discourse analysis research topics

21 Great Examples of Discourse Analysis

Discourse analysis is an approach to the study of language that demonstrates how language shapes reality. It usually takes the form of a textual or content analysis .

Discourse is understood as a way of perceiving, framing, and viewing the world.

For example:

• A dominant discourse of gender often positions women as gentle and men as active heroes.
• A dominant discourse of race often positions whiteness as the norm and colored bodies as ‘others’ (see: social construction of race )

Through discourse analysis, scholars look at texts and examine how those texts shape discourse.

In other words, it involves the examination of how the ‘ways of speaking about things’ normalizes and privileges some frames of thinking about things while marginalizing others.

As a simple example, if movies consistently frame the ideal female as passive, silent, and submissive, then society comes to think that this is how women should behave and makes us think that this is normal , so women who don’t fit this mold are abnormal .

Instead of seeing this as just the way things are, discourse analysts know that norms are produced in language and are not necessarily as natural as we may have assumed.

Examples of Discourse Analysis

1. language choice in policy texts.

A study of policy texts can reveal ideological frameworks and viewpoints of the writers of the policy. These sorts of studies often demonstrate how policy texts often categorize people in ways that construct social hierarchies and restrict people’s agency .

Examples include:

2. Newspaper Bias

Conducting a critical discourse analysis of newspapers involves gathering together a quorum of newspaper articles based on a pre-defined range and scope (e.g. newspapers from a particular set of publishers within a set date range).

Then, the researcher conducts a close examination of the texts to examine how they frame subjects (i.e. people, groups of people, etc.) from a particular ideological, political, or cultural perspective.

3. Language in Interviews

Discourse analysis can also be utilized to analyze interview transcripts. While coding methods to identify themes are the most common methods for analyzing interviews, discourse analysis is a valuable approach when looking at power relations and the framing of subjects through speech.

4. Television Analysis

Discourse analysis is commonly used to explore ideologies and framing devices in television shows and advertisements.

Due to the fact advertising is not just textual but rather multimodal , scholars often mix a discourse analytic methodology (i.e. exploring how television constructs dominant ways of thinking) with semiotic methods (i.e. exploration of how color, movement, font choice, and so on create meaning).

I did this, for example, in my PhD (listed below).

5. Film Critique

Scholars can explore discourse in film in a very similar way to how they study discourse in television shows. This can include the framing of sexuality gender, race, nationalism, and social class in films.

A common example is the study of Disney films and how they construct idealized feminine and masculine identities that children should aspire toward.

6. Analysis of Political Speech

Political speeches have also been subject to a significant amount of discourse analysis. These studies generally explore how influential politicians indicate a shift in policy and frame those policy shifts in the context of underlying ideological assumptions.

9. Examining Marketing Texts

Advertising is more present than ever in the context of neoliberal capitalism. As a result, it has an outsized role in shaping public discourse. Critical discourse analyses of advertising texts tend to explore how advertisements, and the capitalist context that underpins their proliferation, normalize gendered, racialized, and class-based discourses.

11. Analyzing Lesson Plans

As written texts, lesson plans can be analyzed for how they construct discourses around education as well as student and teacher identities. These texts tend to examine how teachers and governing bodies in education prioritize certain ideologies around what and how to learn. These texts can enter into discussions around the ‘history wars’ (what and whose history should be taught) as well as ideological approaches to religious and language learning.

12. Looking at Graffiti

One of my favorite creative uses of discourse analysis is in the study of graffiti. By looking at graffiti, researchers can identify how youth countercultures and counter discourses are spread through subversive means. These counterdiscourses offer ruptures where dominant discourses can be unsettled and displaced.

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The Origins of Discourse Analysis

1. foucault.

French philosopher Michel Foucault is a central thinker who shaped discourse analysis. His work in studies like Madness and Civilization and The History of Sexuality demonstrate how our ideas about insanity and sexuality have been shaped through language.

The ways the church speaks about sex, for example, shapes people’s thoughts and feelings about it.

The church didn’t simply make sex a silent taboo. Rather, it actively worked to teach people that desire was a thing of evil, forcing them to suppress their desires.

Over time, society at large developed a suppressed normative approach to the concept of sex that is not necessarily normal except for the fact that the church reiterates that this is the only acceptable way of thinking about the topic.

Similarly, in Madness and Civilization , a discourse around insanity was examined. Medical discourse pathologized behaviors that were ‘abnormal’ as signs of insanity. Were the dominant medical discourse to change, it’s possible that abnormal people would no longer be seen as insane.

One clear example of this is homosexuality. Up until the 1990s, being gay was seen in medical discourse as an illness. Today, most of Western society sees that this way of looking at homosexuality was extremely damaging and exclusionary, and yet at the time, because it was the dominant discourse, people didn’t question it.

2. Norman Fairclough

Fairclough (2013), inspired by Foucault, created some key methodological frameworks for conducting discourse analysis.

Fairclough was one of the first scholars to articulate some frameworks around exploring ‘text as discourse’ and provided key tools for scholars to conduct analyses of newspaper and policy texts.

Today, most methodology chapters in dissertations that use discourse analysis will have extensive discussions of Fairclough’s methods.

Discourse analysis is a popular primary research method in media studies, cultural studies, education studies, and communication studies. It helps scholars to show how texts and language have the power to shape people’s perceptions of reality and, over time, shift dominant ways of framing thought. It also helps us to see how power flows thought texts, creating ‘in-groups’ and ‘out-groups’ in society.

Key examples of discourse analysis include the study of television, film, newspaper, advertising, political speeches, and interviews.

Al Kharusi, R. (2017). Ideologies of Arab media and politics: a CDA of Al Jazeera debates on the Yemeni revolution. PhD Dissertation: University of Hertfordshire.

Alaazi, D. A., Ahola, A. N., Okeke-Ihejirika, P., Yohani, S., Vallianatos, H., & Salami, B. (2021). Immigrants and the Western media: a CDA of newspaper framings of African immigrant parenting in Canada. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies , 47 (19), 4478-4496. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2020.1798746

Al-Khawaldeh, N. N., Khawaldeh, I., Bani-Khair, B., & Al-Khawaldeh, A. (2017). An exploration of graffiti on university’s walls: A corpus-based discourse analysis study. Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics , 7 (1), 29-42. Doi: https://doi.org/10.17509/ijal.v7i1.6856

Alsaraireh, M. Y., Singh, M. K. S., & Hajimia, H. (2020). Critical DA of gender representation of male and female characters in the animation movie, Frozen. Linguistica Antverpiensia , 104-121.

Baig, F. Z., Khan, K., & Aslam, M. J. (2021). Child Rearing and Gender Socialisation: A Feminist CDA of Kids’ Popular Fictional Movies. Journal of Educational Research and Social Sciences Review (JERSSR) , 1 (3), 36-46.

Barker, M. E. (2021). Exploring Canadian Integration through CDA of English Language Lesson Plans for Immigrant Learners. Canadian Journal of Applied Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique appliquée , 24 (1), 75-91. Doi: https://doi.org/10.37213/cjal.2021.28959

Coleman, B. (2017). An Ideological Unveiling: Using Critical Narrative and Discourse Analysis to Examine Discursive White Teacher Identity. AERA Online Paper Repository .

Drew, C. (2013). Soak up the goodness: Discourses of Australian childhoods on television advertisements, 2006-2012. PhD Dissertation: Australian Catholic University. Doi: https://doi.org/10.4226/66/5a9780223babd

Fairclough, N. (2013). Critical discourse analysis: The critical study of language . London: Routledge.

Foucault, M. (1990). The history of sexuality: An introduction . London: Vintage.

Foucault, M. (2003). Madness and civilization . New York: Routledge.

Hahn, A. D. (2018). Uncovering the ideologies of internationalization in lesson plans through CDA. The New English Teacher , 12 (1), 121-121.

Isti’anah, A. (2018). Rohingya in media: CDA of Myanmar and Bangladesh newspaper headlines. Language in the Online and Offline World , 6 , 18-23. Doi: http://repository.usd.ac.id/id/eprint/25962

Khan, M. H., Adnan, H. M., Kaur, S., Qazalbash, F., & Ismail, I. N. (2020). A CDA of anti-Muslim rhetoric in Donald Trump’s historic 2016 AIPAC policy speech. Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs , 40 (4), 543-558. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/13602004.2020.1828507

Louise Cooper, K., Luck, L., Chang, E., & Dixon, K. (2021). What is the practice of spiritual care? A CDA of registered nurses’ understanding of spirituality. Nursing Inquiry , 28 (2), e12385. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/nin.12385

Mohammadi, D., Momeni, S., & Labafi, S. (2021). Representation of Iranians family’s life style in TV advertising (Case study: food ads). Religion & Communication , 27 (58), 333-379.

Munro, M. (2018) House price inflation in the news: a CDA of newspaper coverage in the UK. Housing Studies, 33(7), pp. 1085-1105. doi: 10.1080/02673037.2017.1421911

Ravn, I. M., Frederiksen, K., & Beedholm, K. (2016). The chronic responsibility: a CDA of Danish chronic care policies. Qualitative Health Research , 26 (4), 545-554. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1049732315570133

Sengul, K. (2019). Critical discourse analysis in political communication research: a case study of right-wing populist discourse in Australia. Communication Research and Practice , 5 (4), 376-392. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/22041451.2019.1695082

Serafis, D., Kitis, E. D., & Archakis, A. (2018). Graffiti slogans and the construction of collective identity: evidence from the anti-austerity protests in Greece. Text & Talk , 38 (6), 775-797. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1515/text-2018-0023

Suphaborwornrat, W., & Punkasirikul, P. (2022). A Multimodal CDA of Online Soft Drink Advertisements. LEARN Journal: Language Education and Acquisition Research Network , 15 (1), 627-653.

Symes, C., & Drew, C. (2017). Education on the rails: a textual ethnography of university advertising in mobile contexts. Critical Studies in Education , 58 (2), 205-223. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/17508487.2016.1252783

Thomas, S. (2005). The construction of teacher identities in educational policy documents: A critical discourse analysis. Critical Studies in Education , 46 (2), 25-44. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/17508480509556423

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What (Exactly) Is Discourse Analysis? A Plain-Language Explanation & Definition (With Examples)

By: Jenna Crosley (PhD). Expert Reviewed By: Dr Eunice Rautenbach | June 2021

Discourse analysis is one of the most popular qualitative analysis techniques we encounter at Grad Coach. If you’ve landed on this post, you’re probably interested in discourse analysis, but you’re not sure whether it’s the right fit for your project, or you don’t know where to start. If so, you’ve come to the right place.

Overview: Discourse Analysis Basics

In this post, we’ll explain in plain, straightforward language :

• What discourse analysis is
• When to use discourse analysis
• The main approaches to discourse analysis
• How to conduct discourse analysis

What is discourse analysis?

Let’s start with the word “discourse”.

In its simplest form, discourse is verbal or written communication between people that goes beyond a single sentence . Importantly, discourse is more than just language. The term “language” can include all forms of linguistic and symbolic units (even things such as road signs), and language studies can focus on the individual meanings of words. Discourse goes beyond this and looks at the overall meanings conveyed by language in context .  “Context” here refers to the social, cultural, political, and historical background of the discourse, and it is important to take this into account to understand underlying meanings expressed through language.

A popular way of viewing discourse is as language used in specific social contexts, and as such language serves as a means of prompting some form of social change or meeting some form of goal.

