Full citation: Dreher, M.J. & Singer H. (1989). Friendly texts and text-friendly teachers. Theory Into Practice, 28(2), 98-105.
What it means. Dreher & Singer (1989) define the term as "when writers talk directly to the readers to inform them about the text, they are engaged in metadiscourse" (101). To further explain this concept examples of how authors use metadiscourse are given:
"connecting devices such as therefore, however...;
all comments about the author's attitude: I believe, in my opinion, let me also point out;
all comments about the writers confidence..., most people believe, you will find, allegedly;
references to the audience: as you can sees, you will find" (Williams, 1981) (as cited in Dreher &
Singer,1989, p. 101).
Level of familiarity. I'm familiar with this concept of being metacognitive about how an author provides cues of instruction to organize and assemble the information I am reading. However, I am not sure I have thought strategically as to how of how I can turn unfriendly or inconsiderate texts into more friendly texts using metadiscourse.
Do I want to know this word well and why? I think this is an important word and concept to know so that I can keep this at the forefront of my instruction. The more I can support students to learn and pay attention to these cues, the more strategic readers they will become. In other words, make learning more transparent.
Do I think others should know this word well and why? I think all of us can use metadiscourse in our lessons, to be more teacher-friendly. In addition, as educators, we do come across texts that are unfriendly. Instead of disregarding the text completely, we can integrate the examples provided above to "fix-up" unfriendly texts. In addition, by pointing how authors use metadiscourse, students can learn to use these examples in their own writing, creating a more transactive experience between reading and writing.
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