Personal Pronouns as Interactional Metadiscourse: A Study of Pakistani Postgraduate Students' Perceptions During Dissertation Writing

Abstract

In this paper, the perceptions of Pakistani postgraduate students towards the use of personal pronouns as interactional metadiscourse resources in the process of writing dissertation are explored. This study draws on Interactional Metadiscourse Framework of Hyland (2005) to discuss the students' awareness and attitudes towards the use of personal pronouns and the role that personal pronouns play in the processes of constructing authorial voice and researcher identity. Interviews with post-graduate students of the private sector higher education institutions of Pakistan were conducted using semi-structured interview method and a reflexive thematic analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data as suggested by Braun and Clarke, (2006, 2019). The results show that participants have limited knowledge of the rhetorical purposes of personal pronouns and most believe that academic writing is “objective”, “impersonal”, and relies on “scholarly voices.” As a result, students may not use first-person pronouns and may opt for passive sentences or self-reference. The analysis additionally suggests that cultural anticipations, supervisory practices and worries regarding academic honour have an influence on students' reluctance to use a visible authorial voice. Contrary to this, the participants began to understand that the use of personal pronouns could help to create "authorial voice," to make research ownership more apparent, and to help build a scholarly self. The study points out the significance of explicit teaching of interactional metadiscourse and suggests that an increase in awareness of personal pronouns will enable postgraduate students to engage more confidently in academic discourse or knowledge production.