Persuasion through Metadiscourse: Examining the Textual Metadiscourse Used in the Malaysian Universities’ Digital Promotional Materials
Abstract
Promotional booklets are central to how universities persuade prospective students. This study examines how textual metadiscourse realises persuasion in Malaysian universities’ digital promotional materials. We compiled two sub-corpora from official university websites: 10 booklets from Malaysian public universities and eight from Malaysian private universities. Textual content bearing persuasive intent (e.g., welcomes, institutional overview, “why choose us,” facilities, testimonials) was extracted and analysed in AntConc software. A functional, manual coding determined whether candidate items performed metadiscoursal work, and categories followed Hyland’s (2005) interpersonal model (interactive vs. interactional). Frequencies were normalised per 1,000 words. Across the combined corpus, interactive resources slightly outnumbered interactional resources. For the interactive resources, transitions were the most frequent interactive device, followed by code glosses and frame markers, reflecting the need to connect dense promotional information coherently. Within interactional resources, attitude markers and self-mentions were most common, signalling institutional stance and persona, with engagement markers also prominent. Private-university materials displayed a higher overall density of metadiscourse and a smaller gap between interactive and interactional resources than public-university materials, suggesting a more balanced “guide + engage” approach. These patterns indicate a persuasive blend of logos (via text-organising resources) with pathos/ethos (via stance and reader alignment). The study contributes corpus-assisted evidence on promotional discourse and offers practical implications for crafting persuasive, reader-friendly university marketing texts.
Keywords: Corpus-assisted analysis; Malaysian universities; metadiscourse; persuasion; promotional materials
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Abas, N., & Abdul Aziz, R. (2023). A corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis of COVID-19 vaccination-related news discourse in the Malaysian mainstream media. 3L: Language, Linguistics, Literature—The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies, 29(3), 148–165. https://doi.org/10.17576/3L-2023-2903-11
Ahmad, W. N. W., & Ali, N. M. (2018). The impact of persuasive technology on user emotional experience and user experience over time. Journal of Information and Communication Technology, 17(4), 601–628. https://doi.org/10.32890/jict2018.17.4.8273
Al-Subhi, A. S. (2022). Metadiscourse in online advertising: Exploring linguistic and visual metadiscourse in social media advertisements. Journal of Pragmatics, 187, 24-40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2021.10.027
Anctil, E. J. (2008). Selling higher education: Marketing and advertising America’s colleges and universities. Jossey-Bass.
Bano, Z., & Shakir, A. (2015). Personal pronouns in ‘about us’ section of online university prospectuses. Journal of Education and Practice, 6(1), 133–140.
Bhatia, V. K. (1993). Analysing genre: Language use in professional settings. Longman.
Crismore, A., Markkanen, R., & Steffensen, M. (1993). Metadiscourse in persuasive writing: A study of texts written by American and Finnish university students. Written Communication, 10(1), 39–71.
Fang, Y., & Zhuang, G. (2022). Approaching the audience: Engagement markers in Longinus’ On the Sublime. Language and Semiotic Studies, 8(3), 86–105.
González, R. A. (2005). Textual metadiscourse in commercial websites. Ibérica: Revista de la Asociación Europea de Lenguas para Fines Específicos, 9, 33–52.
Ho, V., & Li, C. (2018). The use of metadiscourse and persuasion: An analysis of first-year university students’ timed argumentative essays. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 33, 53–68.
Hong, H., & Cao, F. (2014). Interactional metadiscourse in young EFL learner writing: A corpus-based study. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 19(2), 201–224.
Hooi, C. M., Tan, H., Lee, G. I., & Victor Danarajan, S. S. (2020). Texts with metadiscourse features are more engaging: A fact or a myth? 3L: Language, Linguistics, Literature—The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies, 26(4), 58–73. https://doi.org/10.17576/3L-2020-2604-05
Hu, G., & Cao, F. (2015). Disciplinary and paradigmatic influences on interactional metadiscourse in research articles. English for Specific Purposes, 39, 12–25.
Hyland, K. (1998). Persuasion and context: The pragmatics of academic metadiscourse. Journal of Pragmatics, 30(4), 437-455.
Hyland, K. (1999). Talking to students: Metadiscourse in introductory coursebooks. English for Specific Purposes, 18(1), 3–26.
Hyland, K. (2005). Metadiscourse. Continuum.
Hyland, K., & Tse, P. (2004). Metadiscourse in academic writing: A reappraisal. Applied Linguistics, 25(2), 156–177.
Khedri, M., Heng, C. S., Ebrahimi, S. (2013). An exploration of interactive metadiscourse markers in academic research article abstracts in two disciplines. Discourse Studies, 25(3), 319-331. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461445613480588
Kuswoyo, H., & Siregar, R. A. (2019). Interpersonal metadiscourse markers as persuasive strategies in oral business presentations. Lingua Cultura, 13(4), 297–304.
Lerbinger, O. (1972). Designs for Persuasive Communication. PrenticeHall Inc.
Mahmood, I. I., & Kasim, Z. M. (2019). Interpersonal metadiscursive features in contemporary Islamic Friday sermons. 3L: The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies, 25(1), 85–99.
Miller, G. R. (2013). On being persuaded: Some basic distinctions. In J. P. Dillard & L. Shen (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of persuasion: Developments in theory and practice (pp. 70–82). SAGE.
Musa, A., Hussin, S., & Ho, I. A. (2019). Interaction in academic L2 writing: An analysis of interactional metadiscourse strategies in applied linguistics research articles. 3L: Language, Linguistics, Literature—The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies, 25(3), 16–32.
https://doi.org/10.17576/3L-2019-2503-02
O’Keefe, D. J. (2002). Persuasion: Theory and research (2nd ed). Sage Publications.
Roloff, M. E., & Miller, G. R. (1980). Persuasion: New directions in theory and research. SAGE Publications.
Shahid, A., Urooj, F., Alvi, U., & Jahan, J. (2023). A comparative multidimensional study of online university prospectuses of Pakistan and the UK: A corpus-based analysis. Bulletin of Business & Economics, 12(3), 241–252.
Shahnaz, A. (2021). Marketisation of higher education: A genre analysis of university prospectuses in Pakistan. Higher Education Quarterly, 76(3), 653–670. https://doi.org/10.1111/hequ.12334
Shahnaz, A., & Suleman, N. (2023). Semiotic analysis of university prospectuses in Pakistan: Marketization, identity, and power dynamics. Social Semiotics, 35(2), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/10350330.2023.2286452
Sinclair, J. (1981). Planes of discourse. In S.N.A. Rizvi (Eds.), The two-fold voice: Essays in honor of Ramesh Mohan (pp. 70–89). Salzburg University Press.
Swales, J. M., & Feak, S. (2000). English in today’s research world. University of Michigan Press.
Vande Kopple, W. J. (1985). Some exploratory discourse on metadiscourse. College Composition and Communication, 36(1), 82–93.
van Leeuwen, T. (2008). Discourse and practice: New tools for critical discourse analysis. Oxford University Press.
Virtanen, T., & Halmari, H. (2005). “Persuasion across Genres: Emerging Perspectives.” In H. Halmari & T. Virtanen (Eds.), persuasion across genres (pp.3–24). John Benjamins.
Zhang, Y., & O'Halloran, K. (2013). "Toward a global knowledge enterprise": University websites as portals to the ongoing marketisation of higher education. Critical Discourse Studies, 10(4), 468–485.
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
eISSN : 2550-2247
ISSN : 0128-5157