Textual Organisation and Interpersonal Interaction in Academic Written Discourse

Abstract

This paper investigates the modes of interaction employed by academic writers to establish effective communication with their readers. The study utilizes Halliday and Hasan’s (1976) theory of cohesion and coherence and Hyland’s (2005) interactional model of metadiscourse, it adopts a functional-linguistic framework to examine how writers construct meaning and interpersonal engagement in academic texts. The data was taken from an article entitled “How to teach Reading” by Jeremey Harmer. Using a qualitative content analysis, the study explores two key aspects: (1) the textual organization of discourse—how writers employ cohesive devices, transitional signals, and discourse markers to guide readers through information structure; and (2) the interpersonal interaction between writers and readers, as reflected in the use of stance markers, reader pronouns, and evaluative expressions. The analysis was conducted through a combining approach of manual discourse analysis with quantitative frequency counts to identify recurring linguistic patterns. The findings reveal that successful academic writers strategically balance textual cohesion with interactive engagement to construct clarity, credibility, and reader involvement. The study concluded in order for academic writing to be effective, writers need to integrate cohesive organization and interpersonal strategies to achieve certain communicative purpose.