricate conventions followed in the particular genre by the particular discourse
community. The overall aim of researchers exploring academic discourses,
therefore, revolves around how such an interaction is built and sustained.