FCE-2 Critical Discourse Analysis Assignment

Why?

Critical Discourse Analysis is a method of investigation/analysis in the academic field of

socio-linguistics. As language students, by extension you are also linguists. We are going
to use this method of analysis to (i) practise your reading skills (reading for detail, tone,
attitude etc.), (ii) practise analyzing language and parts of speech i.e. adjectives, adverbs,
nouns, pronouns, prepositions, verb forms etc. as these are all important factors for the
reading exam, and for your language development in general.

What?

What is Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)? Critical = an objective analysis, Discourse =

a type of speech or communication, Analysis = breaking down the different parts of the
language and asking what do they mean/what do they do.

How?

You must analyze strong/weak adjectives, how do the adverbs modify nouns/adjectives,
is the vocabulary used associated with any specific areas e.g. medical vocabulary, war
vocabulary, etc. Is the continuous form of the verb used to emphasize duration or is
passive voice used to create distance from the subject? Analyze and comment on the
language.

What can I analyze?

There are many different types of discourse. Media discourse = movie reviews,
advertisements, TV series, newspaper articles, the difference between broadsheet and
tabloid news discourse (broadsheet newspapers are longer, more serious, more
professional newspapers whereas tabloids are like a mix of magazines and newspapers
with more gossip-type articles than serious news). There is political discourse, academic
discourse, business discourse, racist discourse, the list goes on and on. CDA provides a
method, guidelines, a recipe on how to breakdown and analyze a text. This will be our
next assignment. It will require you to think critically, think outside of the box, and
 analyze language in its societal context. You will systematically analyze the language
itself and comment on the relationship between the discourse and society.

Instructions:

The following section will outline your instructions and then there is an example for you
to have an idea of what I’m looking for. This will be great practice for your reading skills
and linguistic knowledge in general.

Assignment Instructions:

Step 1: Choose a text. It can be a from a newspaper, magazine, website, blog; any written piece
of communication, on any topic that interests you. It can be political discourse (a transcript of a
speech, a statement, a law document), it could be business discourse (a text from a company, a
company mission statement), media discourse (a text about news, coronavirus, crime, celebrity
gossip, a movie review). You choose ANY text. Research the media source, check when it was
founded, who are the owners, does it have any political or business connections?

Step 2: Research the author of the text. Check their Twitter, LinkedIn, Wikipedia. Note down
any interesting facts/connections/political affiliations.

Step 3: A text is usually accompanied by visuals – what are they? What feeling/tone does this
give the reader before they start reading?

Step 4: Analyze the paragraphs and the spacing. Is it one long text that you can read slowly and
calmly? Is it short, fast paragraphs that you read quickly? How does the layout effect the feeling
for the reader?

Step 5: Analyze the language. Check the adjectives – are they strong or weak? If the theme/topic
of the article is specific (e.g. about the economy) – does the article include vocabulary usually
associated with a different topic (e.g. fighting/medical vocab – bombshell/wrestle/inject). What
images/tones/attitudes are created and how? Analyze and comment on the adverbs, repetition of
words, proper nouns, pronouns, names of people, who is quoted? Why are they considered
important? Can you comment on active or passive voice or verb forms?
Step 6: Give an overall summary, with evidence from the article, of the tone/attitude created by
the author and HOW? With what language does the author create the idea/feeling? Why?
Comment on the societal aspect/stereotypes – comment on how the language relates to the
societal context. Comment on the intended audience/reader – who does the author want to read
this text? Why? What feeling does the author want the reader to feel? Why?

Example:

Critical Discourse Analysis of Media Article “Jolt to eurozone as German

court warns against central bank stimulus” written by Philip Inman for the
Guardian Newspaper.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/may/05/jolt-to-eurozone-as-german-court-warns-
against-central-bank-stimulus

Media Source: The Guardian is a well-known British newspaper, founded in 1821 under a
different name. It is generally associated with left-wing politics and factual information. It is
considered a trusted media source, and has a print and an online version.

Author of Text: The author of this article is Philip Inman. His Twitter account lists him as
an editor of The Observer newspaper (a sister paper of the Guardian) and an author of a book
about economics. Clear the author is a respected, educated economist, perhaps considered
something of an expert and therefore his article would be given importance by readers
interested in this topic.

Intended Audience/Reader: The intended audience for this article is probably a middle-
class, educated reader from the West, as we will see in the analysis, the references and
examples are mainly from a Western perspective and include economic-specific vocabulary
and figures that only a person with knowledge of this subject would understand.

Visuals Accompanying Article: The article is accompanied by an image, a logo, of a

German court. It is a large eagle with its wings spread wide, immediately giving the reader an
impression of power.
 Linguistic Analysis:

• The title includes the word “jolt” which is a strong adjective meaning like a shock or an
unpleasant surprise. Before reading the article, the reader already feels an impression of power
from the image and a feeling of shock from the word “jolt”.

• The tagline “Fears ruling could undermine ECB’s authority to ward off the financial
crisis and spell end of quantitative easing”. The first word “fear” continues the attitude/idea/tone
of something negative, in addition to “undermine” which is a word associated with power, and
something threatening that power. In addition, the initials “ECB” are used without explanation.
This means the author expects the reader to know that it means the European Central Bank. The
author assumes the reader already has knowledge of this subject.

