metadiscourse; academic writing; undergraduate textbook; interpersonal function

The study aims to identify and describe metadiscursive features used in academic writing, specifically in the genre of undergraduate textbook. Following the history of the term 'metadiscourse', it tries to delimit the concept and compare different approaches to it. The analysis of linguistics textbooks revealed how writers project themselves into their discourses to structure it, make it more accessible to readers and engage readers as discourse participants. Furthermore, the analysis proved that metadiscourse can be a useful concept for examining the interactions in academic writing and thus can contribute to the better understanding of Halliday?s interpersonal function of language.