Now that we’ve defined discourse, let’s look at discourse analysis .

Discourse analysis uses the language presented in a corpus or body of data to draw meaning . This body of data could include a set of interviews or focus group discussion transcripts. While some forms of discourse analysis center in on the specifics of language (such as sounds or grammar), other forms focus on how this language is used to achieve its aims. We’ll dig deeper into these two above-mentioned approaches later.

As Wodak and Krzyżanowski (2008) put it: “discourse analysis provides a general framework to problem-oriented social research”. Basically, discourse analysis is used to conduct research on the use of language in context in a wide variety of social problems (i.e., issues in society that affect individuals negatively).

For example, discourse analysis could be used to assess how language is used to express differing viewpoints on financial inequality and would look at how the topic should or shouldn’t be addressed or resolved, and whether this so-called inequality is perceived as such by participants.

What makes discourse analysis unique is that it posits that social reality is socially constructed , or that our experience of the world is understood from a subjective standpoint. Discourse analysis goes beyond the literal meaning of words and languages

For example, people in countries that make use of a lot of censorship will likely have their knowledge, and thus views, limited by this, and will thus have a different subjective reality to those within countries with more lax laws on censorship.

When should you use discourse analysis?

There are many ways to analyze qualitative data (such as content analysis , narrative analysis , and thematic analysis ), so why should you choose discourse analysis? Well, as with all analysis methods, the nature of your research aims, objectives and research questions (i.e. the purpose of your research) will heavily influence the right choice of analysis method.

The purpose of discourse analysis is to investigate the functions of language (i.e., what language is used for) and how meaning is constructed in different contexts, which, to recap, include the social, cultural, political, and historical backgrounds of the discourse.

For example, if you were to study a politician’s speeches, you would need to situate these speeches in their context, which would involve looking at the politician’s background and views, the reasons for presenting the speech, the history or context of the audience, and the country’s social and political history (just to name a few – there are always multiple contextual factors).

Discourse analysis can also tell you a lot about power and power imbalances , including how this is developed and maintained, how this plays out in real life (for example, inequalities because of this power), and how language can be used to maintain it. For example, you could look at the way that someone with more power (for example, a CEO) speaks to someone with less power (for example, a lower-level employee).

Therefore, you may consider discourse analysis if you are researching:

• Some form of power or inequality (for example, how affluent individuals interact with those who are less wealthy
• How people communicate in a specific context (such as in a social situation with colleagues versus a board meeting)
• Ideology and how ideas (such as values and beliefs) are shared using language (like in political speeches)
• How communication is used to achieve social goals (such as maintaining a friendship or navigating conflict)

As you can see, discourse analysis can be a powerful tool for assessing social issues , as well as power and power imbalances . So, if your research aims and objectives are oriented around these types of issues, discourse analysis could be a good fit for you.

Discourse Analysis: The main approaches

There are two main approaches to discourse analysis. These are the language-in-use (also referred to as socially situated text and talk ) approaches and the socio-political approaches (most commonly Critical Discourse Analysis ). Let’s take a look at each of these.

Approach #1: Language-in-use

Language-in-use approaches focus on the finer details of language used within discourse, such as sentence structures (grammar) and phonology (sounds). This approach is very descriptive and is seldom seen outside of studies focusing on literature and/or linguistics.

Because of its formalist roots, language-in-use pays attention to different rules of communication, such as grammaticality (i.e., when something “sounds okay” to a native speaker of a language). Analyzing discourse through a language-in-use framework involves identifying key technicalities of language used in discourse and investigating how the features are used within a particular social context.

For example, English makes use of affixes (for example, “un” in “unbelievable”) and suffixes (“able” in “unbelievable”) but doesn’t typically make use of infixes (units that can be placed within other words to alter their meaning). However, an English speaker may say something along the lines of, “that’s un-flipping-believable”. From a language-in-use perspective, the infix “flipping” could be investigated by assessing how rare the phenomenon is in English, and then answering questions such as, “What role does the infix play?” or “What is the goal of using such an infix?”

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Approach #2: Socio-political

Socio-political approaches to discourse analysis look beyond the technicalities of language and instead focus on the influence that language has in social context , and vice versa. One of the main socio-political approaches is Critical Discourse Analysis , which focuses on power structures (for example, the power dynamic between a teacher and a student) and how discourse is influenced by society and culture. Critical Discourse Analysis is born out of Michel Foucault’s early work on power, which focuses on power structures through the analysis of normalized power .

Normalized power is ingrained and relatively allusive. It’s what makes us exist within society (and within the underlying norms of society, as accepted in a specific social context) and do the things that we need to do. Contrasted to this, a more obvious form of power is repressive power , which is power that is actively asserted.

Sounds a bit fluffy? Let’s look at an example.

Consider a situation where a teacher threatens a student with detention if they don’t stop speaking in class. This would be an example of repressive power (i.e. it was actively asserted).

Normalized power, on the other hand, is what makes us not want to talk in class . It’s the subtle clues we’re given from our environment that tell us how to behave, and this form of power is so normal to us that we don’t even realize that our beliefs, desires, and decisions are being shaped by it.

In the view of Critical Discourse Analysis, language is power and, if we want to understand power dynamics and structures in society, we must look to language for answers. In other words, analyzing the use of language can help us understand the social context, especially the power dynamics.

While the above-mentioned approaches are the two most popular approaches to discourse analysis, other forms of analysis exist. For example, ethnography-based discourse analysis and multimodal analysis. Ethnography-based discourse analysis aims to gain an insider understanding of culture , customs, and habits through participant observation (i.e. directly observing participants, rather than focusing on pre-existing texts).

On the other hand, multimodal analysis focuses on a variety of texts that are both verbal and nonverbal (such as a combination of political speeches and written press releases). So, if you’re considering using discourse analysis, familiarize yourself with the various approaches available so that you can make a well-informed decision.

How to “do” discourse analysis

As every study is different, it’s challenging to outline exactly what steps need to be taken to complete your research. However, the following steps can be used as a guideline if you choose to adopt discourse analysis for your research.

Step 1: Decide on your discourse analysis approach

The first step of the process is to decide on which approach you will take in terms. For example, the language in use approach or a socio-political approach such as critical discourse analysis. To do this, you need to consider your research aims, objectives and research questions . Of course, this means that you need to have these components clearly defined. If you’re still a bit uncertain about these, check out our video post covering topic development here.

While discourse analysis can be exploratory (as in, used to find out about a topic that hasn’t really been touched on yet), it is still vital to have a set of clearly defined research questions to guide your analysis. Without these, you may find that you lack direction when you get to your analysis. Since discourse analysis places such a focus on context, it is also vital that your research questions are linked to studying language within context.

Based on your research aims, objectives and research questions, you need to assess which discourse analysis would best suit your needs. Importantly, you  need to adopt an approach that aligns with your study’s purpose . So, think carefully about what you are investigating and what you want to achieve, and then consider the various options available within discourse analysis.

It’s vital to determine your discourse analysis approach from the get-go , so that you don’t waste time randomly analyzing your data without any specific plan.

Step 2: Design your collection method and gather your data

Once you’ve got determined your overarching approach, you can start looking at how to collect your data. Data in discourse analysis is drawn from different forms of “talk” and “text” , which means that it can consist of interviews , ethnographies, discussions, case studies, blog posts.  

The type of data you collect will largely depend on your research questions (and broader research aims and objectives). So, when you’re gathering your data, make sure that you keep in mind the “what”, “who” and “why” of your study, so that you don’t end up with a corpus full of irrelevant data. Discourse analysis can be very time-consuming, so you want to ensure that you’re not wasting time on information that doesn’t directly pertain to your research questions.

When considering potential collection methods, you should also consider the practicalities . What type of data can you access in reality? How many participants do you have access to and how much time do you have available to collect data and make sense of it? These are important factors, as you’ll run into problems if your chosen methods are impractical in light of your constraints.

Once you’ve determined your data collection method, you can get to work with the collection.

Step 3: Investigate the context

A key part of discourse analysis is context and understanding meaning in context. For this reason, it is vital that you thoroughly and systematically investigate the context of your discourse. Make sure that you can answer (at least the majority) of the following questions:

• What is the discourse?
• Why does the discourse exist? What is the purpose and what are the aims of the discourse?
• When did the discourse take place?
• Where did it happen?
• Who participated in the discourse? Who created it and who consumed it?
• What does the discourse say about society in general?
• How is meaning being conveyed in the context of the discourse?

Make sure that you include all aspects of the discourse context in your analysis to eliminate any confounding factors. For example, are there any social, political, or historical reasons as to why the discourse would exist as it does? What other factors could contribute to the existence of the discourse? Discourse can be influenced by many factors, so it is vital that you take as many of them into account as possible.

Once you’ve investigated the context of your data, you’ll have a much better idea of what you’re working with, and you’ll be far more familiar with your content. It’s then time to begin your analysis.

Step 4: Analyze your data

When performing a discourse analysis, you’ll need to look for themes and patterns .  To do this, you’ll start by looking at codes , which are specific topics within your data. You can find more information about the qualitative data coding process here.

Next, you’ll take these codes and identify themes. Themes are patterns of language (such as specific words or sentences) that pop up repeatedly in your data, and that can tell you something about the discourse. For example, if you’re wanting to know about women’s perspectives of living in a certain area, potential themes may be “safety” or “convenience”.

In discourse analysis, it is important to reach what is called data saturation . This refers to when you’ve investigated your topic and analyzed your data to the point where no new information can be found. To achieve this, you need to work your way through your data set multiple times, developing greater depth and insight each time. This can be quite time consuming and even a bit boring at times, but it’s essential.

Once you’ve reached the point of saturation, you should have an almost-complete analysis and you’re ready to move onto the next step – final review.

Step 5: Review your work

Hey, you’re nearly there. Good job! Now it’s time to review your work.

This final step requires you to return to your research questions and compile your answers to them, based on the analysis. Make sure that you can answer your research questions thoroughly, and also substantiate your responses with evidence from your data.

Usually, discourse analysis studies make use of appendices, which are referenced within your thesis or dissertation. This makes it easier for reviewers or markers to jump between your analysis (and findings) and your corpus (your evidence) so that it’s easier for them to assess your work.

When answering your research questions, make you should also revisit your research aims and objectives , and assess your answers against these. This process will help you zoom out a little and give you a bigger picture view. With your newfound insights from the analysis, you may find, for example, that it makes sense to expand the research question set a little to achieve a more comprehensive view of the topic.

Let’s recap…

In this article, we’ve covered quite a bit of ground. The key takeaways are:

• Discourse analysis is a qualitative analysis method used to draw meaning from language in context.
• You should consider using discourse analysis when you wish to analyze the functions and underlying meanings of language in context.
• The two overarching approaches to discourse analysis are language-in-use and socio-political approaches .
• The main steps involved in undertaking discourse analysis are deciding on your analysis approach (based on your research questions), choosing a data collection method, collecting your data, investigating the context of your data, analyzing your data, and reviewing your work.

If you have any questions about discourse analysis, feel free to leave a comment below. If you’d like 1-on-1 help with your analysis, book an initial consultation with a friendly Grad Coach to see how we can help.

Psst… there’s more (for free)

This post is part of our dissertation mini-course, which covers everything you need to get started with your dissertation, thesis or research project. 

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30 Comments

This was really helpful to me

I would like to know the importance of discourse analysis analysis to academic writing

In academic writing coherence and cohesion are very important. DA will assist us to decide cohesiveness of the continuum of discourse that are used in it. We can judge it well.

