Metadiscourse in Professional and Student Writing: A Corpus Study

Abstract

Linguists and discourse theorists have found differences between student and professional writers, often framing student writing as immature and lacking rhetorical skills. These differences are often explored through the examination of metadiscourse, elements within writing that show the author’s explicit consideration of audience and organization. However, when discussing effective writing, difficulties arise because the criteria for effective writing differs depending on audience, context, and purpose. This paper reports on the results of a corpus study on the use of metadiscourse in undergraduate and professional writing in composition studies. The aims of the study are to offer possible reasons for differences between student and professional writer’s use of metadiscourse and to stress the importance of audience, context, and purpose when teaching and learning how to write.