Abstract

Good student writers are often seen as a benchmark to the weaker writers. In the area of metadiscourse in students’ writing, previous studies show that good undergraduate writers use more metadiscourse markers as compared to the weaker writers. However, there are limited previous studies which observe the use of metadiscourse among Malaysian ESL undergraduate writers whose Bahasa Malaysia is their first language. Therefore, further studies involving undergraduate writers from this particular setting is significant to add more literature to the field of metadiscourse among ESL undergraduates. This paper aims to present the metadiscourse markers found in a corpus of good undergraduate writers’ essays (GUWE corpus). These metadiscourse markers are classified in the main categories and sub-categories based on Hyland’s (2005) interpersonal model of metadiscourse. Using a concordance software, this study aims to reveal the frequency of the metadiscourse markers use in good essays produced by 269 Malaysian undergraduate writers. The findings presented in this paper are hoped to be useful for other researchers who are interested in the same field of metadiscourse among ESL student writers especially among Malaysian undegraduates. 

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