Contents
Acknowledgements xviii
Preface xix
Section 1: What is metadiscourse? 1
Chapter 1 First impressions 3
1.1 A brief overview of metadiscourse 3
1.2 A context of emergence: information and interaction 6
1.3 Metadiscourse and audience awareness 9
1.4 Metadiscourse, interaction and audience 11
1.5 Summary and conclusion 14
Chapter 2 Definitions, issues and classifications 16
2.1 Definitions of metadiscourse 16
2.2 Propositional and metadiscourse meanings 18
2.3 'Levels of meaning' 21
2.4 Functional analyses 24
2.5 'Textual' and 'interpersonal' functions 26
2.6 Metadiscourse signals 27
2.7 Categorizations of metadiscourse 32
2.8 Summary and conclusions 35
Chapter 3 A metadiscourse model 37
3.1 Key principles of metadiscourse 37
3.2 A classification of metadiscourse 48
3.3 Metadiscourse resources 50
3.4 An illustration: metadiscourse in postgraduate writing 54
3.5 The limits of description 58
3.6 Summary and conclusions 59
Section 2: Metadiscourse in practice 61
Chapter 4 Metadiscourse and rhetoric 63
4.1 The concept of rhetoric 63
4.2 Academic discourse and rhetoric 65
4.3 Metadiscourse, ethos and The Origin of Species 67
4.4 Business discourse and metadiscourse 71
4.5 Metadiscourse and rhetoric in company annual reports 73
4.6 Summary and conclusions 85
Chapter 5 Metadiscourse and genre 87
5.1 The concept of genre 87
5.2 Metadiscourse and genre 88
5.3 Metadiscourse in academic research articles 89
5.4 Metadiscourse in popular science articles 93
5.5 Metadiscourse in introductory textbooks 101
5.6 Summary and conclusions 111
Chapter 6 Metadiscourse and culture 113
6.1 Culture and language 113
6.2 Metadiscourse across languages 116
6.3 Metadiscourse and writing in English 124
6.4 Interactive metadiscourse in English 124
6.5 Interactional metadiscourse in English 128
6.6 Summary and conclusions 136
Chapter 7 Metadiscourse and community 138
7.1 The concept of community 138
7.2 Community, academic writing and metadiscourse 141
7.3 Metadiscourse variation in articles across disciplines 143
7.4 Interactional metadiscourse in articles across disciplines 144
7.5 Interactive metadiscourse in articles across disciplines 156
7.6 Metadiscourse variation in textbooks across disciplines 161
7.7 Interactional metadiscourse in textbooks across disciplines 163
7.8 Interactive metadiscourse in textbooks across disciplines 166
7.9 Summary and conclusions 170
Section 3: Issues and implications 173
Chapter 8 Metadiscourse in the classroom 175
8.1 Students, writing and audience awareness 175
8.2 Advantages of teaching metadiscourse features 178
8.3 Some teaching principles 181
8.4 Some teaching strategies 185
8.5 Summary and conclusions 192
Chapter 9 Issues and directions 194
9.1 Metadiscourse and the socially situated writer 194
9.2 Metadiscourse and interpersonal engagement 195
9.3 Metadiscourse and discourse variation 196
9.4 Metadiscourse and classroom practice 197
9.5 Methodological issues 198
9.6 Some implications and remaining issues 199
9.7 Further research 200
References 204
Appendix: Metadiscourse items investigated 218
Subject Index 225
Author Index 228