Thank you so much for this piece, can you please direct how I can use Discourse Analysis to investigate politics of ethnicity in a particular society

Fantastically helpful! Could you write on how discourse analysis can be done using computer aided technique? Many thanks

I would like to know if I can use discourse analysis to research on electoral integrity deviation and when election are considered free & fair

I also to know the importance of discourse analysis and it’s purpose and characteristics

Thanks, we are doing discourse analysis as a subject this year and this helped a lot!

Please can you help explain and answer this question? With illustrations,Hymes’ Acronym SPEAKING, as a feature of Discourse Analysis.

What are the three objectives of discourse analysis especially on the topic how people communicate between doctor and patient

Very useful Thank you for your work and information

thank you so much , I wanna know more about discourse analysis tools , such as , latent analysis , active powers analysis, proof paths analysis, image analysis, rhetorical analysis, propositions analysis, and so on, I wish I can get references about it , thanks in advance

Its beyond my expectations. It made me clear everything which I was struggling since last 4 months. 👏 👏 👏 👏

Thank you so much … It is clear and helpful

Thanks for sharing this material. My question is related to the online newspaper articles on COVID -19 pandemic the way this new normal is constructed as a social reality. How discourse analysis is an appropriate approach to examine theese articles?

This very helpful and interesting information

This was incredible! And massively helpful.

I’m seeking further assistance if you don’t mind.

Found it worth consuming!

What are the four types of discourse analysis?

very helpful. And I’d like to know more about Ethnography-based discourse analysis as I’m studying arts and humanities, I’d like to know how can I use it in my study.

Amazing info. Very happy to read this helpful piece of documentation. Thank you.

is discourse analysis can take data from medias like TV, Radio…?

I need to know what is general discourse analysis

Direct to the point, simple and deep explanation. this is helpful indeed.

Thank you so much was really helpful

really impressive

Thank you very much, for the clear explanations and examples.

It is really awesome. Anybody within just in 5 minutes understand this critical topic so easily. Thank you so much.

Thank you for enriching my knowledge on Discourse Analysis . Very helpful thanks again

This was extremely helpful. I feel less anxious now. Thank you so much.

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Methodology

• Critical Discourse Analysis | Definition, Guide & Examples

Critical Discourse Analysis | Definition, Guide & Examples

Published on August 23, 2019 by Amy Luo . Revised on June 22, 2023.

Critical discourse analysis (or discourse analysis) is a research method for studying written or spoken language in relation to its social context. It aims to understand how language is used in real life situations.

When you conduct discourse analysis, you might focus on:

• The purposes and effects of different types of language
• Cultural rules and conventions in communication
• How values, beliefs and assumptions are communicated
• How language use relates to its social, political and historical context

Discourse analysis is a common qualitative research method in many humanities and social science disciplines, including linguistics, sociology, anthropology, psychology and cultural studies.  

Table of contents

What is discourse analysis used for, how is discourse analysis different from other methods, how to conduct discourse analysis, other interesting articles.

Conducting discourse analysis means examining how language functions and how meaning is created in different social contexts. It can be applied to any instance of written or oral language, as well as non-verbal aspects of communication such as tone and gestures.

Materials that are suitable for discourse analysis include:

• Books, newspapers and periodicals
• Marketing material, such as brochures and advertisements
• Business and government documents
• Websites, forums, social media posts and comments
• Interviews and conversations

By analyzing these types of discourse, researchers aim to gain an understanding of social groups and how they communicate.

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Unlike linguistic approaches that focus only on the rules of language use, discourse analysis emphasizes the contextual meaning of language.

It focuses on the social aspects of communication and the ways people use language to achieve specific effects (e.g. to build trust, to create doubt, to evoke emotions, or to manage conflict).

Instead of focusing on smaller units of language, such as sounds, words or phrases, discourse analysis is used to study larger chunks of language, such as entire conversations, texts, or collections of texts. The selected sources can be analyzed on multiple levels.

Discourse analysis is a qualitative and interpretive method of analyzing texts (in contrast to more systematic methods like content analysis ). You make interpretations based on both the details of the material itself and on contextual knowledge.

There are many different approaches and techniques you can use to conduct discourse analysis, but the steps below outline the basic structure you need to follow. Following these steps can help you avoid pitfalls of confirmation bias that can cloud your analysis.

Step 1: Define the research question and select the content of analysis

To do discourse analysis, you begin with a clearly defined research question . Once you have developed your question, select a range of material that is appropriate to answer it.

Discourse analysis is a method that can be applied both to large volumes of material and to smaller samples, depending on the aims and timescale of your research.

Step 2: Gather information and theory on the context

Next, you must establish the social and historical context in which the material was produced and intended to be received. Gather factual details of when and where the content was created, who the author is, who published it, and whom it was disseminated to.

As well as understanding the real-life context of the discourse, you can also conduct a literature review on the topic and construct a theoretical framework to guide your analysis.

Step 3: Analyze the content for themes and patterns

This step involves closely examining various elements of the material – such as words, sentences, paragraphs, and overall structure – and relating them to attributes, themes, and patterns relevant to your research question.

Step 4: Review your results and draw conclusions

Once you have assigned particular attributes to elements of the material, reflect on your results to examine the function and meaning of the language used. Here, you will consider your analysis in relation to the broader context that you established earlier to draw conclusions that answer your research question.

If you want to know more about statistics , methodology , or research bias , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

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• Implicit bias
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Discourse Analysis – Methods, Types and Examples

Table of Contents

Discourse Analysis

Definition:

Discourse Analysis is a method of studying how people use language in different situations to understand what they really mean and what messages they are sending. It helps us understand how language is used to create social relationships and cultural norms.

It examines language use in various forms of communication such as spoken, written, visual or multi-modal texts, and focuses on how language is used to construct social meaning and relationships, and how it reflects and reinforces power dynamics, ideologies, and cultural norms.

Types of Discourse Analysis

Some of the most common types of discourse analysis are:

Conversation Analysis

This type of discourse analysis focuses on analyzing the structure of talk and how participants in a conversation make meaning through their interaction. It is often used to study face-to-face interactions, such as interviews or everyday conversations.

Critical discourse Analysis

This approach focuses on the ways in which language use reflects and reinforces power relations, social hierarchies, and ideologies. It is often used to analyze media texts or political speeches, with the aim of uncovering the hidden meanings and assumptions that are embedded in these texts.

Discursive Psychology

This type of discourse analysis focuses on the ways in which language use is related to psychological processes such as identity construction and attribution of motives. It is often used to study narratives or personal accounts, with the aim of understanding how individuals make sense of their experiences.

Multimodal Discourse Analysis

This approach focuses on analyzing not only language use, but also other modes of communication, such as images, gestures, and layout. It is often used to study digital or visual media, with the aim of understanding how different modes of communication work together to create meaning.

Corpus-based Discourse Analysis

This type of discourse analysis uses large collections of texts, or corpora, to analyze patterns of language use across different genres or contexts. It is often used to study language use in specific domains, such as academic writing or legal discourse.

Descriptive Discourse

This type of discourse analysis aims to describe the features and characteristics of language use, without making any value judgments or interpretations. It is often used in linguistic studies to describe grammatical structures or phonetic features of language.

Narrative Discourse

This approach focuses on analyzing the structure and content of stories or narratives, with the aim of understanding how they are constructed and how they shape our understanding of the world. It is often used to study personal narratives or cultural myths.

Expository Discourse

This type of discourse analysis is used to study texts that explain or describe a concept, process, or idea. It aims to understand how information is organized and presented in such texts and how it influences the reader’s understanding of the topic.

Argumentative Discourse

This approach focuses on analyzing texts that present an argument or attempt to persuade the reader or listener. It aims to understand how the argument is constructed, what strategies are used to persuade, and how the audience is likely to respond to the argument.

Discourse Analysis Conducting Guide

Here is a step-by-step guide for conducting discourse analysis:

• What are you trying to understand about the language use in a particular context?
• What are the key concepts or themes that you want to explore?
• Select the data: Decide on the type of data that you will analyze, such as written texts, spoken conversations, or media content. Consider the source of the data, such as news articles, interviews, or social media posts, and how this might affect your analysis.
• Transcribe or collect the data: If you are analyzing spoken language, you will need to transcribe the data into written form. If you are using written texts, make sure that you have access to the full text and that it is in a format that can be easily analyzed.
• Read and re-read the data: Read through the data carefully, paying attention to key themes, patterns, and discursive features. Take notes on what stands out to you and make preliminary observations about the language use.
• Develop a coding scheme : Develop a coding scheme that will allow you to categorize and organize different types of language use. This might include categories such as metaphors, narratives, or persuasive strategies, depending on your research question.
• Code the data: Use your coding scheme to analyze the data, coding different sections of text or spoken language according to the categories that you have developed. This can be a time-consuming process, so consider using software tools to assist with coding and analysis.
• Analyze the data: Once you have coded the data, analyze it to identify patterns and themes that emerge. Look for similarities and differences across different parts of the data, and consider how different categories of language use are related to your research question.
• Interpret the findings: Draw conclusions from your analysis and interpret the findings in relation to your research question. Consider how the language use in your data sheds light on broader cultural or social issues, and what implications it might have for understanding language use in other contexts.
• Write up the results: Write up your findings in a clear and concise way, using examples from the data to support your arguments. Consider how your research contributes to the broader field of discourse analysis and what implications it might have for future research.

Applications of Discourse Analysis

Here are some of the key areas where discourse analysis is commonly used:

• Political discourse: Discourse analysis can be used to analyze political speeches, debates, and media coverage of political events. By examining the language used in these contexts, researchers can gain insight into the political ideologies, values, and agendas that underpin different political positions.
• Media analysis: Discourse analysis is frequently used to analyze media content, including news reports, television shows, and social media posts. By examining the language used in media content, researchers can understand how media narratives are constructed and how they influence public opinion.
• Education : Discourse analysis can be used to examine classroom discourse, student-teacher interactions, and educational policies. By analyzing the language used in these contexts, researchers can gain insight into the social and cultural factors that shape educational outcomes.
• Healthcare : Discourse analysis is used in healthcare to examine the language used by healthcare professionals and patients in medical consultations. This can help to identify communication barriers, cultural differences, and other factors that may impact the quality of healthcare.
• Marketing and advertising: Discourse analysis can be used to analyze marketing and advertising messages, including the language used in product descriptions, slogans, and commercials. By examining these messages, researchers can gain insight into the cultural values and beliefs that underpin consumer behavior.

When to use Discourse Analysis

Discourse analysis is a valuable research methodology that can be used in a variety of contexts. Here are some situations where discourse analysis may be particularly useful:

• When studying language use in a particular context: Discourse analysis can be used to examine how language is used in a specific context, such as political speeches, media coverage, or healthcare interactions. By analyzing language use in these contexts, researchers can gain insight into the social and cultural factors that shape communication.
• When exploring the meaning of language: Discourse analysis can be used to examine how language is used to construct meaning and shape social reality. This can be particularly useful in fields such as sociology, anthropology, and cultural studies.
• When examining power relations: Discourse analysis can be used to examine how language is used to reinforce or challenge power relations in society. By analyzing language use in contexts such as political discourse, media coverage, or workplace interactions, researchers can gain insight into how power is negotiated and maintained.
• When conducting qualitative research: Discourse analysis can be used as a qualitative research method, allowing researchers to explore complex social phenomena in depth. By analyzing language use in a particular context, researchers can gain rich and nuanced insights into the social and cultural factors that shape communication.

