Critical Discourse Analysis: A Guide on How to Analyze Texts

Choosing and Analyzing a Text

For the purpose of this assignment, you must choose a ‘text’ or small set of ‘texts’ to analyse using critical discourse analysis. You should try to choose a text or set of texts that is relevant to a topic you are exploring as a possible dissertation project. You will conduct a “critical discourse analysis” using similar methods to the analysis in the Brie and Boehm article on the marketing of “ethical” bottled water Your ‘text’ can be a written document; a print advertisement or pamphlet; a website page (or small set of website pages; or a promotional video or television advertisement.

Paying close attention to the content, form and context of the text(s), please write a 750 word analysis. You should frame your analysis by first posing a research question and explaining how analysis of your chosen text would help you to explore that question. You should then go on to develop a critical discourse analysis of the text(s), exploring what kinds of language and images are being used together in the text(s), and what kind of social ‘action’ is being carried out.

Please be sure to include all three levels in your discourse analysis:

1) Textual Analysis: How are the words and/or images making meaning together within the text(s)?

2) Process Analysis: Who was the text(s) produced by, and for what purposes? What kind of distribution is involved? Who is the intended audience, and how might the intended audience be receiving (understanding/reacting to) the text(s)?

3) Social Analysis: How are the elements within the text(s) related to issues, trends and meanings within the larger society? How are they an expression of social realities, and how might they themselves be producing social reality? Can you identify any relevant power dynamics/relations?

Requirements/Criteria:

*You will need to provide either, 1) a reference with link(s) to the text(s), if they are available on- line, or, 2) a screenshot or copy of your text(s) as an appendix at the end of your document. The text(s) should ideally be in English, so that your instructors can read/understand them. 

While the focus for this assignment is primarily the analysis of your chosen text, your analysis must be grounded in relevant academic literature (5-10 academic sources).*This is not an essay and does not need to follow traditional essay structure (ie., you do not need to include a formal introduction or conclusion). You should, however, include subheadings throughout, clearly indicating how each section of your coursework submission relates to the assigned tasks.

The coursework submission should be 750 words in length (+/- 10%). This word limit includes the body of the text and in-text citations, but does not apply to the list of references at the end, or the appendix (in which you include a copy of your text, if it is not possible to reference your chosen text by including a reference/link for it.) Your coursework submission should be double-spaced using a common font such as Times Roman 12 pt., and it must be spell-checked. DO NOT use translation programs to formulate your English sentences; you must formulate grammatically correct sentences yourself, to assure that your writing is coherent.

You should use Harvard-style in-text references for all sources, including any web-based sources, and you must include a reference list of all cited material (articles, books and other sources, including web-based sources) at the end.