1. Introduction

Metadiscourse equips writers to help readers interpret, evaluate, and react to propositional information. The term has grown significantly in recent years, with the number of publications on the topic increasing. Conferences dedicated to metadiscourse research have contributed to the field's advancement. Metadiscourse is influenced by social and textual contexts and is often compared across languages, genres, and disciplines. Various studies have compared metadiscursive resources across languages and demonstrated variations in the use of metadiscourse features. Cross-disciplinary and cross-genre comparisons have also shown variations in metadiscourse use. However, there is a lack of comprehensive and theoretically grounded propositions on cross-linguistic differences of metadiscourse. This article aims to provide an overview of the development of metadiscourse research and map the contributions in this special issue onto the trajectory.

2. Research Topics and Keywords

This chapter discusses the research topics and keywords related to metadiscourse, highlighting the productivity and maturity of metadiscourse in various knowledge areas. It describes the hot research topics in the metadiscourse literature, such as students' writing, genre analysis, science, disciplinary variation, and metadiscourse resources. The chapter also outlines a diachronic development in metadiscourse research, showing a shift towards a focus on persuasive interaction and its role in achieving the communicative purpose of a genre.

3. Commonly Cited Publications

The chapter provides an analysis of commonly cited publications on metadiscourse, organizing them into three clusters based on their theoretical underpinnings and empirical studies. Cluster 1 focuses on theoretical underpinnings and analytical frameworks, drawing from composition studies and sociolinguistic inquiry. Cluster 2 addresses theoretical perspectives of language use in metadiscourse, while Cluster 3 consists of empirical analyses based on the interpersonal model of metadiscourse. The chapter also highlights the need for a sound theoretical support for comparative analysis of metadiscourse across languages and cultures and the importance of extending current metadiscourse resources to gain a fuller view of its functions.

4. This Special Issue

This special issue showcases eight research articles that offer diverse perspectives on metadiscourse and related concepts. The first article explores how interactive metadiscourse may be used as a recontextualizing tool to help readers who may be potentially less knowledgeable about a certain field better grasp complex disciplinary knowledge. The paper examines how the presence of authors in abstracts shows variations across three specific discipline-based corpora. Another article offers an investigation into the use of metadiscourse in the language acquisition and discourse analysis fields. A different study looks at how isolated Serbian engineering MA students utilize frame markers and engagement markers in the abstract writing of their L1 and English. The paper examines how organizational metadiscourse could foster engagement and interaction leading to successful communication. Another paper provides an examination of metadiscourse items in two major disciplines and uncovers variations in the distribution and realization of metadiscursive categories across different English Medium Instruction disciplines. Finally, there is a cross-disciplinary examination of metadiscourse in the video lectures of three major knowledge domains.