Examples of Discourse Analysis

Here are some examples of discourse analysis in action:

• A study of media coverage of climate change: This study analyzed media coverage of climate change to examine how language was used to construct the issue. The researchers found that media coverage tended to frame climate change as a matter of scientific debate rather than a pressing environmental issue, thereby undermining public support for action on climate change.
• A study of political speeches: This study analyzed political speeches to examine how language was used to construct political identity. The researchers found that politicians used language strategically to construct themselves as trustworthy and competent leaders, while painting their opponents as untrustworthy and incompetent.
• A study of medical consultations: This study analyzed medical consultations to examine how language was used to negotiate power and authority between doctors and patients. The researchers found that doctors used language to assert their authority and control over medical decisions, while patients used language to negotiate their own preferences and concerns.
• A study of workplace interactions: This study analyzed workplace interactions to examine how language was used to construct social identity and maintain power relations. The researchers found that language was used to construct a hierarchy of power and status within the workplace, with those in positions of authority using language to assert their dominance over subordinates.

Purpose of Discourse Analysis

The purpose of discourse analysis is to examine the ways in which language is used to construct social meaning, relationships, and power relations. By analyzing language use in a systematic and rigorous way, discourse analysis can provide valuable insights into the social and cultural factors that shape communication and interaction.

The specific purposes of discourse analysis may vary depending on the research context, but some common goals include:

• To understand how language constructs social reality: Discourse analysis can help researchers understand how language is used to construct meaning and shape social reality. By analyzing language use in a particular context, researchers can gain insight into the cultural and social factors that shape communication.
• To identify power relations: Discourse analysis can be used to examine how language use reinforces or challenges power relations in society. By analyzing language use in contexts such as political discourse, media coverage, or workplace interactions, researchers can gain insight into how power is negotiated and maintained.
• To explore social and cultural norms: Discourse analysis can help researchers understand how social and cultural norms are constructed and maintained through language use. By analyzing language use in different contexts, researchers can gain insight into how social and cultural norms are reproduced and challenged.
• To provide insights for social change: Discourse analysis can provide insights that can be used to promote social change. By identifying problematic language use or power imbalances, researchers can provide insights that can be used to challenge social norms and promote more equitable and inclusive communication.

Characteristics of Discourse Analysis

Here are some key characteristics of discourse analysis:

• Focus on language use: Discourse analysis is centered on language use and how it constructs social meaning, relationships, and power relations.
• Multidisciplinary approach: Discourse analysis draws on theories and methodologies from a range of disciplines, including linguistics, anthropology, sociology, and psychology.
• Systematic and rigorous methodology: Discourse analysis employs a systematic and rigorous methodology, often involving transcription and coding of language data, in order to identify patterns and themes in language use.
• Contextual analysis : Discourse analysis emphasizes the importance of context in shaping language use, and takes into account the social and cultural factors that shape communication.
• Focus on power relations: Discourse analysis often examines power relations and how language use reinforces or challenges power imbalances in society.
• Interpretive approach: Discourse analysis is an interpretive approach, meaning that it seeks to understand the meaning and significance of language use from the perspective of the participants in a particular discourse.
• Emphasis on reflexivity: Discourse analysis emphasizes the importance of reflexivity, or self-awareness, in the research process. Researchers are encouraged to reflect on their own positionality and how it may shape their interpretation of language use.

Advantages of Discourse Analysis

Discourse analysis has several advantages as a methodological approach. Here are some of the main advantages:

• Provides a detailed understanding of language use: Discourse analysis allows for a detailed and nuanced understanding of language use in specific social contexts. It enables researchers to identify patterns and themes in language use, and to understand how language constructs social reality.
• Emphasizes the importance of context : Discourse analysis emphasizes the importance of context in shaping language use. By taking into account the social and cultural factors that shape communication, discourse analysis provides a more complete understanding of language use than other approaches.
• Allows for an examination of power relations: Discourse analysis enables researchers to examine power relations and how language use reinforces or challenges power imbalances in society. By identifying problematic language use, discourse analysis can contribute to efforts to promote social justice and equality.
• Provides insights for social change: Discourse analysis can provide insights that can be used to promote social change. By identifying problematic language use or power imbalances, researchers can provide insights that can be used to challenge social norms and promote more equitable and inclusive communication.
• Multidisciplinary approach: Discourse analysis draws on theories and methodologies from a range of disciplines, including linguistics, anthropology, sociology, and psychology. This multidisciplinary approach allows for a more holistic understanding of language use in social contexts.

Limitations of Discourse Analysis

Some Limitations of Discourse Analysis are as follows:

• Time-consuming and resource-intensive: Discourse analysis can be a time-consuming and resource-intensive process. Collecting and transcribing language data can be a time-consuming task, and analyzing the data requires careful attention to detail and a significant investment of time and resources.
• Limited generalizability: Discourse analysis is often focused on a particular social context or community, and therefore the findings may not be easily generalized to other contexts or populations. This means that the insights gained from discourse analysis may have limited applicability beyond the specific context being studied.
• Interpretive nature: Discourse analysis is an interpretive approach, meaning that it relies on the interpretation of the researcher to identify patterns and themes in language use. This subjectivity can be a limitation, as different researchers may interpret language data differently.
• Limited quantitative analysis: Discourse analysis tends to focus on qualitative analysis of language data, which can limit the ability to draw statistical conclusions or make quantitative comparisons across different language uses or contexts.
• Ethical considerations: Discourse analysis may involve the collection and analysis of sensitive language data, such as language related to trauma or marginalization. Researchers must carefully consider the ethical implications of collecting and analyzing this type of data, and ensure that the privacy and confidentiality of participants is protected.

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• Critical Discourse Analysis | Definition, Guide & Examples

Critical Discourse Analysis | Definition, Guide & Examples

Published on 5 May 2022 by Amy Luo . Revised on 5 December 2022.

Discourse analysis is a research method for studying written or spoken language in relation to its social context. It aims to understand how language is used in real-life situations.

When you do discourse analysis, you might focus on:

• The purposes and effects of different types of language
• Cultural rules and conventions in communication
• How values, beliefs, and assumptions are communicated
• How language use relates to its social, political, and historical context

Discourse analysis is a common qualitative research method in many humanities and social science disciplines, including linguistics, sociology, anthropology, psychology, and cultural studies. It is also called critical discourse analysis.

Table of contents

What is discourse analysis used for, how is discourse analysis different from other methods, how to conduct discourse analysis.

Conducting discourse analysis means examining how language functions and how meaning is created in different social contexts. It can be applied to any instance of written or oral language, as well as non-verbal aspects of communication, such as tone and gestures.

Materials that are suitable for discourse analysis include:

• Books, newspapers, and periodicals
• Marketing material, such as brochures and advertisements
• Business and government documents
• Websites, forums, social media posts, and comments
• Interviews and conversations

By analysing these types of discourse, researchers aim to gain an understanding of social groups and how they communicate.

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Unlike linguistic approaches that focus only on the rules of language use, discourse analysis emphasises the contextual meaning of language.

It focuses on the social aspects of communication and the ways people use language to achieve specific effects (e.g., to build trust, to create doubt, to evoke emotions, or to manage conflict).

Instead of focusing on smaller units of language, such as sounds, words, or phrases, discourse analysis is used to study larger chunks of language, such as entire conversations, texts, or collections of texts. The selected sources can be analysed on multiple levels.

Discourse analysis is a qualitative and interpretive method of analysing texts (in contrast to more systematic methods like content analysis ). You make interpretations based on both the details of the material itself and on contextual knowledge.

There are many different approaches and techniques you can use to conduct discourse analysis, but the steps below outline the basic structure you need to follow.

Step 1: Define the research question and select the content of analysis

To do discourse analysis, you begin with a clearly defined research question . Once you have developed your question, select a range of material that is appropriate to answer it.

Discourse analysis is a method that can be applied both to large volumes of material and to smaller samples, depending on the aims and timescale of your research.

Step 2: Gather information and theory on the context

Next, you must establish the social and historical context in which the material was produced and intended to be received. Gather factual details of when and where the content was created, who the author is, who published it, and whom it was disseminated to.

As well as understanding the real-life context of the discourse, you can also conduct a literature review on the topic and construct a theoretical framework to guide your analysis.

Step 3: Analyse the content for themes and patterns

This step involves closely examining various elements of the material – such as words, sentences, paragraphs, and overall structure – and relating them to attributes, themes, and patterns relevant to your research question.

Step 4: Review your results and draw conclusions

Once you have assigned particular attributes to elements of the material, reflect on your results to examine the function and meaning of the language used. Here, you will consider your analysis in relation to the broader context that you established earlier to draw conclusions that answer your research question.

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the ‘Cite this Scribbr article’ button to automatically add the citation to our free Reference Generator.

Luo, A. (2022, December 05). Critical Discourse Analysis | Definition, Guide & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved 9 April 2024, from https://www.scribbr.co.uk/research-methods/discourse-analysis-explained/

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Discourse analysis

Discourse analysis research

We're exploring how language represents ideas, concepts and people

Language is not neutral, but helps us make sense of our world. How we represent ideas, concepts and people through language is of interest to discourse analysts – and our research in discourse analysis explores how language is used in real-life contexts.

In response to increased concerns about student mental health and wellbeing in higher education, we're researching narratives of loneliness – based on student interviews – that can help us unpack the potential causes of these issues, and help educators to address them.

In online spaces, where misogynistic trolling of women is a growing issue, we're analysing the discourse of hate speech, and creating a database of online hate crime examples. With this data, we're developing diagnostic tools for the police and other bodies that could further their investigations and help to eradicate the problem.

Our discourse analysis research is regularly published in leading academic journals within the field, including Discourse & Society, Gender & Language, Discourse, Context & Media, Language & Literature, and Language & Discrimination.

Our research covers the following topics

• Critical discourse analysis
• Gender and sexuality
• Mental health discourse
• Translation studies
• Systemic functional linguistics
• Media discourse
• Online discourse

Methods and memberships

Our researchers in discourse analysis use a range of qualitative and quantitative methods (often combining both for the purposes of triangulation), such as focus groups, interviews, close linguistic analysis using methods from systemic functional linguistics and critical discourse analysis, corpus linguistics and “big data” approaches.

Many of our researchers in discourse analysis are members of the Poetics and Linguistics Association (PALA), the British Association of Applied Linguistics (BAAL) and the International Gender and Language Association (IGALA).

Their membership of these bodies enables our work to reach wider audiences, and opens up opportunities for research collaborations with other members at other institutions.

Publication highlights

Exploring student loneliness in higher education: a discursive psychology approach.

Oakley, L.J. (2020) "Exploring Student Loneliness in Higher Education: A Discursive Psychology Approach", Palgrave Macmillan Ltd

Contemporary Media Stylistics

Ringrow, H. (Editor), Pihlaja, S. (Editor) (2020) "Contemporary Media Stylistics", Contemporary Studies in Linguistics

'Environment' submissions in the UK’s REF 2014

Thorpe, A., Craig, R., Tourish, D., Hadikin, G., Batistic, S. (2018) "'Environment' submissions in the UK's Research Excellence Framework 2014", British Journal of Management 

Our members

Dr Lee Oakley

Senior Lecturer

[email protected]

School of Education, Languages and Linguistics

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

PhD Supervisor

Discover our areas of expertise

Discourse analysis is one of our six areas of expertise within our Linguistics research area. Explore the others below.

