• corpus analysis
• hard sciences
• metadiscourse
• Non-native speakers
• PhD thesis

This work of thesis born out from a personal interest in better understand the role occupied by metadiscourse in academic writing, mainly focusing on understanding the functions performed by self – mention and engagement markers.
By this consideration, it has been possible to collect a corpus made up by PhD theses written in English by Italian students in the hard sciences field.
Then, thanks to the analysis, it has been possible to understand the function undertaken by elements identified as occurrences of self – mention and of engagement markers.

The present study has tried to answer to the following questions: How is metadiscourse employed in the text analyzed? Are self – mention and engagement markers used widely in the corpus? How are they employed? How are self – mention and engagement markers employed by scholars in hard sciences field? How and how much is metadiscourse employed by Italian students in PhD theses?

The six chapters try to answer to these questions thanks to the analysis of the elements identified as occurrences of self – mention and engagement markers.
Then, the aim of the analysis is that of identifying how these features of metadiscourse are employed by Italian students in their PhD theses written in English as part of hard sciences.

This work of thesis born out from a personal interest in better understand the role occupied by metadiscourse in academic writing, mainly focusing on understanding the functions performed by self – mention and engagement markers. By this consideration, it has been possible to collect a corpus made up by PhD theses written in English by Italian students in the hard sciences field. Then, thanks to the analysis, it has been possible to understand the function undertaken by elements identified as occurrences of self – mention and of engagement markers. The present study has tried to answer to the following questions: How is metadiscourse employed in the text analyzed? Are self – mention and engagement markers used widely in the corpus? How are they employed? How are self – mention and engagement markers employed by scholars in hard sciences field? How and how much is metadiscourse employed by Italian students in PhD theses? The six chapters try to answer to these questions thanks to the analysis of the elements identified as occurrences of self – mention and engagement markers. Then, the aim of the analysis is that of identifying how these features of metadiscourse are employed by Italian students in their PhD theses written in English as part of hard sciences.