The Use of Metadiscourse Markers in MA Linguistics Theses: A Pragmatic Study

It is now widely accepted that written texts embody the author and reader interaction. This interaction is intended to influence readers via various interpersonal and argumentative strategies. Though much literature has been conducted on metadiscourse devices, fewer studies were conducted in the Iraqi EFL context at the university level. The current research addresses how authors of MA linguistics theses engage with their texts and readers to establish a connection within the discourse community. To this end, the data were collected from ten MA linguistics theses from the University of Anbar and Tikrit University. The qualitative data was analysed using Hyland's (2005a) model. Based on a contrastive analysis of the frequencies of interactive and interactional Metadiscourse markers in the Master's theses of both universities. It has been shown that the predominant devices used in theses are Transitions as authors use distinct Metadiscourse markers. The observed results could be explained by the excessive focus put on these gadgets by English educators at the intermediate and secondary educational levels. The findings implicate giving careful consideration to these indicators, especially in the context of advanced academic writing, in order to enhance students' pragmatic ability.