Metadiscourse: A Technique for Improving Student Writing

Metadiscourse is a construct that is increasingly important in both composition and reading research. The purpose of this study was to explore, first, how metadiscourse can enhance the writer's awareness of readers' needs and, second, how the use of metadiscourse is related to the quality of the texts that students produce. In this quasi-experimental study, university-level student writers in the experimental class were taught metadiscourse in addition to a process method, while those writers in the control class were taught composition through only a process method. Pre- and post-treatment student papers were analyzed to determine whether metadiscourse usage was different and how the interpersonal, textual, and ideational components of the texts in the two groups were affected. The results of the analysis indicated that the experimental group benefited from instruction about metadiscourse: Students in the experimental group produced essays that received significantly higher grades than those in the control group. Qualitative in-depth analyses of the essays of the experimental students further showed that this improvement can be attributed to the use of metadiscourse markers, which made the texts more accommodating toward readers, and to the strengthening of the ideational as well as the interpersonal and textual meanings of the texts. These results suggest that teaching students to use metadiscourse may be an important way to improve their writing skills. A persistent problem faces teachers and researchers in composing. Although virtually all universities require undergraduate composition classes, most students do not write effectively even after instruction. Moreover, although composition instruction has been studied intensively, seldom does empirical research clearly elevate one method of instruction over another. The study we are reporting was organized around the concept of metadiscourse. We felt this would be an effective methodology for university level students taking their first composition course because we believe that many novice writers focus on the product, the written text, and do not pay enough attention to the ultimate goal of writing, communicating with an audience.