A sociopragmatic approach to the use of meta-discourse features in effective non-native and native speaker composition writing

Issues of writing revolve around effective writing. Many instructors are concerned that their students do not write effectively, while most students are concerned that they do not know how to write so they are understood. Furthermore, some non-native writers write more effectively than others, including some native-writers.; This dissertation examines factors that determine effective writing by non-native and native speakers. The study assumes that text production involves satisfying a text at three related levels: the schematic superstructures, the propositional content, and messages of intentionality. Meta-discourse features (such as By this I mean…) express messages of intentionality that convey attitude toward the subject matter (including interpersonal and intrapersonal involvement). The study investigates how writers use schematic superstructures and meta-discourse features in effective writing.; Meta-discourse features in 64 compositions were examined: 32 ESL compositions by Dholuo first language subjects, in their third year at Kenyatta University, Kenya, and 32 compositions by English native-speaker freshman at Midlands Technical College, Columbia, SC. Prior to the analysis, three native-speaker composition instructors independently rated the compositions as effective or ineffective.; A sociopragmatic approach based on the theory of intentionality and a rational choice model as explicated in the Markedness Model (Myers-Scotton 1993 & 1998), the theory of Generalized Conversational Implicatures (Levinson 2000), the Cooperative Principle (Grice 1975), and Relevance Theory (Sperber & Wilson 1986) was adopted for data analysis. The results show that both non-native and native writers conformed to the target language's schematic superstructures; they also used meta-discourse features to express messages of intentionality. A major result of this study shows that effective writers used more meta-discourse features to express messages of intentionality than ineffective writers; results were almost identical for both native and non-native speakers.; The study claims that effective writers exploit their linguistic repertoire to maximize audience awareness and indications of their own awareness to achieve maximum communicative reward, and concludes that meta-discourse features structure discourse at a higher level than propositional content. Consequently, instructors should sensitize their students to the use of meta-discourse features, and writers should view writing as an interactive enterprise between themselves and their reader and between themselves and their text.