For MA theses, the actual audience is usually the supervisor and another marker. At most, it is a local group of readers. Research articles are intended, in general, for global communities across various cultures and disciplinary backgrounds. While the author of a thesis is formally the student, in many cases, supervisors provide a great deal of help to students, sometimes even in terms of language. Supervisors give professional help to thesis writers, they recommend relevant literature and courses, comment on the various drafts of the thesis, suggest changes if necessary, etc. The fact that in the final ‘product’ the contribution of the supervisor is invisible may distort the results of the present study. Even so, the same holds true for research articles published by NNSs in English language journals. As one of the journal editors in Flowerdew’s (2001) study explained, “...if it’s clear that the research itself is worthwhile, then I put in an enormous effort to translate it back into proper English” (130).