Corpus linguistics

We're looking at huge datasets of natural language – often many billions of words – to explore how language is used in different regions, genres and situations.

Translation

We're exploring how texts are translated and the practices around the translation of texts, including professional training, the use of technologies, and non-professional translation communities.

Professional communication

Our research in professional communication explores how spoken and written language is used in workplaces to develop relationships and achieve institutional objectives.

Sociolinguistics

Through our work in sociolinguistics, we're studying the ways in which language can affect, and is affected, by social phenomena.

Teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL)

We're focusing on the learning and teaching of English as a second or foreign language, in primary, secondary and adult learning contexts.

Interested in a PhD in Languages and Linguistics?

Browse our postgraduate research degrees – including PhDs and MPhils – at our Languages and Linguistics postgraduate research degrees page.

Exploring discourse analysis for making meaningful decisions

Last updated

20 March 2023

Reviewed by

Miroslav Damyanov

Discourse analysis is an interdisciplinary field that studies how conversations are structured and used to create meaning. It examines how language is used in written texts, spoken conversations, and digital media conversations.

The method can be used to identify how participants in a conversation influence it and how their words and phrases shape it.

From everyday conversation to political speeches and media representations, discourse analysis can shed light on how language shapes the world.

You can learn the basics of this wide-ranging field in this article.

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• What is discourse analysis?

This interdisciplinary method relies on the systematic analysis of spoken or written communications, focusing on how language is used to form meaning, convey social identity, and reinforce power relations.

The method is used in several different contexts, ranging from everyday conversations to political speeches and representations in the media.

• What is discourse analysis used for?

Discourse analysis is used whenever researchers want to gain a deeper understanding of the social and cultural contexts that drive language use in a given area.

Some common uses for discourse analysis include the following:

Understanding how language use reflects and reinforces social and cultural norms

Examining how power relations are constructed and maintained through language

Identifying patterns and trends in language use over time and across different contexts

Analyzing how social identities are constructed through language

Investigating how language is used to persuade or influence others

Informing the development of language teaching and learning materials

Supporting policy and decision-making in areas such as media, politics, and education

Understanding how political actors use language to persuade, influence, and mobilize support

Studying how language in media representations constructs social reality and shapes public opinion

Analyzing how legal language is used to construct legal concepts and reinforce power relations

Examining how everyday language is used to negotiate social relationships

• The main approaches to discourse analysis

As an interdisciplinary field, discourse analysis can be approached from radically different perspectives depending on who is performing the analysis and the field they are in.

The broad fields where this method is used are discussed below.

In sociology, discourse analysis is used to study how language is used to construct social reality.

It enables sociologists to examine how language is used to create and maintain social structures, impact social identity, and affect changes to the social order.

One of the key ideas in sociology is that social reality is constructed through the way society uses language. Sociologists believe that language evolves as a reflection of a culture’s existing values and the power hierarchies that have resulted from those values. They argue that the use of language can reinforce those values and structures.

Sociolinguistics

As the study of the relationship between language and society, sociolinguistics can benefit greatly from discourse analysis.

The method allows sociolinguists to examine how language is used in specific social contexts, ranging from conversations the average person has with their neighbor to the speeches a politician broadcasts to millions of listeners.

Sociolinguists believe a variety of social factors inform the language we choose to use. 

Philosophers employ discourse analysis to study how language is used to construct meaning and convey philosophical concepts. It is used in this field to examine how language constructs truth, knowledge, meaning, and social and cultural reality.

Linguistics

Linguists can use discourse analysis to examine how a language’s structure evolves over time and how social and cultural factors impact languages. When linguists understand how these social factors change language, they can draw more informed conclusions.

Artificial intelligence

Natural language processing systems are designed by programmers to help computers understand human language. Discourse analysis is used to study the structure and meaning of language in order to develop algorithms that can analyze and interpret language use. It can also help in the development of chatbots, virtual assistants, and other conversational interfaces.

• Steps to conduct discourse analysis

The steps involved in discourse analysis can vary depending on the specific approach and methodology used. Outlined below is a general guide to the process.

1. Define the research question

The first step is to clearly define what you’ll be researching. Identify the key concepts, themes, or issues you’ll explore as you conduct the analysis.

2. Select a data sample

Next, you need to gather the data sample you’ll be using for the research. This could include written or spoken texts.

Depending on the subject being studied, you may gather interviews, speeches, news articles, social media posts, or other relevant forms of communication.

3. Collect and transcribe the data

Spoken data should be transcribed into written form as accurately as possible. This includes both verbal and non-verbal cues.

If you have collected text data, you can skip this step.

4. Analyze the data

Now it’s time to analyze the data to look for patterns or themes that emerge in the way language is used.

The patterns you look for will depend on the subject you’re performing analysis for. Take careful notes of what you notice for further analysis in the next step.

5. Identify themes and categories

With the data analyzed and patterns notated, it’s time to begin looking for common themes among those patterns. These might be specific linguistic features like word choice, metaphor use, or speaking register. They may also be based on broader themes or topics.

6. Interpret the data

Once you have identified themes and categories, you can begin to interpret the data to develop insights and conclusions about the communication being analyzed. This involves reflecting on the data in relation to the research question, drawing connections between the identified items and your research question, and developing a coherent and nuanced interpretation of the data.

7. Write up your findings

Finally, you can write up your findings, drawing on your analysis and interpretation of the data. Your write-up should clearly present your research question , the methods and data used, the themes and categories identified, and your interpretation of the data.

You should also discuss your findings’ implications and any limitations or challenges you encountered during the process.

• Advantages and disadvantages of discourse analysis

Now you understand what discourse analysis is and the basics of how to perform it, you can start evaluating whether or not it’s the right choice for achieving your research goals.

Below is a list of the advantages and disadvantages of using discourse analysis:

Provides a deeper understanding of communication —the method can help identify factors that influence communication, such as power dynamics, social norms, and cultural values.

Provides insights into social issues —by analyzing communication patterns, researchers can gain insights into social issues such as inequality, discrimination, and exclusion.

Uncovers implicit meaning —researchers can reveal hidden meanings and messages in communication.

Reveals changes over time —researchers can gain insights into how the public views and relates to social issues over time by analyzing historical data.

Informs policy and practice —by revealing the underlying social structures and power relations that shape communication, researchers can identify areas for intervention and develop strategies to address social issues.

Disadvantages

Time-consuming —the process of collecting the large amount of data needed for discourse analysis and then transcribing, analyzing, and interpreting it can be time-intensive.

Highly subjective —different researchers may interpret the same data differently, leading to potential disagreements about findings.

Requires advanced training —researchers need to be familiar with the specific methodological approaches and techniques used in discourse analysis

Limited by data availability —conducting a thorough analysis can be challenging if data related to the subject being studied is limited or unavailable.

Doesn’t generalize well —discourse analysis tends to focus on specific instances of communication and may not produce findings that can be generalized to broader populations or contexts.

Discourse analysis is a powerful and versatile research method that can help researchers study how language use reflects and reinforces social structures and identities.

By using the method, researchers can examine the linguistic features of different types of discourse across social contexts. Through that analysis, they can gain insights into how language use is shaped by complex social factors.

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Discourse Analysis and European Union Politics pp 21–43 Cite as

Discourse Analysis as a Research Strategy

• Kennet Lynggaard 5  
• First Online: 14 September 2019

1849 Accesses

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in European Union Politics ((PSEUP))

This chapter elaborates on the distinctiveness of discourse analysis as a research strategy. The chapter argues in favour of moving beyond otherwise fixed methodological positions by elaborating compound research strategies directed at the specific research question at hand. In doing so, the chapter discusses the challenges associated with conducting discourse analysis, including those associated with the role of agency and structure, how to approach the study of discursive conflicts and consensus making, causality and causal mechanisms, the choice of an analytical time dimension, and how discourse analysis may speak to other types of theoretical and analytical frameworks. The chapter concludes by outlining a general framework for analysis binding together the concepts of ideas, discourse and institution.

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Lynggaard, K. (2019). Discourse Analysis as a Research Strategy. In: Discourse Analysis and European Union Politics. Palgrave Studies in European Union Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-39326-5_2

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Discourse analysis: A useful methodology for health-care system researches

Ahmadreza yazdannik.

Nursing and Midwifery Care Research Center, Nursing and Midwifery Faculty, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

Alireza Yousefy

1 Department of Medical Education, Medical Education Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

Sepideh Mohammadi

2 Department of Nursing and Midwifery Ramsar, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Ramsar, I.R Iran

Discourse analysis (DA) is an interdisciplinary field of inquiry and becoming an increasingly popular research strategy for researchers in various disciplines which has been little employed by health-care researchers. The methodology involves a focus on the sociocultural and political context in which text and talk occur. DA adds a linguistic approach to an understanding of the relationship between language and ideology, exploring the way in which theories of reality and relations of power are encoded in such aspects as the syntax, style, and rhetorical devices used in texts. DA is a useful and productive qualitative methodology but has been underutilized within health-care system research. Without a clear understanding of discourse theory and DA it is difficult to comprehend important research findings and impossible to use DA as a research strategy. To redress this deficiency, in this article, represents an introduction to concepts of discourse and DA, DA history, Philosophical background, DA types and analysis strategy. Finally, we discuss how affect to the ideological dimension of such phenomena discourse in health-care system, health beliefs and intra-disciplinary relationship in health-care system.

Introduction

For at least then years now, “discourse” and “discourse analysis (DA)” has been the fashionable term. Usually, in scientific research and debates, it is used indiscriminately, without being defined. Without a clear understanding of discourse theory and DA, it is difficult to comprehend important research findings and impossible to use DA as a research strategy. Hence, this paper aims to help health-care practitioner employ DA as an effective research strategy.

Materials and Methods

This study was a narrative review. Electronic databases such as PubMed, Medline, ProQuest, and science direct were searched using the keywords discourse analysis, methodology, and health-care system. A manual search of various journals and books was also carried out. Not only all the searched articles and books were included, but also highly relevant articles from English literature were considered for the present review.

