Working with Written Discourse

Deborah Cameron · Ivan Panovic

Mar 2014 · SAGE

About this ebook

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

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

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

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

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

About the author

Deborah Cameron teaches at Oxford University, where she is Professor of Language and Communication. Her main research interests are in sociolinguistics, discourse analysis and the study of gender and sexuality; her previous publications include Working with Spoken Discourse (2001) and Working with Written Discourse (with Ivan Panovic, 2014), Good to Talk? (2000),The Myth of Mars and Venus (2007), and Verbal Hygiene (1995/2012).

Ivan Panovic received his doctorate from Oxford University, where he went on to spend two years as a postdoctoral research fellow in Arabic sociolinguistics. He is now Assistant Professor of sociolinguistics at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. His book Literacies in Contemporary Egypt will be published in 2014.