Ani Sapira Poetri

40300118013

Ag 1

Summary of Doing Discourse Analysis: Methodology

1. Developing a discourse analysis project

 Criteria for developing a discourse analysis project
 a well-focused idea about spoken or written discourse that is phrased as a
question or a set of closely related questions;
 an understanding of how discourse analytic techniques can be used to
answer the research question(s) you are asking; Doing Discourse
Analysis 205
 an understanding of why your question(s) about spoken or written
discourse are important in a wider 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, analyse 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.
2. Choosing a research question

a process of going back-and-forth between the research questions, the analytical

framework, and the data until a balance has been struck between each of these. A
high level of consistency needs to be achieved between the research questions,
the analytical framework, the analysis of the data and the conclusions reached in
the study. The research question, thus, can be refined [and often is] at any stage
of the research. This may be the result of further reading of the literature, the
analysis of the data, or simply getting some new ideas from somewhere else.

3. Turning the topic into a research question

The refocused 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 intercultural rhetoric to understand these
similarities and differences?
4. Connecting data collection, analysis and research questions.
Sometimes one research question might require more than one set of data or you
might be able to use one set of data to address more than one research question.
 What you will see, however, from your chart is whether there are any gaps that
still need to be filled or data that still needs to be collected to address each of
your questions.

5. Kinds of discourse analysis projects

a) Replication of previous discourse studies
b) Using different discourse data but the same methodology
c) Analysing existing data from a discourse analysis perspective
d) Analysing discourse data from a different perspective
e) Considering the validity of a previous claim
f) Focusing on unanalysed genres
g) Combining research techniques

6. Two sample discourse studies

The two projects which follow are both examples of studies which combine
approaches to research in the analysis of discourse. Both studies draw on
discourse and non-discourse analysis perspectives on their particular topic. This
use of methodological triangulation (Denzin 1970) is a particular strength of
these two studies, as is the detail of analysis that each of the students carried out
in their discourse analysis projects.

7. A spoken discourse project

Silence in Japanese students’ tutorial interactions in English.