TEXT-BASED RESEARCH
Interpreting with analysis and synthesis
Text-based research
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All good research questions begin by looking at
what other researchers have looked at in topics
related to your research. This is often called a
literature review. We will be covering what these
look like later on.
Some rhetorical situations can be totally based on
what other research has said, but this usually
doesn’t answer new RESEARCH questions, but
REPORTS on what others have said.
What is a text?
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Clifford Gertz defines texts:
“cultural forms can be treated as texts, as imaginative
works built out of social materials.”
Texts can be the “work,” but they are made up of other
texts or artifacts within a text. This PowerPoint is a text,
but each slide could be read/interpreted as another
text.
Books, articles, movies, dance, videogames, art, songs,
billboards, what else?
Interpretation
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Text-based research that answers new research
questions usually does so through two strategies of
interpretation
Analysis – taking apart a text to see how it works,
what its about, how it accomplishes a goal.
Synthesis – comparing a text to another text or set
of texts. Creating something new from old
materials.
Analysis
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Analysis usually follows this pattern:
1.
Introduce how you will analyze something.
a.
2.
Summarize the big picture (i.e. what is the text about)
a.
3.
“I will evaluate whether World of Warcraft is a good game or
not, looking mainly at the interface, the graphics, and the
story.”
“World of Warcraft is an MMORPG released in 2004…”
Provide evidence from the text that supports the analysis.
a.
“The interface of World of Warcraft consists of up to 48
separate buttons that each can be assigned a keyboard
hotkey. This complex interface grows as the character grows
in power, which makes it adaptive, and therefore, an easy to
learn interface while retaining the possibilities for complexity.”
Synthesis
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1.
Synthesis usually follows this pattern:
Introduce how you will synthesize something
a.
2.
“My aim in this article is to demonstrate how the game’s mythic structures and elements
drive the logic that underpins World of Warcraft’s stylistic milieu and provides the
context for and of gameplay. Some aspects of the game’s mythic structures and forms
key into what might be termed classical myth, others are filtered through more recent
renditions of mythic forms and structures in the context of “fantasy” rhetoric, and some
are more tangentially derived through other forms of popular and game cultures.”
(Krzywinska 384)
Introduce interpretive lenses or comparative texts while comparing
evidence from the comparative texts to the text you are interpreting.
a.
“The primary and highly recognizable mythic pattern that informs and structures the
game is the epic hero quest format, wherein various forces work to help and hinder
the hero-player on route to achieving particular goals. According to Otto Rank’s
Introduction to In the Quest of the Hero, this format originates within early
civilizations—Greek, Teutonic, Babylonian, Hebraic, Hindu, Egyptian—in stories and
poetry aimed to glorify their princes and warriors, each filtered through the terms of
their own cosmological traditions (Rank, Raglan, & Dundes, 1990).” (Krzywinska 385386)
Domains and Filters
The Domains: What lens are you seeing
the texts through?
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Rhetorical approaches are concerned primarily with how texts work and tend to emphasize specific
textual features (organization, style, diction, allusions, literary devices, etc.), how they affect the meaning
of texts, and how they affect audiences. Rhetorical analysis based on logical, ethical, and emotional
appeals.
Ideological approaches are concerned more with how texts shape and are shaped by specific cultural
contexts. An ideology is a collection of beliefs and values that form a way of looking at the world, which
in turn shapes people’s actions. Competing groups promote different ideologies; some defend the status
quo and present the way things are as common sense, while others challenge the assumptions that
underlie the status quo and argue for change. Ideological interpretation may examine blatant or subtle
bias within texts, seek to recover texts—such as those written by women or people of color—that have
been ignored by previous scholars, or investigate the relationships between texts and cultural beliefs.
Marxism, gender studies and queer theory, feminism, race theory, and post-colonialism are common
ideological lenses.
Disciplinary approaches are concerned with applying specific theories or bodies of knowledge from a
field of study to texts in order to gain a better understanding of the text and/or the discipline For example,
imagine hieroglyphics in an Egyptian tomb. An anthropologist might read such a text to better
understand the cultural practices signified. A linguist, on the other hand, might read the text looking for
systematic or inconsistent patterns in the structure of the message to better understand the language.
And a business historian might read the text looking for examples of how business transactions were
recorded—in fact, some of the earliest known writing in any language was the recording of business
transactions. Sometimes, researchers will use disciplines outside their own to read a text; for example,
literary scholars might apply a psychological or historical lens to a text.
The Filters: What are you focusing on?
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Historical – When was the text produced? What was going on at the time? What physical or philosophical
conditions might have affected the author/text/audience? Most of the contexts discussed below can have an
historical element.
Geographical – Where was the work produced? How might national, regional, or local factors have influenced the
work’s production and reception?
Cultural – In addition to cultures attached to places and nationalities, consider how ethnic, religious, sexual, or
subcultural orientation of the author, audience, and/or subject matter shape texts.
Psychological/Social – What are the manifest psychological motivations in the work? How does the work impact the
groups that read it or that it is about?
Critical/Evaluative – Is the work successful at achieving its purpose? Is it “good” or “bad”?
Political – The political views of authors/composers and the dominant politics of their homelands can determine what
they write about and how. You might consider obvious political links—such as how some authors satirize government
figures—as well as more subtle influences—such as codes or metaphors an artist might have used to avoid
persecution.
Artistic/Aesthetic – Is the work part of a larger artistic movement? If so, how does is confirm or depart from the
trend? Is the text representative of some genre? Is that a good thing?
Biographical – Who was the author/creator? What was his or her life like? To what extent might the text(s) be
autobiographical? When considering biographical influences, it is important to avoid assuming that an element or
character represents the author.
Bibliographical – consider the text within the larger body of work produced by the artist/author/speaker/director.
How does the text compare to works that came before or after in terms of content, style, quality, etc.?
Examples
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Tanya Krzywinska's “Blood Scythes, Festivals,
Quests, and Backstories” is looking at World of
Warcraft through an ideological lens using cultural
and historical filters.
Game reviews usually look at games rhetorically or
disciplinarily using an evaluative filter.
Let’s Practice
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Remember, it’s not just a “work” (World of
Warcraft) but many items or artifacts within a work
can be “interpreted.”
 Gameplay,
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visuals, audio. Classes, narratives, races
Tuaren
 Ideological
domain (cultural filter).
 Rhetorical domain (evaluative filter)
 Disciplinary domain (aesthetic)
Consider this
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In WoW, the game’s races are constructed by cultural and
ideological patterns drawn from real and fictional cultures.
Sometimes these patterns are anachronistic, other times they
draw on cultural patterns that might disrupt the immersion in
the game.
Consider a race from the game (preferably one you have
played, but if not, select one):
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What would you say is the ideology or world view of the race of
your character? What kind of people are they? What are their
values? What philosophies do they use to confront the
world? What is their general outlook on life? Also, what is your
race's religion? What does your race value the most in their
culture?