A Qualitative Account of Writers’ Perceptions of Thesis Writing in Applied Linguistics: The Case of Interactional Meta-Discourse Markers

Writing an academic thesis study has received much attention over the last decades as it is a crucial facet of most post-graduation programs. The current study aimed to explore the perceptions of Iranian writers of theses with a focus on the application of meta-discourse markers. To achieve the goal, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 female and five male Iranian M.A. EFL graduates recruited based on convenience sampling. The interview questions were designed following Hyland’s (2004) protocol comprising 25 questions derived from five basic concepts, namely, general, audience, language support, organization, and attitude. The interviewees’ responses were analyzed following a content analysis approach and later inductively classified based on five themes: general, audience-related, language support, organization, and attitude. The analysis of students’ opinions revealed that they preferred a subject for conducting 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 using attitude and engagement markers as well as hedges in an efficient way can help them express their own viewpoints in their theses. Meanwhile, they stated that writing a thesis could be an ongoing process and organized in a step-by-step movement, and writers need to pay a careful attention to the words which fulfill various functions in the text. The outcomes of this study may yield practical implications for students in writing classes in TEFL and ESP at M.A. and PhD levels.