Written Communication Jan 1993

Metadiscourse in Persuasive Writing: A Study of Texts Written by American and Finnish University Students

AVON CRISMORE ; RAIJA MARKKANEN ; MARGARET S. STEFFENSEN

Abstract

Metadiscourse refers to writers' discourse about their discourse—their directions for how readers should read, react to, and evaluate what they have written about the subject matter. In this study the authors divided metadiscourse into textual metadiscourse (text markers and interpretive markers) and interpersonal metadiscourse (hedges, certainty markers, attributors, attitude markers, and commentary). The purpose was to investigate cultural and gender variations in the use of metadiscourse in the United States and Finland by asking whether U.S. and Finnish writers use the same amounts and types and whether gender makes any difference. The analyses revealed that students in both countries used all categories and subcategories, but that there were some cultural and gender differences in the amounts and types used. Finnish students and male students used more metadiscourse than U.S. students and female students. Students in both countries used much more interpersonal than textual metadiscourse with Finnish males using the most and U.S. males the least. The study provides partial evidence for the universality of metadiscourse and suggests the need for more cross-cultural studies of its use and/or more attention to it in teaching composition.

Journal
Written Communication
Published
1993-01-01
DOI
10.1177/0741088393010001002
CompPile
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Open Access
Closed
Topics
discourse analysis teacher development gender and writing
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (15)

  1. Takač et al. (2026)
    Metadiscoursal Superimposition as a Methodological Approach: Towards a Structur…
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  1. Groot et al. (2016)
    Picture This: Developing a Model for the Analysis of Visual Metadiscourse
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  2. McNamara et al. (2015)
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  3. Crossley et al. (2011)
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  4. Knoch (2007)
    ‘Little coherence, considerable strain for reader’: A comparison between two ra…
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  5. Samson (2006)
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  6. Amelia et al. (2006)
    Rhetorical Argumentation in Italian Academic Discourse
    Argumentation
  7. Kumpf (2000)
    Visual metadiscourse: Designing the considerate text
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  8. CHAMBLISS et al. (1996)
    Do Adults Change their Minds after Reading Persuasive Text?
    Written Communication
  9. HYLAND (1996)
    Talking to the Academy: Forms of Hedging in Science Research Articles
    Written Communication
  10. BARTON (1995)
    Contrastive and Non-Contrastive Connectives: Metadiscourse Functions in Argumentation
    Written Communication

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CrossRef global citation count: 394 View in citation network → Build reading path →

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