INTERACTIONAL METADISCOURSE MARKERS IN DISCUSSION SECTION OF SUCCESSFUL UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS THESES

Interactional metadiscourse has a very significant role in writing. Instead of
merely providing information to the readers, interactional metadiscourse helps the
writer to communicate their ideas in a way that readers are familiar with and they
can accept. This study aims to find out the types and the reasons of using
particular interactional metadiscourse in discussion section of successful
undergraduate students‟ thesis. This study employed a mixed-method design. The
researcher did quantitative first and then qualitative research in this study to
analyze and describe the results thoroughly. The results show hedges and booster
are the frequent interactional metadiscourse markers found in thesis discussion of
successful undergraduate students of the University of Bengkulu with a frequency
of hedges 337 times and booster 181 times of all data. The next interactional
metadiscourse markers used in the discussion section are self-mention, attitude
markers, and engagement markers where the number of appearance is not
significant. This research found that hedges and booster are used for different
reasons. Hedges are needed to emphasize and strengthen opinion while booster is
used to show the writers‟ certainty and strengthen their statements which are
based on their facts and findings.
Keywords: Interactional metadiscourse, thesis discussion, hedges, booster