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Working with Written Discourse
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Working with Written Discourse



March 2014 | 216 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd
An outstanding introduction to discourse analysis of written language in an age that is more and more characterized by multilingual, digital, and generically hybrid texts. In an accessible style, Working with Written Discourse illustrates how these texts can be analyzed employing a wide variety of approaches that are critical, multidisciplinary, and productive.
- Professor Jaffer Sheyholislami, Carleton University


"Comprehensive and up-to-the-minute in its discussion of areas like multimodality and the new media, without overlooking ‘older’ media and more conventional writing. I will recommend it highly to students at all levels."
- Dr Mark Sebba
, Lancaster University

Addressing the practicalities of research, and embracing the complexity and variety of written forms of language, this book:

  • grounds readers in a broad range of concepts, debates and relevant methods
  • focuses on both theoretical questions and the ‘how to’ of analysis
  • is loaded with practical activities and advice on the design and execution of research
  • highlights computer-mediated communication and new media discourse, from text messages and tweets to mobile phone novels and online encyclopedias 
  • draws on data from international and multilingual communities.

The perfect companion to Deborah Cameron's best-selling Working with Spoken Discourse, this book equips readers with practical and conceptual tools to ask questions about written discourse, and to analyse the huge variety of texts that make up our linguistic landscape. It is the essential guide for students of discourse analysis in linguistics, media and communication studies, and for social researchers across the social sciences.

 
Introduction
 
Preliminaries
 
Discourse and Discourse Analysis
 
Speech and Writing: The Debate on Difference
 
Writing, Technologies and Media
 
Scripts and Spelling
 
Approaches
 
Approaches to Written Discourse: An Initial Orientation
 
Critical Discourse Analysis
 
Corpus-Based Discourse Analysis
 
Multimodal Discourse Analysis
 
Computer-Mediated Discourse Analysis
 
Multilingual Discourse Analysis
 
Applications
 
Working with Written Discourse in Social Research
 
Designing Your Own Projects

Students have found the book a bit difficult to follow.

Professor Raquel Ribeiro
CAPP, Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas
April 2, 2015

“Working with Written Discourse” provides a clearly written introduction to the various ways to analyse discourse and visual communication in modern society. The fundamentals of analysing texts are clearly outlined and up-to-date references to on-line material are a great resource for students. Furthermore, each chapter contains activities for students and recommended readings. Although the book is mainly aimed at students of linguistics, it provides a solid framework for those of other disciplines. The final chapter discusses how to design a research project and would be of great assistance to undergraduate students. I would recommend this book for classes that explore the analysis of discourses in the modern era of digital discourses.

Dr Elaine Burroughs
Geography, Maynooth University
March 24, 2015

A potentially useful if dense introduction to this topic.

Dr Bonnie Meekums
School of Healthcare, Leeds University
March 2, 2015

Excellent book, recommended to MPhils and PhDs working on dissertations that relate to discourse analysis.

Dr Roxane Farmanfarmaian
Politics and International Studies, Cambridge University
December 12, 2014

A good book that helps students to understand DA.

Dr Moheeb Abualqumboz
Faculty of Business and Law, Leeds Beckett University
November 22, 2014

Not quite suitable for beginning students.

Dr Jane Jackson
Faculty of Education & Lang Studies, The Open University
October 8, 2014

An interesting book that tackles the subject reasonably well. Some useful insights are offered.

Dr Jane Jackson
Faculty of Education & Lang Studies, The Open University
October 8, 2014

This text addresses quite lofty ambitions in that the author takes a complex subject and addresses its main components succinctly and with clarity. The fact that this deft trick is pulled off is testament to the depth of their knowledge and understanding of the subject matter.
For our purposes this text is intended to enlighten a group of non-specialist students in accessing a level of understanding which allows them to use elementary analysis of written discourse in their research assignments and it appears that they have understood the subject well enough, using this text in support of the taught componnent, to achieve the desired ends. Only their assignments due in two weeks time will gauge this accurately. In the menatime we will be suggesting that next years stage two students purchase a copy of the book and also asking our library to purchase copies for general use.

Mr Andrew Thorne
Bristol Centre For Care, Health & Educ, City of Bristol College
June 30, 2014

Helpful for research methodologies

Mrs Lyz Howard
Department of Health, Health and Social Care Teaching Team
September 12, 2015
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Sample Materials & Chapters

Chapter One: Discourse and Discourse Analysis


For instructors

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ISBN: 9781446267233
£36.99
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£122.00

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