This study is grounded in discourse analysis (DA). In linguistics, DA is a systematic study of naturally occurring communication which can be in form of written or spoken texts (Bevalas, et.al quoted in Knapp and Daly,2002). Examples of texts, among others include newspaper opinion articles.A discourse analyst is essentiallya person who analyses these texts with a view to discovering patterns in the use of linguistic devices, that is,'who uses language, how, why and when' (van Dijk, 1997c, p.

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... .The present study focused on female and male use of linguistic devices called metadiscourse markers (MMs) in discourses in form of newspaper opinion articles on political matters.MMs are linguistic devices used by writers to organize their discourse and express their stance about the content or the reader (Hyland, 2005). Overview of Metadiscourse The term metadiscourse was originally introduced by a structural linguist Zelig Harris in 1959. Nonetheless, it only gained its popularity in applied linguistics in the mid 1980s with the pioneering works of Vande Kopple (1985), Crismore (1989) and Williams (1981).Metadiscourse is a concept based on a view that writing is not a mere exchange of information of various kinds but a social engagement between writers and readers; or speakers and listeners (Hyland, 2005a) . Hyland's Theory of Metadiscourse According to Hyland, writing is not all about text production but assessment of the readers' or listeners' resources for understanding the text being produced in order to engage them effectively by organizing the text and commenting on it in such a way that it can be understood as intended by the text producer. Arising from his theorization of MD, Hyland subdivided metadiscourse into two dimensions: interactiveandinteractional dimensions. Interactive elements are features of a text that index the assumptions a writer makes about his/her reader while the interactional refers to expressions of the writer's position and stance, and therefore, is an expression of 'the writer's voice or community based personality'(Hyland,