• The article is comprised of 16 short paragraphs, the spacing creates an idea of something
fast and urgent. The longest paragraph is about 5-6 lines and the shortest is just one line.

• Paragraph 1: we see repetition of the word “jolt” which continues the attitude/idea of
something serious or shocking, then the word “flood” which creates an image of something fast
and uncontrollable, again adding to the feeling of fear introduced at the beginning of article.
Speaking about the euro, the author uses vocabulary “hit the value”/”jolted investors”/”flood the
financial system”. Immediately in the first paragraph we are given an image of an attack to the
economy.

• Paragraph 2: “bombshell” is a strong noun, usually associated with war or fighting

vocabulary, it could also mean a bad shock, similar to “jolt”.

• Paragraph 3: This paragraph mentions “analysts” but does not give names of who. This
creates an idea that the reader should listen to and believe what the article is saying, but it
provides no proof, quotes or names to support the statement. Also, the US system is described as
“independent” while the European system is described as wrestling with something, which
creates an image of struggle while the US is described with a positive adjective. The “covid-19
outbreak” is mentioned”.

• Paragraph 4: uses the verb “injected”, a word from medical vocabulary, linking the idea
of the economy to something medical, something sick, linking to the actual medical “outbreak”
in the world at the moment. The author links the image of a global sickness to an economic
sickness using the verb “injected”.

• Paragraph 5: Author changes “outbreak” to “pandemic”, not mentioning the virus itself
but he assumes the reader will know what he is referring to.

• Paragraph 6: Discusses the opinions of “the court” and “the judges”, powerful people in
society who a reader may believe/trust easily. Although no names are mentioned.

• Paragraph 7: Continues with “they”, assuming the pronoun refers to the “court/judges”
mentioned in previous paragraph, the author is using powerful imagery so that the reader will
trust/believe the message in the article.

• Paragraph 8: Names an analyst from ING but “ING” is not explained, the author expects
the reader to know what he means, this tells us the intended audience for this article is someone
who already knows about the economy and major players/companies in this context. The word
“undermine” is repeated which is a verb associated with power and someone challenging that
power.

• Paragraph 9: References “pandemic” again and repeats the noun form of the verb injected
– injection. Again creating the image of the economy as something sick.

• Paragraph 10: Continues with the opinion/quotes from the analyst mentioned in
paragraph 8 but for paragraphs 9 and 10, the author only uses the pronoun “he”.

• Paragraph 11: One line only, the author wants this statement to stand out, to be
emphasized, for the reader to consider it important. It is about the “drop” of the euro, with the
image of power, struggle, fighting, and fear already created earlier in the article, now the one line
about a problem with the euro should evoke more fear in the reader. The author also uses a
superlative, the strongest form of a comparative “biggest” to really emphasize his point.

• Paragraph 12: “concerns/coronavirus” – note that the author changes from “covid-19
outbreak” to “coronavirus”. Many media articles are inconsistent with their naming of the current
health issue.

• Paragraph 13: Is mostly facts and figures that only people with knowledge of the
economy would understand, again showing the intended reader for this article.
• Paragraph 14: Includes the adjective “rattled”, a strong adjective adding to the image of
shock and fear.

• Paragraph 15: Again, mentions “some analysts” with no names, implying we should trust
the professionals but we do not know who they are. This is followed by a named quote from
another economist.

• The last paragraph is the quote continued, again standing alone to really emphasize the
one-line, final statement. It compares the US banking system to the European Central Bank and
implies that the US could be better equipped to deal with an economic problem. Throughout the
article, the idea/attitude/tone of shock/fear/attack/sickness for the European economy is created,
the US system had previously been described more positively and here in the final paragraph this
idea is repeated with “the Fed has no such constraints” which implies the US are better equipped
to deal with the economic sickness. This furthers the global stereotype/idea that the US are a
superpower.

Overall Comments:

• From the beginning to end, this article creates an idea/feeling of shock, fear and fighting
using vocabulary such as: “jolt (title and paragraph 1) / fear (tagline) / warn (tagline) / undermine
(tagline) / flood (paragraph 1) / bombshell (paragraph 2) / wrestled (paragraph 3) / rattled
(paragraph 11)”. This article is about the European economy and creates images/feelings of
fighting and fear, which could leave the reader with a sense of worry for the euro. Also, the
spacing and shortness of the paragraphs creates a sense of <read this quickly because this is an
urgent issue>. The economy is portrayed as something alive, powerful, and fighting. The
economy is also linked to a medical image with the verb “injected”, which could also be a
reference to the link between the current health crisis and how this will have consequences for
the economy, also creating an image of the economy as sick.

• The article uses references such as: “judges (paragraph 6) / analysts (paragraph 15) /
courts (paragraph 6)” to give weight to the statements, to make the reader believe the statements.
It also uses pronouns “he (paragraph 8,9,10) and they”. This creates a sense of distance, instead
of using the names, the proper nouns, the author chooses to use pronouns which are less clear,
and powerful references such as judges and courts to make the reader trust and believe what the
article is saying.

• Overall, the article evokes a sense of fear and worry for the European economy, and
finishes with an implication that the US is in a better position to deal with economic issues,
furthering the societal/global image of the US as a superpower.