The Use of Metadiscursive Markers in Letters of Recommendation: An Investigation of Gender Variations

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate gender variations in letters of recommendation. It used the metadiscourse theory with respect to the following resources: hedges, boosters, attitude markers, engagement markers, and self-mentions. The findings showed that hedges devices were the least frequent in both groups, but at the same time were used more by males compared to female recommenders. Boosters, on the other hand, were highly frequent in both corpora and, like hedges, were employed more frequently in the male group. Interestingly, while both gender groups shared using specific hedging and boosting tokens, each gender group appeared to favor using certain devices. The attitude markers were the most frequent in the two samples and appeared more in the female group. Similarly, while both groups used specific attitude markers, each gender group seemed to use specific attitude markers. The engagement markers revealed the highest divergence between the two groups, as they appeared more frequently in female letters. Finally, both gender groups employed self-mentions equally, but female letters seemed to favor using the plural forms. The study closes with some pedagogical implications by highlighting how the theory of metadiscourse can be of importance for academics.

The Use of Interactional Metadiscourse Markers in the Discussion Section of Master’s Theses Written in English by Algerian Students: An Investigation of Gender Variation

“…Male students exhibited more preference for using engagement exponents which reflected a sense of solidarity and credibility in the end of their discussions where recommendation and justification are among the major rhetorical moves (Hopkins and Dudley-Evans 1988). Surprisingly, there was a high divergence between our finding and some previous others like Tse and Hyland (2008) and Alotaibi (2021) in which engagement markers were more frequent among female writers. The former investigated book reviews and the latter examined letters of recommendation.…”

“…The study of lexical choices associated with the use of interactional metadiscourse was the main concern of Alotaibi (2021) in a more recent study investigating gender variation in letters of recommendation. The researcher found that male and female writers differed in their choice of tokens expressing hedges and boosters.…”

Unveiling Gendered 3MT Presentations: A Corpus-based Analysis of Evaluative Language Important

“…Some research uncovers the continued prevalence of a gendered discourse that excludes certain groups (Fairchild et al, 2022). Alotaibi (2021) analyzed gender differences in letters of recommendation, revealing that male recommenders tended to utilize more hedges and boosters compared to their female counterparts.…”