Exploration of metadiscourse markers in the conclusion section of master's theses

Abstract

Metadiscourse markers help writers make a text coherent and reader- friendly. The present study entitled Exploration of Metadiscourse Markers in the Conclusion Section of Master's Theses was an attempt to explore metadiscourse markers in the conclusion sections of master's theses and to investigate the difference between the use of interactive and interactional metadiscourse markers in the conclusion sections of master's theses. Thirty conclusion sections written between 2015 and 2018 by master thesis students from the Department of English Education, Kirtipur were collected and examined using Hyland's (2005) model of metadiscourse. The required data were collected using quota sampling procedure. A quantitative analysis was conducted to find out the percentage, frequency and difference in the use of metadiscourse markers in the 30 conclusion sections. Findings suggested that metadiscourse markers were used in very less number (i.e. 821words out of 8490 words) in thirty conclusion sections. It was also found that interactive metdiscourse markers were used more (i.e. 606 words out of 821) than the interactional metadiscourse markers (i.e.215 words out of 821). This thesis consists of five chapters. The first chapter deals with the introduction of the topic in which background of the study, statement of the problem, objective of the study, research questions, significance of the study, delimitation of the study and operational definition for the key terms are included. The second chapter consists of the review of related theoretical literature, review of empirical literature, implication of the study and conceptual framework. In the same way, chapter three includes design of the study, population, sample and sampling strategy, research tools, sources of data, data collection procedures, data analysis procedures and ethical considerations. The fourth chapter is about analysis of data and interpretations of result. And the five chapter deals with findings, conclusion and recommendations which are summed up from the analysis and interpretations of the collected data for the purpose of research. The references and appendices have been included in the last part of the thesis.