LM1 Boyd
AA 2011/12
Some notes on how best to approach text/discourse analysis
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When you look at the text
Try to determine the genre and/or sub-genre (speech, news report,
interview) within the broader language typology (language of politics,
political instiutions, newspapers, etc.). Remember that discourse in
English means a general topic area (discourse(s) about climate change,
the war on terror, racist discourse, or political discourse).
Read well the title and any information that is provided (date, author,
venue, etc.) to classify the immediate co-text and context of situation.
Read the article
First, read the article for general understanding
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Look up any unfamiliar words or expressions
Try to find examples of specific cultural, social, historical, etc.
references (Intertextuality)
Look at the general structure of the text
 Is there more than one participant?
 What are the production and reception factors of the
text?
 What is the genre? How does this influence the
structure?
 What are the main topics (discourses) addressed in the
text?
 What is the register (including mode [written, spoken],
manner [formal, neutral, informal, mixed] and
field/domain)?
Read the text a second time focusing on linguistic forms
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Make notes in the text (marking any words or lexical sets that
seem to be particularly interesting)
 You may decide to use a colour-coding system
Look at the linguistic forms. Some things you might find
interesting to focus on:
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Which cohesive devices are there and how they are
used to hold the text together?
 What kinds of endo- and exo-phoric reference are
used?
 Which verb forms are used and how are they combine
in the text?
 Which kinds of modality can you find in the text?
 Which pronouns are prevalent? Are there any examples
of 1st Person Pronouns?
 What about passives? How often are they used?
 What about direct and indirect speech?
 What can you say about the lexis and lexical choice
(you may decide to focus on certain parts of speech)?
 Are there any examples of unusual word order in the
text. What grammatical forms are used to create this
word order?
 Is there anything interesting in the phonetics or
phonology (if the text is spoken)?
You should always try to consider the purpose (or text function),
audience, context, etc. of these linguistic forms
Prepare your analysis
Make an outline of your analysis before you start writing. Decide what
your main points will be and decide your paragraphs (remember that when
you write in English you have to divide your arguments into paragraphs).
You may decide to structure your analysis based on various criteria:
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thematic
temporal
 how the information is presented and in which order
linguistic: morpho-grammatical and pragmatic features
 how is agency expressed (or hidden)?
LM1 Boyd
AA 2011/12
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Obviously there are various ways to structure a text analysis. How
you decide to do this will depend on which points you would like
to focus on in your discussion. Remember that you will never have
time to focus on everything. However, some things that you must
include are
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which pronouns are used and why? (I vs WE; US vs.
THEM, etc)
how are participants indicated in the text?
how are the modals used?
a general introduction to the text which may include:
 the specific genre and/or sub-genre
 a brief introduction to the subject matter addressed in
the text (you may need to provide more specific
information as your analysis progresses)
a paragraph addressing extra-textual information: you need to
“frame” the text in terms of its (background) contextual
features. This information may include all or some of these
points
 where
 when
 what happened before the “text event” (only the
information that is necessary to fully understand the
text)
 what are the production and reception factors (that are
important to understanding it completely)?
specific examples: all of the points you focus on (i.e. the
specific grammatical-linguistic, thematic, pragmatic, etc.)
should be supported by examples from the original text.
 include the example(s) in your analysis rather than
referring to the text
 examples from the text should be given either in
“inverted commas” or in italics (not in both)
 if you give full sentences they should be numbered
within the analysis
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IV.
the text analysis should be written in such a way that it can be
understood without having to read the original text. You should
include a marked-up copy of the text with your analysis.
good (critical) discourse analysis should be speculation about
why certain forms are used over others. In other words, how are
linguistic forms used to express points of view and bias? What
is NOT said explicitly in the text but might be inferred from the
language?
Proof-read
Once you have finished you need to read it carefully to check for any
mistakes or problems
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there should be no spelling mistakes (especially if you have used a word
processor)
new paragraphs should be indicated in the text either by skipping a line
or indenting the new paragraph.
make sure you have provided (a number of) examples to support your
arguments
use correct punctuation (it’s best to avoid using colons and semicolons,
make sure you use complete sentences, use linking words when
necessary)
check for other grammar mistakes (tenses, prepositions, etc.)