An Investigation of Interpersonal Meta Discursive Markers in EnglishPersuasive Essays Written by Iranian EFL Students

Objective: metadiscourse assists the writer to get the reader to better understand and perceivethe text. the aim of this study was to investigate the way interpersonal metadiscourse markerswere applied within persuasive essays written by iranian efl students.methods: the participants (n=50) were asked to write an essay in which to persuade citydwellers to leave the city and start a new life in a rural area. interpersonal metadiscoursemarkers, such as hedges, boosters, attitude markers, engagement markers, and self-mentions,were traced and analyzed.results: the occurrences were observed in their textual context to facilitate the identificationof their function. the results indicated an unbalanced presence of metadiscourse markers inthe essays written by iranian efl learners in favor of directives as a realization of boosters.conclusions: it was inferred that metadiscursive markers might be configured based oncultural norms in the students’ native culture. it is suggested to teach efl students to applymodal verbs to adjust the weight of imposition of boosters.