This book provides an accessible introduction to metadiscourse, discussing its role and importance in written communication. It explores examples from a wide range of texts from business, journalism, academia and student writing to present a new theory of metadiscourse. The final section of the book explores the importance of metadiscourse for teachers and students, and details its practical advantages and applications in the writing class.

Accessibly written and packed with examples, Metadiscourse is an essential introduction for students of applied linguistics, language teachers and academics.

Ken Hyland is Professor of Education and Head of the Centre for Academic and Professional Literacies in the School of Culture, Language and Communication at the Institute of Education, University of London.

"In this engaging and highly insightful account of multifunctional metadiscourse, Ken Hyland expertly re-examines the relationship between writers and readers through the mediation of texts to highlight the interactive nature of discourse as social engagement. The book gives a new meaning and direction to the study of form-function relationship in the analysis of discourse as (in a much wider context embedding) genre, culture and society."

Professor Vijay K Bhatia, City University of Hong Kong