Engagement Markers: a Technique for Improving Writing Skills

Writers use metadiscourse markers to create and maintain relationship with their readers, influencing them by addressing them directly in various ways. The present study aimed at exploring the use of engagement markers as related to the quality of texts produced by IELTS student writers. To this end a quasi-experimental design was conducted through which 30 university level IELTS student writers were selected to comprise an experimental group which received instruction on the use of engagement markers. Another group of 30 students was selected to form the control group which received instruction on developing compositions only through a process method. The results indicate significant differences between the performance of experimental group and that of control group in terms of effectiveness of produced texts.