Textual Metadiscourse Resources in Research Articles*

Abstract

This study was motivated by three factors, which also contribute to its significance for today's academic writing. First, research articles are the significant means of communication between the writers all over the world. Second, persuasion and organization are crucial notions in academic writing where the authors have to consider the academic audiences and their needs. Third, some writers are not the native speakers of English and write their research articles in English. Despite their importance in academic writing, we know little about how textual metadiscourse resources (TMRs) are used in different disciplines and genres. This study examines the use of TMRs in research articles of three disciplines of Mechanical Engineering (ME), Medicine (MED), and Applied Linguistics (AL). It also explores distribution of TMRs by native and non-native writers of English in the research articles of three disciplines. Based on a corpus of thirty research articles, the frequency of TMRs was calculated per 1,000 words. The findings of the study indicate a significant difference in the distribution of TMRs in three disciplines and also between the writings of native and non-native writers. In addition, these findings may have some implications for teaching disciplinary communication especially to foreign language learners of English.