Discourse analysis description

There are many explanations and definitions of discourse and DA.[ 1 ] Discourse has been defined as “a group of ideas or patterned way of thinking which can be identified in textual and verbal communications, and can also be located in wider social structures.”[ 2 ] In other definition “discourse is a belief, practice or knowledge that constructs reality and provides a shared way of understanding the world.” In a broad sense, discourses are defined as systems of meaning that are related to the interactional and wider sociocultural context and operate regardless of the speakers’ intentions. DA is a broad and diverse field, including a variety of approaches to the study of language, which derive from different scientific disciplines and utilize various analytical. DA examines language in use.[ 3 ] As suggested, by Fairclough, “discourse is the use of language as a form of social practice and DA is an analysis of how texts work within the sociocultural practice.”[ 4 ] DA focuses on the ways that language and symbols shape interpretations of negotiators’ identities, instrumental activity, and relationships.[ 5 ]

Discourse analysis history background

DA is both an old and a new discipline. Historically, DA path a way from linguistic approaches to socialistic approaches. Its origins can be traced back to the study of language, public speech, and literature more than 2000 years ago. One major historical source is undoubtedly classical rhetoric, the art of good speaking. Whereas the grammatica, the historical antecedent of linguistics, was concerned with the normative rules of correct language use, its sister discipline of rhetorical dealt with the precepts for the planning, organization, specific operations, and performance of public speech in political and legal settings.[ 6 ] The term of DA first came into general use following the publication of a series of papers by ZelligHarris beginning in 1952 and reporting on work from which he developed transformational grammar in the late 1930s.[ 7 ] DA in this decade concerned with such microelements of discourse as the use of grammar, rhetorical devices, syntax, sound forms and the overt meaning and content matter of words and sentences of a text or talk, and such macro structures as topics and themes. After two decades, a new form of DA emerged in the middle decades of the 60s and 70s, following the development of knowledge in the social sciences and humanities. Formal sentence grammars had been challenged from several sides and were at least complemented with new ideas about language use, linguistic variation, speech acts, conversation, other dialogs, text structures, communicative events, and their cognitive and social contexts. Much formal rigor and theoretical sophistication had to be temporarily bracketed out to formulate completely new approaches.[ 6 ]

A new cross-discipline of DA began to develop in most of the humanities and social sciences concurrently with and related to, other disciplines, such as anthropology, semiology, psycholinguistic, sociolinguistics, and pragmatics. Many of these approaches, especially those influenced by the social sciences, favor a more dynamic study of oral talk-in-interaction. In this view, DA concerned with how an individual's experience is socially and historically constructed by language and DA assumes that language constructs how we think about and experience ourselves and our relationships with others.[ 6 ] In Europe, Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida became the key theorists of the subject, especially of discourse. In this context, the term “discourse” no longer refers to formal linguistic aspects, but to institutionalized patterns of knowledge that become manifest in disciplinary structures and operate by the connection of knowledge, community and power. Since the 1970s, Foucault's works have had an increasing impact, especially on DA in the social sciences. Now DA as qualitative methods apply in various fields such as anthropology, ethnography, sociology, intellect, cognitive and social psychology, politic science, communication, and critical linguistics, and health-care system.

Philosophical background

Mainly DA philosophical base is a social constructionist approach.[ 8 ] Social constructionism is an umbrella term for a range of new theories about culture and society.[ 9 ] DA is just one among several social constructionist approaches, but it is one of the most widely used approaches within social constructionism.[ 10 ]

Discourse analytical approaches take as their starting point the claim of structuralist and poststructuralist linguistic philosophy, which our access to reality is always through language. With language, we create representations of reality that are never mere reflections of a preexisting reality but contribute to constructing reality. That does not mean that reality itself does not exist. Meanings and representations are real. Physical objects also exist, but they only gain meaning through discourse. Language, then, is not merely a channel through which information about underlying mental states and behavior or facts about the world are communicated. On the contrary, language is a “machine” that generates, and as a result constitutes the social world. This also extends to the constitution of social identities and social relations. It means that changes in discourse are a means by which the social world is changed.[ 9 ] In other words “individuals are not intentional agents of their own words, creatively and privately converting thoughts to sounds or inscriptions. Rather they gain their status as selves by taking a position within a preexisting form of language.”[ 11 ]

In terms of epistemology, many discourse theorists adopt a relativist view; they assume that there exist no objective grounds on which the truth of claims can be proven and propose that the value of knowledge should be evaluated according to other criteria, such as its applicability, usefulness and clarity.[ 12 ] Others, however, claim that relativism does not allow for a position from which social critique and action can be developed and adopt a critical realist position; they acknowledge that knowledge is always mediated by social processes but propose that underlying enduring structures do exist and that these can be known through their effects.[ 8 ]

Burr provided an outline of the general philosophical assumptions that underpin most discourse analytical approaches, drawing on the accounts of social constructionism.

They are as follows:

• A critical approach to taken-for-granted knowledge - Our knowledge of the world should not be treated as objective truth. Reality is only accessible to us through categories, so our knowledge and representations of the world are not reflections of the reality “out there,” but rather are products of our ways of categorizing the world, or, in discursive analytical terms, products of discourse[ 10 ]
• Historical and cultural specificity; We are fundamentally historical and cultural beings and our views of, and knowledge about, the world are the products of historically situated interchanges among people.[ 13 ] Consequently, the ways in which we understand and represent the world are historically and culturally specific and contingent: our worldviews and our identities could have been different, and they can change over time. This view match by this view that all knowledge is contingent is an anti-foundationalism and anti-essentialist[ 9 ]
• The link between knowledge and social processes – Our ways of understanding the world are created and maintained by social processes.[ 10 , 13 ] Knowledge is created through social interaction in which we construct common truths and compete about what is true and false.[ 9 ]

The link between knowledge and social action - Within a particular worldview, some forms of action become natural, others unthinkable. Different social understandings of the world lead to different social actions, and therefore, the social construction of knowledge and truth has social consequences.[ 10 , 13 ]

Discourse analysis approaches

DA is not only one approach but also a series of interdisciplinary approaches that have been applied in varying ways, from purely linguistic research into a conversation on a “micro” level to the broadly historic philosophical, and societal context.[ 2 ] DA Different perspectives offer their own suggestions and to some extent, compete to appropriate the terms “discourse” and “DA” for their own definitions.[ 9 ] One major difference between the various types of DA is in their methods of analysis.[ 14 ]

DA is composed of two main dimensions, textual, and contextual. Textual dimensions are those which account for the structure of discourses, while contextual dimensions relate these structural descriptions to various properties of the social, political, or cultural context in which they take place.[ 6 ] The DA that is rooted in linguistics and in textual form is concerned with such microelements of discourse as the use of grammar, rhetorical devices, syntax, sound forms and the overt meaning and content matter of words and sentences of a text or talk, and such macro-structures as topics and themes. The contextual form examines the production and reception processes of discourse, with particular attention to the reproduction of ideology and hegemony in such processes, and the links between discourse structures and social interaction and situations.[ 2 , 6 ]

Some DA mixes one or more of these approaches; for example, one kind of critical DA (CDA) combines linguistic analysis and ideological critique.[ 4 ]

There are various categorizations of discourse analytical research.[ 15 ] Phillips describes four main styles of discourse analytical research [ Figure 1 ]. The styles are categorized along two axes: (1) between text and context, and (2) between constructivist and critical approaches.[ 16 ]

Four perspectives of discourse analysis

The first axis is about the degree to which research focuses on individual texts or on the surrounding texts.[ 15 ] Phillips distinguishes between a proximal and a distal context. The proximal context is the local context, for example, a discipline or science. The distal context is a broader social context, for example ecological, regional, or cultural settings.[ 16 ]

The second axis describes the degree to which the research focuses on ideology and power, as opposed to processes of social construction. The axes are seen as continua, not as dichotomies. Thus, combinations of elements of both axes are possible and usual.[ 16 ]

Jansen in his article summarized the four perspectives of DA that described by Phillips; they are as follows.

Social linguistic analysis

A social linguistic analysis is constructivist and focuses on individual texts. It gives insight into the organization and construction of these texts and how they work to construct and organize other phenomena. The focus is not on the exploration of the power dynamics in which the texts are implicated.

Interpretive structuralism

Similar to social linguistic analysis, these discourse analyses are interested in the way in which broader discursive contexts come into being. They are not directly concerned with power. Individual texts are more important as background material.

Critical linguistic analysis

Critical linguistic analysis shares with social linguistic analysis its focus on individual texts, but its main concern is with the dynamics of power that surround the text. The examination of individual texts is for understanding how the structures of domination of the proximal context are implicated in the text.

Critical discourse analysis

The main interest of CDA is in the discursive activity to construct and maintain unequal power relations. The distal context is of interest, that is, the ecological, cultural, or regional setting that surrounds individual texts.[ 15 , 16 ] The CDA process derived from the work of Fairclough and is a study of language as a social and cultural practice. It is based on the premise that texts have a constructive effect in shaping how we experience ourselves and others and how we act in relation to this, example, the ability to prescribe medication.[ 4 ]

In addition to the above DA types, there are other classifications for DA theoretical approaches.

Discursive psychology

Discursive psychology is part of the general movement of critical psychology, which has been reacting against mainstream social psychology, especially the sort of experimental psychology.[ 17 ] The aim of discursive psychologists is not so much to analyze the changes in society's “large-scale discourses,” which concrete language use can bring about, as to investigate how people use the available discourses flexibly in creating and negotiating representations of the world and identities in talk-in-interaction and to analyze the social consequences of this. Despite the choice of label for this approach “discursive psychology” its main focus is not internal psychological conditions. Discursive psychology is an approach to social psychology that has developed a type of DA to explore the ways in which people's selves, thoughts, and emotions are formed and transformed through social interaction and to cast light on the role of these processes in social and cultural reproduction and change.[ 9 ]

Historical discourse analysis

Historical DA is a poststructuralist approach to reading and writing history; a mode of conceptualizing history through a theorized lens of critique. Historical DA works against the objectivist fallacy of traditional positivist historical methods in decentering the authority of the historian as a neutral recorder of facts and the claim of historical writings as objective reconstructions of past events. In line with its intent to disrupt taken for granted ways of conceptualizing history, the task of historical DA is not to find truths about past events or to identify the origins or causes of past events, but to expose history as a genre contingent, ambiguous, and interpretive. Historical DA is, therefore, less a set methodology than a set of postmethodological methodologies.[ 18 ]

Foucaultian discourse analysis

Today the theoretical work of Michel Foucault is widely considered as being part of the theoretical body of social sciences such as sociology, social history, political sciences, and social psychology.[ 19 ] Discourse, as defined by Foucault, refers to: ways of constituting knowledge, together with the social practices, forms of subjectivity, and power relations which inhere in such knowledge's and relations between them. Discourses are more than ways of thinking and producing meaning. They constitute the “nature” of the body, unconscious and conscious mind and emotional life of the subjects they seek to govern.[ 20 ] Foucault's focus is on questions of how some discourses have shaped and created meaning systems that have gained the status and currency of “truth,” and dominate how we define and organize both ourselves and our social world while other alternative discourses are marginalized and subjugated, yet potentially “offer” sites where hegemonic practices can be contested, challenged, and “resisted”. In Foucault's view, social context in which certain knowledge's and practices emerged as permissible and desirable or changed. In his view knowledge is inextricably connected to power. Power has an important role in Foucault's view, and power is a process that operates in continuous struggles and confrontations that change, strengthen, or reverse the polarity of the force relations between power and resistance. This means that power is described as a relational process that is embodied in context-specific situations and is partially identifiable through its ideological effects on the lives of people. Power is productive of truth, rights, and the conceptualization of individuals, through the processes, or discursive practices of the human sciences and other major discourses such as social sciences, bureaucracy, medicine, law, and education.[ 21 ] Discourse analysts in this way need to be aware of the conceptualizations of power and resistance to be able to recognize them within a discourse. Emancipatory of the marginalized group is an important goal of recognizing power in Foucault's approach.

Analytical strategies

The concrete representation of discourses is texts or discursive “units.” They make have a variety of forms: formal written records, such as news information, company statements and reports, academic papers; spoken words, pictures, symbols, artifacts, transcripts of social interactions such as conversations, focus group discussions, and individual interviews; or involve media such as TV programs, advertisements, magazines, novels, etc. In fact, texts are depositories of discourses, they “store” complex social meanings produced in a particular historical situation that involved individual producer of a text unit, and social surrounds that is appealed to the play.[ 1 ] If we are to understand discourse, we should also understand the context, in which they arise.[ 6 ] Researchers usually distinguish two types of context: broad and local. There is also a more detailed classification of the degree of a context, involved in a study: micro-discourse (specific study of language), meso-discourse (still study of a language but with a broader perspective), grand discourse (study of a system of discourses that are integrated in a particular theme such as culture), and mega discourse (referring to a certain phenomenon like globalization).[ 22 ]

DA is a process rather than a step-by-step research method and can be employed within different epistemological paradigms.[ 23 ] Crowe described the most important questions in data analysis; how it is structured as particular type of text; what politeness strategies are used; how subject positions are constructed; the types and functions of the language used and the identification of keywords; the thematic structure; how social relations are constructed; and how reality is represented.

