What is Metadiscourse

The use of metadiscourse markers is an important writing strategy employed both to structure the text and to engage the reader in the text production. In this connection, the purpose of this study is to assess the use of metadiscourse markers in term papers produced by MATESOL students at university of Khartoum. Forty papers were examined using Hyland's model of metadiscourse markers. Twenty papers were chosen from class 2016-2017, and the other 20 were selected from class 2017-2018. The data were analyzed in percentage terms. The results revealed that trained students use more metadiscourse markers than the untrained students. Additionally, it was found that female students used more metadiscourse markers than male. Also, it was found that all participants used more metadiscourse markers in the background section than in the statement of the problem section.