SOURCES WILL BE WRITTEN/ATTACHED – ONLY USE FROM THESE SOURCES

Subject to Discourse Assignment 1
Words: 3000 (+/- 10%)
Minimum 20 sources

Background

In the first semester of the module we will take the University as a case study of an Order of Discourse (see Fairclough 2001, Chapter 2).
We will look at a number of domains within the Order of Discourse and analyse the discourse/s that reflect and construe the University: the social and discursive practices that we engage in and identities we adopt.

We look at how we are both positioned by the discourses and subject positions we encounter, and how we construct our own versions of these identities and discourses from that experience.
We will look at a range of discourses that you will have encountered at University and will engage in an analysis of practices and discourse/s based on a view of language as a social semiotic (Halliday 1978).

The central focus of the assignment is to provide a discourse analysis of a sample of texts from the Order of Discourse of the university at Oxford Brookes. You will need to select and agree the texts with the module tutor. These should be texts that you have encountered and collected as part of your social practices at University.

Question 1:
“To what extent do the ‘public facing’ texts that the University produces both reflect and construe a discourse of marketisation/commodification?”
In your discussion, you should:
• situate your analysis within a broader frame of changes in both the wider HE sector and more broadly in society
• consider the subject positions the texts construct for students and other members of the University

you should choose 2-3 texts from the university (eg from the prospectus, Student Central, Accommodation Office…) and clearly situate your chosen texts in their ‘culture’. You will be encouraged to choose texts that you feel are pertinent and relevant to your experience of the practices/discourses of the university.

When analysing your texts, you should follow Fairclough’s (2001) 3-stage format: Description, Interpretation Explanation (Fairclough 2001). This format will be covered in class.

You will need to provide scanned, annotated texts with your submission – I will attach the texts

Learning outcomes assessed
1. Critically analyse instances of written and spoken discourse using a range of relevant discourse analytic approaches including SFL, multimodal semiotic analysis and CDA
2. select and critically analyse a range different discourse genres/social practices within appropriate theoretical frameworks
3. investigate and understand discourse as a social practice with particular relevance to the student’s own practices within the socio-cultural contexts they and others inhabit
4. plan and conduct investigative research into communicative events and analyse new and/or abstract data and situations without guidance, using a range of techniques in discourse analysis.
______
Outline:

Description (see Fairclough 2001, chapter 5)

What are the formal properties of the text (design, layout etc.)
What type of language is being used?
e.g: * not necessary to have them all *
Any ideologically-loaded or contested language?
Euphemisms?
Metaphors?
Modality?
Positives or negatives?
Actives or passives?
Nominalization?
Use of pronouns/synthetic personalization?

Interpretation (see Fairclough 2001, chapter 6)

The relationship between text and the interaction/social structure
e.g:
Where is the text in a process of production?
What is the purpose of the texts?
Who are the senders/receivers/addressers/addressees? – Briefly
What schematic knowledge do you bring to the texts?
What are the Orders of Discourse?

Explanation (see Fairclough 2001, chapter 6) – connect to aspects of theory

The relationship between interaction and social context – what theories or analytical frameworks can you bring in here?

What power relations are there here?
Are power relations sustained or transformed?
What ideologies are there here? (are they hidden, etc.?)
Are there any sites of ideological ‘struggle’? (e.g situational, institutional, societal?)