The content of discourses can be investigated using many different tools. In a specific analysis, it may be a problem where to begin and which tools to select. In this section, we will present four strategies expressed by Jørgensen and Phillips which can be used across all the approaches to provide an overall understanding of the material and identify analytical focus points for further investigation.

The simplest way of building an impression of the nature of a text is to compare it with other texts. The strategy of comparison is based theoretically on the structuralist point that a statement always gains its meaning through being different from something else which has been said or could have been said. In applying this strategy, the researcher asks the following questions: In what ways is the text under study different from other texts and what are the consequences? Which understanding of the world is taken for granted and which understandings are not recognized?

Substitution

Substitution is a form of comparison in which the analyst herself creates the text for comparison. Substitution involves substituting a word with a different word, resulting in two versions of the text which can be compared with one another; in this way, the meaning of the original word can be pinned down. Through such comparisons, a picture can gradually be formed of how the text establishes her identity in relation to the world around her including the decisions she constructs as within her control and the ones that she constructs as out with her control. In common with the strategy of comparison, substitution draws on the structuralist point that words acquire their meaning by being different from other words. In the case of a long text, a single word can be substituted throughout the text to see how it changes the meaning of the text as a whole. However, textual aspects other than single words can also be subject to substitution.

Exaggeration of detail

The exaggeration of detail involves blowing up a particular textual detail out of proportion. The analyst may have identified a textual feature which appears odd or significant, but, as it is just one isolated feature, does not know what its significance is or how it relates to the text as a whole. To explore the significance of the feature, one can overexaggerate it, and then ask what conditions would be necessary in order for the feature to make sense and into what overall interpretation of the text the feature would fit.

Multivocality

The strategy of multivocality consists of the delineation of different voices or discursive logics in the text. The strategy is based on the discourse analytical premise concerning intertextuality– that is, the premise that all utterances inevitably draw on, incorporate or challenge earlier utterances. The aim of the strategy is to use the multivocality to generate new questions to pose to the text: what characterizes the different voices of the text? When does each voice speak? What meanings do the different voices contribute to producing?

Validation and rigor

DA is a highly interpretative process that acknowledges that multiple interpretations can emerge from the data.[ 4 ] DA is an interpretative process that can result in different researchers examining the same data yet arriving at different findings. The reliability and validity of findings, therefore, rely on the strength and logic of the researcher's argument in reports and presentations pertaining to study findings.[ 6 ] Crowe offers several key questions to consider when establishing rigor in DA studies:

Methodological rigor

• Does the research question “fit” the DA
• Do the texts under analysis “fit” the research question
• Have sufficient resources, including historical, political, and clinical resources, been sampled
• Has the interpretative paradigm been described clearly
• Are the data-gathering and analysis congruent with the interpretative paradigm
• Is there a detailed description of the data gathering and analytic processes
• Is the description of the methods detailed enough to enable readers to follow and understand context?

Interpretative rigor

• Have the linkages between the discourse and findings been adequately described
• Is there inclusion of verbatim text to support the findings
• Are the linkages between the discourse and the interpretation plausible
• Have these linkages been described and supported adequately
• How are these findings related to existing knowledge in the subject?

DA application in health-care system

The nature of the knowledge fundamental to health care and the power it wields during its practice, is of continuing interest to philosophers, social scientists and anthropologists, as well as to those individuals who directly use it in administering health care, namely, doctors, nurses, and allied health professionals. The development of sociopolitical critique has centered on the nature of the foundations of knowledge and how this influences our present understanding of the human condition. With the advent of the modern world, there have been continuing controversies about the essential characteristics of rationality.[ 21 ]

In Foucault's view, social context in which certain knowledge's and practices emerged as permissible and desirable or changed. In his view knowledge is inextricably connected to power. Power has an important role in Foucault's view, and power is a process that operates in continuous struggles and confrontations that change, strengthen, or reverse the polarity of the force relations between power and resistance. This means that power is described as a relational process that is embodied in context-specific situations and is partially identifiable through its ideological effects on the lives of people. Power is productive of truth, rights, and the conceptualization of individuals, through the processes, or discursive practices of the human sciences and other major discourses such as social sciences, bureaucracy, medicine, law, and education.[ 22 , 24 ]

DA has the potential to reveal valuable insights into the social and political contexts in which varied discourses about health take place. Areas of research which are relevant to healthcare concerns include the discourses of: the interpersonal communication processes between doctors or nurse and patients, interprofessional conversation, in-depth interviews about lay health beliefs, conversations between lay people about health risks and issues, government-sponsored health promotion messages, health information in the mass entertainment and news media, service protocols, information/education pamphlets for patients; texts describing particular understandings of health and illness or clinical approaches to treatment medical and health-care journals and official texts, textbooks in health-care specialties, health care's system communication about such disease, paternalistic manners in health-care system.

Human is one of the most important concepts in health-care system. Crowe believes that “Individuals can be considered as particular individuals, The meaning and value preexists the identification of these characteristics in an individual, and thus language does not reflect an external reality but expresses cultural conventions.”[ 20 ] Hence, we can say emancipatory of the oppressed group, marginalized patient (cause of race, ethnicity or disease types, such as HIV patient) and giving the voice is the one of the most important uses of DA in health care system.

In this part of article to learn more about the DA application in health care system, we expressed summary an article in this area.

DA as a qualitative approach has an important role in health-care system because health-care system needs to be knowledgeable across the multiple paradigms and perspectives that inform an understanding of the biological, psychological, social, cultural, ethical, and political dimensions of human lives.”[ 25 ] Practice in this area is a political, cultural, and social practice and needs to be understood as such to improve the quality of care provided. Effective clinical reasoning relies on employing several different kinds of knowledge and research[ 26 ] that draw on different perspectives, methodologies, and techniques to generate the breadth of knowledge and depth of understanding of clinical practices and patients’ experiences of those practices. DA can make a contribution to the development of this knowledge.

Financial support and sponsorship

This study was financially supported by Isfahan University of Medical Sciences.

Conflicts of interest

There are no conflicts of interest.

• How it works

Discourse Analysis – A Definitive Guide With Steps & Types

Published by Alvin Nicolas at August 14th, 2021 , Revised On August 29, 2023

What is Discourse Analysis?

Discourse analysis is an essential aspect of studying a language and its uses in day-to-day life.

It aims to gain in-depth knowledge about the language and identify its association with society, culture, and people’s perception.

It is used in various social science and humanities disciplines, such as linguistic, sociolinguistics, and psycholinguistics.

Aims of Discourse Analysis

It focuses on

• The clear, in-depth meaning of the language.
• The uses of language and its effects.
• The association of the language with cultures, interpersonal relationships, and communication.
• Various components of the language like vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, tone of voice, fonts, and written form.

Uses of Discourse Analysis

Discourse analysis is

• Used to study the language and its applications in texts and contexts.
• It focuses on the entire conversation and real text instead of constructed or artificial text.
• It helps linguists to know the role of language in improving the understanding of people.
• It enables teachers to learn many language strategies to teach students writing/speaking skills better.

Materials Used in Discourse Analysis

The material includes

Types of Discourse

What to analyse, does your research methodology have the following.

• Great Research/Sources
• Perfect Language
• Accurate Sources

If not, we can help. Our panel of experts makes sure to keep the 3 pillars of Research Methodology strong.

How to Conduct Discourse Analysis?

While conducting discourse analysis, you need to focus on the following points.

• Purpose of the writer
• The context of the speech/passage
• Type of the language used.
• The organisation of the text

You need to interpret the meaning and context of the discourse based on the available material and resources. There are various methods to conduct discourse analysis, but we are discussing the most basic method below.

Step1: Develop a Research Question

Like any other research in discourse analysis, it’s essential to have a  research question  to proceed with your study.  After selecting your research question, you need to find out the relevant resources to find the answer to it. Discourse analysis can be applied to smaller or larger samples depending on your research’s aims and requirements.

Example : If you want to find out the impact of plagiarism on the credibility of the authors. You can examine the relevant materials available on the topic from the internet, newspapers, and books published during the past 5-10 years.

Step 2: Collect Information and Establish the Context

After formulating a research question, you can  review the literature and find out the details about the source material, such as:

• Who is the author?
• What is the year and date of publication?
• What’s the name of the publication?
• What country and place is it from?
• What language is used?
• How and where did you find it?
• How can others get access to the same source?
• What kind of impact did it make on its audience?
• What’s the association between discourse material and real life?

These questions enable you to construct a strong evidence-based theory about your study.

Example: While investigating the history and origin of a particular religion. You also have to research the political events, culture, language of the people, and their association with society.

Generally, details about the publication and production of the material are available in the  about section on their online websites. If you don’t find the relevant information online, don’t hesitate to contact the editor or publication via email, phone calls, etc. 

Step 3: Analyse the Content

In this step, you should analyse various aspects of the materials such as:

• Sentence structure
• Inter-relationship between the text
• Layout and Page quality (if you are using offline materials)
• Links, comments, technical excellence, readability, multimedia content (if you are using online material)
• The genre of the source (a news item, political speech, a report, interview, biography, commentary, etc.)

The analysis of these elements gives you a clear understanding, and you can present your findings more accurately.  Once you have analysed the above features, you should analyse the following aspects:

• The structure of the argument
• The role of the introduction and conclusion of the material
• The context of the material
• Patterns and themes
• Discursive statements (arguments, perspective, thoughts of the writer/speaker
• Grammatical features (use of pronouns, adjectives, phrases, active or passive voice, and their meaning)
• Literary figures (idioms, similes, metaphors, allegories, proverbs)

Step 4: Interpret the Data

Now you have all the information, but the question that arises here is: 

What does it all mean?

To answer this question,  compile all your findings  to explain the meaning and context of the discourse.

Step 5: Present your Findings

It’s time to present your results. Throughout the process, you gathered detailed notes of the discourse, building a strong presentation or thesis. You can use the references of other relevant sources as evidence to support your discussion. Always try to make your paper interesting to grab the attention of the reader.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Discourse Analysis

• It provides a way of thinking and analysing the problem.
• It enables us to understand the context and perception of the speaker.
• It can be applied at any given time, place, and people.
• It helps to learn any language its origin and association with society and culture.

Disadvantages

• There are many options available as each tradition has its own concepts, procedures, and a specific understanding of discourse and its analysis.
• Discourse analysis doesn’t help to find out the answer to scientific problems.

Frequently Asked Questions

How to describe the discourse analysis.

Discourse analysis examines language use in context. It studies how communication shapes and reflects social meaning, power dynamics, and cultural norms. By analyzing spoken, written, or visual language, it unveils hidden ideologies, identities, and social structures within various contexts.

You May Also Like

Quantitative research is associated with measurable numerical data. Qualitative research is where a researcher collects evidence to seek answers to a question.

In historical research, a researcher collects and analyse the data, and explain the events that occurred in the past to test the truthfulness of observations.

