{"id":483,"date":"2010-05-08T10:00:42","date_gmt":"2010-05-08T08:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/elanguage.net\/blogs\/booknotices\/?p=483"},"modified":"2010-03-04T12:35:24","modified_gmt":"2010-03-04T10:35:24","slug":"metadiscourse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/?p=483","title":{"rendered":"Metadiscourse"},"content":{"rendered":"
Metadiscourse<\/strong>:<\/strong> Exploring interaction in writing. By Ken Hyland<\/strong>. London: Continuum, 2005. Pp. x, 230. ISBN 9780826476111<\/a>. $49.95.<\/div>\n

Reviewed by Bojana Petri\u0107<\/strong><\/a>, E\u00f6tv\u00f6s Lor\u00e1nd University, Budapest, Hungary<\/em><\/p>\n

In this book, Ken Hyland critically reviews the concept of metadiscourse and presents a new, theoretically sound, and analytically powerful metadiscourse model, based on the social view of writing. H argues that metadiscourse, defined as \u2018the ways writers refer to the text, the writer or the reader\u2019 (48), is essentially interpersonal and interactional and should therefore be viewed primarily as a social act.<\/p>\n

The book is divided into three sections. Section 1, which consists of three chapters, provides the theoretical foundations for the rest of the book. H first clarifies the concept of metadiscourse and traces its origins, which he sees in the attempts to reestablish a focus on the neglected social aspects of language use (Ch. 1, 3\u201315). Ch. 2 (16\u201336) provides a critical overview of previous conceptualizations and classifications of metadiscourse, which is followed by H\u2019s proposal for a new metadiscourse model (Ch. 3, 37\u201360). H argues that metadiscourse is not a linguistic but rather a rhetorical and pragmatic phenomenon, which covers \u2018the self-reflective expressions used to negotiate interactional meanings in a text\u2019 (37). His model rests on three principles: (i) metadiscourse is distinct from propositional aspects of discourse, (ii) it expresses writer-reader interactions, and (iii) it distinguishes reference internal to the text from external relations. H classifies metadiscourse into interactive, which helps organize the text (e.g. transitions), and interactional, which covers expressions of stance and engagement (e.g. hedges). Throughout this section, H provides numerous examples to illustrate the discussion. Particularly useful is the analysis of metadiscourse in postgraduate dissertations in six academic disciplines, which shows how the model can be applied in practice.<\/p>\n

Section 2 presents applications of metadiscourse in rhetoric (Ch. 4, 63\u201386), genre (Ch. 5, 87\u2013112), culture (Ch. 6, 113\u201337), and community (Ch. 7, 138\u201371). Ch. 4 analyzes the use of metadiscourse for persuasion, taking examples from Charles Darwin\u2019s On the<\/em> origin of species<\/em> and company annual reports, while Ch. 5 focuses on generic variation by analyzing metadiscourse in research papers, popular science texts, and textbooks. In Ch. 6, H examines metadiscourse across languages, drawing on contrastive rhetoric research involving English and a number of other languages. Ch. 7 investigates variation in metadiscourse across disciplinary discourse communities, drawing on H\u2019s earlier comparative study of metadiscourse in eight academic disciplines. In these four chapters, H reviews an impressive range of studies, illustrating what insights metadiscourse\u2014used as a tool for the study of texts\u2014can provide into various aspects of communication in writing.<\/p>\n

The two chapters in the last section of the book deal with pedagogical applications of metadiscourse and directions for further research. Teachers of English will find the practical principles and strategies for metadiscourse instruction especially useful (Ch. 8, 175\u201393). The final chapter succinctly summarizes the book\u2019s main arguments and points to issues for further research (Ch. 9, 194\u2013203).<\/p>\n

Clearly written, well argued, and richly illustrated with examples from a wide range of texts, this book will be of particular interest to discourse analysts, applied linguists, and teachers of English. The critical reevaluation of the concept of metadiscourse and the new metadiscourse model presented in this book make a significant step forward in the study of metadiscourse as well as in academic and professional writing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Metadiscourse: Exploring interaction in writing. By Ken Hyland. London: Continuum, 2005. Pp. x, 230. ISBN 9780826476111. $49.95. Reviewed by Bojana Petri\u0107, E\u00f6tv\u00f6s Lor\u00e1nd University, Budapest, Hungary In this book, Ken Hyland critically reviews the concept of metadiscourse and presents a new, theoretically sound, and analytically powerful metadiscourse model, based on the social view of writing. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=483"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":484,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483\/revisions\/484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}