a qualitative account of writers’ perceptions of interactional meta-discourse markers application in theses

A thesis is a crucial facet of most post-graduation programs as it helps professors determine the students level of participation and comprehension of the subject. the current study aimed to explore the attitudes of iranian writers of theses concerning the application of meta-discourse markers. to achieve the goal, semi-structured interviews were conducted. the interviewees who were 15 female and 5 male iranian m.a. efl graduates were selected based on convenience sampling. sample sizes in qualitative research are frequently limited to allow for the depth of case-oriented analysis required for this type of investigation. the interviewees’ responses to the interview questions were classified based on five notions: general, audience-related, language support, organization, and attitude. the findings revealed that the participants chose a subject for conducting a research which could be attractive and practical. the participants referred to their worries about writing up a thesis in a calm and self-confident manner as well as their difficulty in establishing cohesion and coherence of their writing. the interviewees asserted that writing the initial draft of thesis was much a burden to be accomplished. the participants stated that writing a thesis could be an ongoing process and organized in a step-by-step movement. it was also concluded that all of the participants had the same opinion towards a sequence for writing the chapters of their studies. the outcomes of this study may have practical implications for students in writing classes in tefl and esp at m.a. and phd levels.