ALDS 2202-A

Analysis of Written
Language
Dr. Chloë Grace Fogarty-Bourget
School of Linguistics and Language Studies, FASS
Carleton University

SPEECH & WRITING

WEEK 2A – SYNCHRONOUS SESSION
AGENDA
Review
Speech & writing
Key concepts
The development of writing
Literacy and literacy practices
Differences between speech and writing
Definitions
Next classes
REVIEW: WEEK 1A
Tuesday, Jan. 10 - Synchronous
•Read: Course outline and tentative schedule (see
"Course Information" Module)
•Join: Synchronous session via Zoom
• Our online course – The basics
• Highlighting some crucial points
• Course
• Syllabus
• Some introductory remarks about written language and why/how we
study it
• Making sense of a text: How?

•Homework: Mark all synchronous sessions,

important dates, and deadlines in your calendar
 REVIEW: WEEK 1B
Thursday, Jan. 12 - Asynchronous
•Read: Introduction and Ch. 1 (Textbook)
•Watch: Social constructionism (Khan academy)
•Listen: Podcast segment - This American Life, Episode: Tell me I'm fat,
Act 3: How are you doing with sizes?
•Homework: Complete readings for Week 2
HOUSEKEEPING
TELL ME I’M FAT
WRITING & WRITTEN DISCOURSE
Writing is learned
Preserves information
Developed to serve the needs of urban civilizations
• Record keeping
• Adjunct to oral language
• Limited legal capacity
• Literary purposes (later)
THE DEVELOPMENT OF WRITING
•Mass literacy
•Individual, private, silent reading
•Writing as an aid to memorization
•Printing in other languages
•Technology for text production and
written communication (next class)
LITERACY

“The great divide” New literacy studies

Literatist view “The new literacy”
 Literacy = actuality (Street & Barton)

 Single,  “Literacies” (plural), practices

decontextualized view  Situated
 Academic/professional  Informal, ‘everyday’
contexts  Without ‘official’ rules
 Formal, expository  Not judged by institutional
writing = standard standards
EVERYDAY LITERACY PRACTICES (EXAMPLE)
•Shared, conventionalized ways of doing things
•“Reliance on generic formulas”
Diverges from “model” of literate discourse in
that:
 Serving diverse communicative purposes
 Shared contextual knowledge
 Additive conversational quality
WRITING VS SPEECH
• Structured by syntax • Structured by rhythm, stress, pitch

• Visual, permanent • Aural, transient

• Can planned, edited, • Produced/processed in real
differently processed time
• Generally does not • Usually permits interaction
permit interaction and and feedback
feedback • Constrained by spatial
• Not constrained by temporal context
time/space
THINGS TO NOTE
• A comparison of writing (in general) to speech (in
general) is a dichotomous view → many different
registers
• language varieties related to contexts
• written registers associated with factors such as setting, purpose,
subject matter, genre
• defined by their shared linguistic characteristics, related to
purpose and context (Biber)
• Spoken and written modes provide strikingly different
‘potentials’ (Conrad & Biber, 2001) (i.e., affordances)
Involved
Foregrounds producers
opinions, attitudes, and
feeling and relationship
between addressor and
addressee
‘Private’ verbs (think and
know)
1st and 2nd person pronouns
WH-questions
Contracted forms, hedges,
emphatics
High involvement score
(conversational speech) →
Low involvement score →
(prepared talks/speeches)
Telephone and face-to-face
conversation
Personal letters
Informational
Focuses on referential content,
conveys information about
non-immediate (often abstract)
referents
Little overt acknowledgement
of thoughts/feelings of
addresser or addressee
Long and uncommon words
BIBER’S
High type-token ratio - many
different words each used once
DIMENSIONS
Complex nominal constructions
containing preposition phrases
OF
and/or relative clauses VARIATION
Low informational score
(conversational writing)
High information score
(technical writing)
Written expository registers
(scientific research articles,
official documents, news
reports)
Prepared speeches
KEY DEFINITIONS
Writing/written discourse Facts (empirical/social)
Discourse analysis Literacy practices
Discourse Registers
Discipline Affordances
Interdisciplinary Ethnographic research
Cohesion/cohesive devices Vernacular
Utterance Communicative purpose
Text
Social construction of reality
HOMEWORK
Listen to the Podcast segment "Dewey Decimal Drama" (Every
Little Thing).
LOOKING AHEAD
Thursday, Jan. 19 - Asynchronous
•Read: Ch. 3 (Textbook)
•Watch: Writing, Technologies, and Media (Recorded
lecture)
•Listen: Podcast segments
• This American Life - Captain's Log: Act two "Romancing the phone"
• Spark - Revealing your emoticon side: How digital technology has
changed the way we talk to each other
LOOKING AHEAD – WEEK 3
Tuesday Jan. 24 - Thursday Jan. 26 (Asynchronous)
•Complete: Reading reflection activity (Meme forum) -
Due Friday, Jan. 27 (11:59pm)
•Read: Ch. 4 (Textbook)
•Watch: Scripts and Spelling (Recorded mini-lecture)
•Homework: Catch up on all course
readings/asynchronous content (Quiz #1 is next week)
LOOKING AHEAD – WEEK 4
Tuesday Jan. 31 – Sync session!
Via Zoom - Housekeeping and Quiz review

Thursday Feb. 2 – Quiz #1

“Sync” via Brightspace
THANK YOU

Don’t hesitate to reach out to me (email, office

hours, after class) or Ann-Sophie (email or meet by
appointment)