Course Details in 2025/26 Session

Module Title	LI Discourse Analysis
School	Eng, Drama, & Creative Studies
Department	Eng Lang and Linguistics
Module Code	09 27753
Module Lead	Dr Olivia Knapton
Level	Intermediate Level
Credits	20
Semester	Semester 1
Pre-requisites
Co-requisites
Restrictions	None
Contact Hours	Lecture-10 hours Seminar-20 hours Guided independent study-170 hours Total: 200 hours
Exclusions
Description	The module provides an overview of linguistic models useful for the analysis of a range of different written and spoken text types. The aim is to learn how to characterise texts according to their distinctive lexical, grammatical and text organisational properties, in order to relate these properties to a text's context of use, and in order to develop arguments about how these properties may serve communicative, aesthetic, rhetorical and ideological ends. More specifically, students will (a) understand principles of the application of discourse analysis to a wide range of authentic texts, and (b) be able to characterise and explain the communicative functionality of different texts by reference to their register, genre and rhetorical properties.
Learning Outcomes	By the end of the module students should be able to: demonstrate familiarity with a range of analytical models and techniques, as covered in the extensive background literature; carry out detailed discourse analyses of a wide range of written and spoken texts; have an understanding of how foregrounded linguistic features can be identified, and used to support arguments about the meaning of a text, its communicative functionality, its aesthetic value (where appropriate) and its rhetorical potential; have experience of designing and executing their own piece of research, involving selection, analysis and evaluation of appropriate materials.
Assessment	27753-01 : Assignment One : Coursework (50%) 27753-02 : Assignment Two : Coursework (50%)
Assessment Methods & Exceptions	Assessment: 2 x 1750 word assignments (50% each) Reassessment: Resubmission of failed component(s)
Other	None
Reading List