Doing discourse analysis

▣ Developing a discourse analysis project

■ Many issues need to be considered when planning a discourse analysis project. The first of these is the actual research question. The key to any good research project is a well-focused research question. It can, however, take longer than expected to find this question. 

 

 

 

■ Cameron (2001) has suggested that a critical characteristic of a good research project is that it contains a 'good idea.' The project is about something worth finding out about. 

1) Criteria for developing a discourse analysis project 
• a well-focused idea about the spoken or written discourse that is phrased as a question or set of closely related questions 
• an understanding of how discourse analytic techniques can be used to answer the research question/s you are asking
• an understanding of why your question/s about spoken or written discourse is essential in the broader context; that is, why answering the question/s will have practical value and/or be of interest to the world at large
• familiarity with and access to the location where your discourse analysis project will be carried out
• ability to get the discourse data that is needed for the research project
• the time it will realistically take to carry out the discourse analysis project, analyze the results, and write up the results of the project
• being comfortable with and competent in the ways of collecting the discourse data required by the project
• being competent in the method/s of analysis required for the project

 

▣ Choosing a research topic

■ A good place to start in choosing a research question is by drawing up a shortlist of topics that interest you.

 

 

 

■ It is important, then, to read widely to see what previous research has said about the topic you are interested in, including what questions can be asked and answered from a discourse perspective. 

 

 

 

▣ Focusing a research topic

■ Often beginning researchers start off with a project that is overly large and ambitious. Stevens and Asmar (1999: 15) suggest that 'wiser heads' know that a good research project is 'narrow and deep.' In their words, 'even the simplest idea can mushroom into an uncontrollably large project'. They highlight how important it is for students to listen to more experienced researchers in their field and to be guided by their advice in the early stages of their research. They suggest starting off by getting immersed in the literature and reading broadly and widely to find a number of potential research topics.

 

 

 

■ Once the reading has been done, it is helpful to write a few lines on each topic and use this as the basis to talk to other people about the research. 

 

 

 

▣ Turning the topic into a research question 

 

■ The re-focused set of questions that my student ended up with was: 

 

1) In what ways are Chinese and English letters to the editor similar or different? 

2) Can we use genre theory and contrastive rhetoric to understand these similarities and differences? 

 

 

 

■ His question, thus, became more focused. It did not yet state precisely what aspects of genre theory he would draw on for his analysis, however. These became clearer as he read further on his topic and conducted trial analyses. He then decided to look at the schematic structures in the two sets of texts and the typical rhetorical types (problem-solution, compare and contrast, etc.) present in the texts. 

 

 

■ His questions, thus, were now worth asking and capable of being answered from a discourse analysis perspective. As he argued, most studies of Chinese and English writing either looked at Chinese, or English writing, but not at both. Also few studies used the same textual criteria for the two sets of analyses. Many previous studies of this kind, further, focused on 'direct' or 'indirect' aspects of Chinese and English writing and did not go beyond this to explore how the various parts of the texts combine together to create coherent texts. So what he was doing was theoretically useful, it was possible to collect the texts, and he was capable of analysing the data in the way that he proposed.

 

■ It is essential to strike a balance between the value of the question and your ability to develop a discourse analysis project you are capable of carrying out; that is, a project in that you have the background, expertise, resources, and access to data that are needed for the project (see A written discourse project below for a further discussion of this project). 

 

 

 

▣ Kinds of discourse analysis projects 

 

■ Several different kinds of projects can be carried out from a discourse analysis perspective. A number of these are described below, together with examples of previous discourse projects and details of the data collected for each of these projects. 

 

i. Replication of previous discourse studies 

ii. Using different discourse data but the same methodology 

iii. Analysing existing data from a discourse analysis perspective 

iv. Analysing discourse data from a different perspective 

v. Considering the validity of a previous claim 

vi. Focusing on unanalyzed genres 

vii. Mixed-methods discourse studies 

 

 

 

▣ Planning a discourse analysis project 

 

- Task 

 

■ Draw up a shortlist of possible research topics, writing a sentence or two about each topic. Discuss this list with an academic, considering issues that might arise with each topic, such as practicality, originality, focus, and scale of the project. Once you have selected a topic from your list, consider the advice presented on developing a research project. Start writing a proposal for your project, then take it to the person you spoke with for further discussion. Once you have had this discussion, read further on your topic. Now write a research proposal using the following set of headings. 

 

• title of the discourse analysis project

• purpose of the discourse analysis project 

• research question/s the discourse analysis project will aim to answer

• background literature relevant to the discourse analysis project

• research method/s and discourse analysis techniques that will be used for the project

• significance of the discourse analysis project

• resources that will be required for the discourse analysis project