ABSTRACT
In chapter 5, I began the analysis of tutors’ and student writers’ key words-the words that differentiate this study’s corpus from the reference corpora. Specifically, I analyzed tutors’ and student writers’ key function words, the words that create grammar by linking together words, phrases, and clauses (Fries 1952). Here in chapter 6, I examine tutors’ and student writers’ key content words (see table 6.1). I focus special attention on their writing-related content words, as these words constituted what Farr (2007), building off Wenger’s (1998) and Hedgcock’s (2002) work, labels “ metadiscourse” (249). In her study of discourse between student-teachers and their experienced-teacher observers, Farr (2007) defined metadiscourse as language “used to describe language and also conventions to describe the art of teaching” (249). Metadiscourse words show direct engagement with the main transactional task at hand, in the case of the present study, talking about the process and product of writing.