What are the different types of research you can use in your dissertation? Here are some guidelines to help you choose a research strategy that would make your research more credible.

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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'English language Discourse analysis'

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Consult the top 50 dissertations / theses for your research on the topic 'English language Discourse analysis.'

Next to every source in the list of references, there is an 'Add to bibliography' button. Press on it, and we will generate automatically the bibliographic reference to the chosen work in the citation style you need: APA, MLA, Harvard, Chicago, Vancouver, etc.

You can also download the full text of the academic publication as pdf and read online its abstract whenever available in the metadata.

Browse dissertations / theses on a wide variety of disciplines and organise your bibliography correctly.

Cheung, Wai-ling Sonia. "A contrastive discourse analysis of warnings /." Hong Kong : University of Hong Kong, 2001. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk:8888/cgi-bin/hkuto%5Ftoc%5Fpdf?B23424369.

Shi, Yili. "Referring expressions in Chinese and English discourse." Virtual Press, 1998. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/1117097.

Lo, Bianco Joseph. "Officialising language : a discourse study of language politics in the United States." View thesis entry in Australian Digital Theses Program, 2001. http://thesis.anu.edu.au/public/adt-ANU20020902.101758/index.html.

Li, Citing. "Chinese EFL learners' pragmatic and discourse transfer in the discourse of L2 requests." Click to view the E-thesis via HKUTO, 2009. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record/B43085763.

Hong, Hyo-chang. "Discourse functions of Old English passive word order variation." Virtual Press, 2003. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/1259301.

Silva, Karina T. F. da. "Do scripted textbook dialogues reflect native speaker discourse an analysis of English textbooks for adult students in Brazil /." Ohio : Ohio University, 2002. http://www.ohiolink.edu/etd/view.cgi?ohiou1040048746.

Burris, Jessica Margaret. "Finding Feminism in American Political Discourse : A Discourse Analysis of Post-Feminist Language." UNF Digital Commons, 2012. http://digitalcommons.unf.edu/etd/395.

Brearey, Oliver James. "Peripheral subjectivity and English-language Hong Kong literature." online access from Digital Dissertation Consortium, 2007. http://libweb.cityu.edu.hk/cgi-bin/er/db/ddcdiss.pl?1451242.

Liu, Jing. "Mini-lectures of Chinese native speakers of English : a comparative discourse analysis /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/9318.

Cheung, Wai-ling Sonia, and 張慧玲. "A contrastive discourse analysis of warnings." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2001. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B30409202.

Hicks, Diana. "English language teaching teacher's guides : a critical discourse analysis of three texts." Thesis, University of Bristol, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/1983/a13246cc-dda1-4a94-b061-7c3a415ee82e.

Cahl, Gregory Elkan. "An analysis of dominant discourse in Grade 8 English Home Language textbooks." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/23458.

Woo, Ka-hei Michelle. "An analysis of gender and discourse with reference to data from the Hong Kong International Corpus of English." Hong Kong : University of Hong Kong, 1999. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record.jsp?B21161641.

Parent, Kevin. "Polysemy : a second language pedagogical concern : a thesis submitted to the Victoria University of Wellington in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Applied Linguistics /." ResearchArchive@Victoria e-thesis, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10063/970.

Lewis, Diana M. "Some emergent discourse connectives in English : grammaticalization via rhetorical patterns." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2000. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:137436a0-a0e7-4764-a667-6312d899f909.

Ho, Siu-wah Annie, and 何小華. "Discourse structure of English telephone conversation: a description of the closing." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 1987. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B3194906X.

Iida, Eri. "Hedges in Japanese English and American English medical research articles." Thesis, McGill University, 2007. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=99723.

Kluepfel, Gail A. "Reading textual differences : grammars, epistemologies, and their subjects in composition /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/9385.

Geldenhuys, Natasjia. "The language of forms: A discourse analysis of municipal application forms." University of the Western Cape, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/11394/6952.

Tang, Wai Kuen Connie. "An analysis of the genre of a standard listing documentation of a multinational accounting firm in Hong Kong." HKBU Institutional Repository, 1997. http://repository.hkbu.edu.hk/etd_ra/112.

Tayub, Mohammed Farhad Abu. "A Critical Discourse Analysis of Bangladeshi English-Language Newspaper Editorials on Extrajudicial Executions." Thesis, Örebro universitet, Institutionen för humaniora, utbildnings- och samhällsvetenskap, 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-51220.

Tomazoni, Mônica Denise Godarth. "A discourse analysis of participants' views in an english language teacher development course." Florianópolis, SC, 2005. http://repositorio.ufsc.br/handle/123456789/101922.

Mustedanagic, Anita. "Gender in English Language and EFL- Textbooks." Thesis, Halmstad University, School of Teacher Education (LUT), 2010. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hh:diva-5567.

A textbook is a key component in the arsenal of a teacher of English. For this reason, it is of importance that textbooksused in Swedish schools are compliant with the fundamental values of equality, provided in the LPO 94. I will attempt to discover the extent to which English textbooks present males and females in non-stereotyped ways and as equal. I want to provide an overview to show how they deal with gender issues. In addition, I aim at establish whether there are any connection between learning and gender, and whether it hinders the pupil’s language learning.

My analysis will draw on previous research  and theories presented by prominent figures in the field, such as, Butler (1990), Mills (1995), Renner (1997), Ravitch (2004) and Jones, Kitetu & Jane Sunderland (1997)among others. Thereafter, these theories, and my own research will be compared, to and contrasted with the guidelines from the Swedish National Agency of Education.

This dissertation comprises a qualitative critical discourse analysis of two randomly selected textbooks that have been, or are being used, in Swedish secondary schools. For my study, I have chosen Team 8 (1984) and Wings 8 (2000).

In my analyses, a number of different aspects will be taken into consideration, such as the   gender distribution of narrators, main characters and sub characters, as well as the   description of gender/gender roles, and the representation of gender in illustrations. Further, I will study what kind of language is used: the extent to which it is gendered or de-gendered language.  These aspects will be collected quantitatively.

The findings from the analysis show that the language in Wings 8 gives a broad and non-stereotypic view of gender roles, which is in accordance with the fundamental values of LPO 94. However, the illustrations tend to portray males and females in what can be considered as quite stereotypical.

Team 8 , on the other hand, contains gendered language and male dominance; women were placed in the background or left out completely.  Therefore, Team 8 would not be deemed to be compliant with the requirements set by the Swedish National Agency of Education today.

Key words: Education, teaching material, Wings, Team 8, gender, critical discourse analysis.

Vadhanasindhu, Chanika. "Contrastive discourse analysis and reader perception of newspaper editorials in Thai and English." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/280016.

Matuka, Yeno Mansoni. "Patterns of tense, aspects and modality in the metalanguage of academic English prose." Virtual Press, 1987. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/505145.

Chan, Sui Ping. "Organization of teacher/pupil discourse in a communicative language classroom." HKBU Institutional Repository, 1994. http://repository.hkbu.edu.hk/etd_ra/25.

Yuen, Dick-yan Dennis, and 源迪恩. "A comparison of oral and written composition in L1 Chinese and L2 English in an L2 English medium school." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 1995. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B31958424.

Guerrero-Nieto, Carmen Helena. "National Standards for the Teaching of English in Colombia: A Critical Discourse Analysis." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/195935.

Kerr, Ronald George. "Changing discourse, the discourse of change : a critical analysis of discourse in the fields of English language teaching, governance and development." Thesis, Lancaster University, 2003. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.418437.

Almutairi, Bandar Alhumaidi A. "Visualizing Evaluative Language in Relation to Constructing Identity in English Editorials and Op-Eds." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/13591.

Nagendra, Geetha. "An activity theoretical analysis of synchronous electronic discourse a case study /." Thesis, Click to view the E-thesis via HKUTO, 2006. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record/B36776968.

Li, Citing, and 李茨婷. "Chinese EFL learners' pragmatic and discourse transfer in the discourse of L2 requests." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2009. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B43085763.

Varga, Kate, and Ronja Cato. "A multimodal critical discourse analysis of Swedish teaching materials for English." Thesis, Malmö universitet, Malmö högskola, Institutionen för kultur, språk och medier (KSM), 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-41075.

Doray, Michele Brigitte Antoinette. "Gender differentiated discourse: a study of teacher discourse in the adult ESL classroom." Thesis, Curtin University, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/2122.

Marko, Georg. "Penetrating language a critical discourse analysis of pornography." Tübingen Narr, 2005. http://d-nb.info/986878383/04.

Woo, Ka-hei Michelle, and 胡嘉熙. "An analysis of gender and discourse with reference to data from the Hong Kong International Corpus of English." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 1999. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B31952495.

Traiger, Cheryl B. "Tourists' English Expectations: Discourse Analysis of Attitudes towards Language and Culture on Travel Websites." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/194974.

Laohawiriyanon, Chonlada. "From climate change to deforestation a genre of popularised science /." Phd thesis, Australia : Macquarie University, 1999. http://hdl.handle.net/1959.14/22696.

Cheng, Winnie, and 鄭梁慧蓮. "Intercultural communication between native and non-native speakers of English." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2002. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B29711629.

Suaysuwan, Noparat. "English language textbooks in Thailand 1960-1997 : constructing postwar, industrial and global iterations of Thai society through and for the child language learner /." [St. Lucia, Qld.], 2005. http://www.library.uq.edu.au/pdfserve.php?image=thesisabs/absthe18722.pdf.

Tan, Man Wai Emily. "Lexical signalling of notions of solution in the problem-solution discourse context." HKBU Institutional Repository, 1997. http://repository.hkbu.edu.hk/etd_ra/119.

Hannan, Mairead. "The discourse of ESL policy : the impact of the 'Literacy Crisis' /." Connect to thesis, 2009. http://repository.unimelb.edu.au/10187/6868.

Amir, Alia. "Chronicles of the English Language in Pakistan : A discourse analysis of milestones in the language policy of Pakistan." Thesis, Linköpings universitet, Institutionen för kultur och kommunikation, 2008. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-65526.

Cheng, Yonghong. "English non-plural nouns in -s : a survey and corpus-based study." Virtual Press, 2008. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/1395455.

Leung, Yiu Hung Humphrey. "Bona to vada your dolly old eke! : a case study of the differences of English use between homosexual and heterosexual people in written discourse." HKBU Institutional Repository, 2002. http://repository.hkbu.edu.hk/etd_ra/390.

Guerriero, A. M. Sonia (Antonia Michela Sonia). "The development of argument representation : a crosslinguistic discourse-pragmatic analysis of English and Japanese child language." Thesis, McGill University, 2005. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=100614.

Sirén, T. (Tea). "Representations of men and women in English language textbooks:a critical discourse analysis of Open Road 1–7." Master's thesis, University of Oulu, 2018. http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:oulu-201805312348.

Allan, Margaret D. "Migrant ESOL learners : a Foucauldian discourse analysis." Thesis, University of Stirling, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/22335.

Petkova, Mariana M. "Classroom discourse and Teacher talk influences on English language learner students' mathematics experiences." [Tampa, Fla] : University of South Florida, 2009. http://purl.fcla.edu/usf/dc/et/SFE0002912.

Doray, Michele Brigitte Antoinette. "Gender differentiated discourse : a study of teacher discourse in the adult ESL classroom /." Curtin University of Technology, Department of Language and Intercultural Education, 2005. http://espace.library.curtin.edu.au:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=16608.