Metadiscourse Markers in Iranian Medical Articles: A Comparative Study

Abstract

Background and purpose: Metadiscourse markers (MDMs) play a significant role in academic witting. They act as a bridge between writers and readers and make a text more understandable. Therefore, this study aimed at investigating the use of MDMs in introduction, methods, results, and discussion (IMRaD) sections of English medical research articles (RAs) published in Iranian and American ISI journals. Materials and methods: In this cross-sectional study, performed in 2020, we selected 60 RAs published in Iranian medical journals and 60 RAs in American medical counterparts. Following Hyland’s taxonomy, MDMs were identified. Data analysis was done in SPSS V21 applying t-test. Results: The mean scores for MDMs were 5.40 and 5.78 in RAs published in Iranian and American journals, respectively that indicated no significant difference between MDMs used by Iranian and non-Iranian authors of medical RAs (P=0.377). Conclusion: Further trainings on the use of MDMs not only help authors to write more coherently and their intended meanings clear to their audience, but also enables readers to easily interpret the text. In fact, these markers improve the quality of writing and increase the comprehensibility of the text.

Keywords

• metadiscourse markers
• research article
• iran
• comparative studies