(the following is freely borrowed, adapted, and quoted from Joseph M. Williams, Style: Toward Clarity and Grace, published by the University of Chicago Press.) Metadiscourse is the language we use when we refer to our own thinking and writing as we think and write (to summarize, on the contrary, I believe); to the structure of what we write (first, second, more importantly); and to our reader's act of reading (note that, consider now, in order to understand). Metadiscourse is the language we use when, writing about some subject matter, we incidentally refer to the act and to the context of writing about it. We use metadiscourse verbs to announce that in what follows we will explain, show, argue, claim, deny, describe, suggest, contrast, add, expand, summarize. We use metadiscourse to list the parts or steps in our presentation (first, second, third, finally); to express our logical connections (infer, support, prove, illustrate, therefore, in conclusion, however, on the other hand). We hedge how certain we are by writing it seems that, perhaps, I believe, probably, etc. If scholarly writers use the first person, they do so to announce their intentions or to review in metadiscourse (We can now see, I have shown that, etc.). The classic metadiscourse statement in scholarly writing (coupled with classic scholarly passive voice) is the infamous "This paper will analyze and discuss the treatment of . . ." or some variant on that syntactical structure. For our purposes, metadiscourse usually occurs when we're setting up links. Consider the following:

For more information on cats that look like Hitler, please click on the link below: Cats That Look Like Hitler

Now, that's both wordy and obvious. Heavy metadiscourse. So then we try:

For more information on cats that look like Hitler, click here.

Not bad, but we can do better. So next we try:

For more information, please visit the Cats That Look Like Hitler site.

Wow! We're really getting the hang of this! Now, let's bring it home. Fanfare, please. Try:

The Cats That Look Like Hitler site provides a wealth of information and so on etc.

Bingo. No metadiscourse.