How to Conduct a Discourse Analysis: A step-by-step guide

Discourse analysis is a useful qualitative and interpretive method for studying written or spoken language in a social context. It helps you to understand how the social world influences language over time and vice versa. The Cambridge Dictionary defines discourse analysis as “the analysis of spoken or written texts that contain more than one sentence, including their social context.”

Some theoretical background information

The Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) roots back to Siegfried Jäger and is inspired by the philosopher and discourse pioneer Michel Foucault. Norman Fairclough was the first one to underline the connection between language and society as a whole and defines discourse as a “social practice, rather than a purely individual activity”. 

So far so good, but how can we use discourse analysis, what can we examine and how does it actually work?

Examining different kinds of texts

Discourse analysis allows us to examine all kinds of textual material (spoken and written) and helps us to identify the purposes and effects of different types of language and cultural rules and conventions in communication. It analyses how values, beliefs and assumptions are communicated and how language use relates to its social, political and historical context. The following types are examples of texts that might be analysed:

• 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

A step-by-step guide 

If you want to conduct a comprehensive discourse analysis, take into account the following steps and advice: 

1. First things first: Set targets and formulate a research question!

In order to interpret data and obtain results, you must know what you are actually examining. Try to formulate at least one clearly defined research question.

2. Gather suitable material! 

Think about what kind of text(s) you want to analyse. Also, make sure you are interested in the topic your text addresses since you will be working with it for quite some time.

3. Context, context, context

Establish the context and try to define the discourse level of the respective text(s). It is important to see the bigger picture when analysing the social implications of the language used. 

4. Switch to the language level and let’s get down to business! 

• Examine the structure of your text: Does it build up a narrative?
• Determine discursive statements: What individual discourse fragments can be identified?
• Identify cultural references: Are there intertextual references that need to be considered?
• Outline linguistic and rhetorical codes and mechanisms: What concrete grammatical features are used in the analysed statements? Can you identify any rhetorical figures, etc.?

5. Present your results and draw conclusions!

In the last step of your discourse analysis, give an overview of your findings, stress the relevance of your results and use examples to underline the importance of your research project. Answer your research questions and outline the implications your findings might have on future projects.