Discourse analysis is a qualitative research method for studying “language in context.

”[1] The
process goes beyond analyzing words and sentences, establishing a deeper context about how
language is used to engage in actions and form social identity.

In Gee’s (2011) view, language is always used from a perspective and always occurs within a
context. A chat with a police officer differs from one with a close friend. Politicians often use
vague double-talk to mask contradictions between their actions and public stance. Even a car's
user manual follows specific structural conventions.

Contextualizing how we use language provides insights into its underlying power dynamics
and real-world consequences. That’s where discourse analysis comes in.

What is Discourse Analysis?

Discourse analysis (DA) is a broad term for various qualitative methods that explore the
structure and expression of language within its social and cultural context. It looks at the
linguistic content (what's said) and language use (how it's used) in a given text to convey
meaning in different social settings.

By “going beyond the word or sentence,” discourse analysis aims to grasp how language
structures both texts and social contexts. [2,3] The main goal of this qualitative research
approach is to provide a deeper understanding and appreciation of language and “how it
becomes meaningful to users.”[4]

So, discourse analysts explore how relationships between people can shape the language they
use. And also how language presents different perspectives and understandings of the world,
helping us understand how it can help create and maintain social reality, power relations, and
even our own identities.

A discourse analyst may examine how people in a given setting use a particular word to
understand their upbringing or other people's influences on them. Likewise, qualitative
researchers may analyze words written centuries ago to understand the writer’s situation and
get broader evidence about the writer’s society.

Here are some questions that discourse analysts might ask:

 How does language construct identity in different contexts?

 How does language negotiate or influence power?
 How does language create and maintain reality?
 How do frames of reference influence language interpretation?
 How can language promote social change?

By posing questions that delve beneath the surface of language, you can uncover the subtleties
that help us comprehend the power and influence of it.

Key Concepts of Discourse Analysis

Some of the core concepts in discourse analysis include:

 Context: Discourse analysts are interested in how the context of a communicative

event affects the meaning of the language used. For example, the meaning of "home"
 will differ depending on whether it is spoken to a family member, a friend, or a
stranger.
 Power: Discourse analysts also examine how power relations are reflected in language
use. For example, how a manager speaks to an employee will likely differ from how the
employee speaks to the manager.
 Identity: Discourse can also be used to construct and maintain different identities. For
example, how a politician speaks in a campaign speech tends to differ from how they
speak to their constituents in a private meeting.

What is Discourse?
Before continuing, let’s establish what “discourse” really means.

Discourse is not just language. It’s the way we use language to communicate with each other in
social situations. It is a way to share our thoughts and ideas, build relationships, establish
culture, influence others, and create meaning in our world.

Think of discourse as the language tailored to social contexts. On one hand, language is a tool
to initiate social change or achieve specific objectives. For example, in political discourse,
people use persuasive language. A discourse analyst would study what’s said in these
situations to achieve particular outcomes, such as winning an election.

But language is not limited to achieving grand objectives. It’s also intertwined with our daily
interactions, leading discourse analysts to study how it’s used. Body language, pauses, and eye
contact (among others) help us position ourselves in regular conversations with others in day-
to-day life and to make meaning of the world.

Discourse analysis provides a lens through which we can view the many functions of language.
This includes shaping prevailing power structures, constructing societal narratives, influencing
our everyday dialogues, molding opinions, and more.

What Are Types of Discourse Analysis?

Discourse analysis is a broad, interdisciplinary field that includes various qualitative methods
for studying language use. Due to the ever-evolving nature of the field, scholars have varying
opinions on the specific number of discourse analysis types.

Some common approaches to discourse analysis include:

 Narrative Analysis
Narrative analysis is the study of how stories are told and how they shape our understanding of
the world. Narrative analysts are interested in story structure, content, and function. They may
also be interested in how stories are told in different social contexts and how they are used to
construct and maintain social identities and power relations.

For example, you might study how the story of Christopher Columbus is told in different
cultures and how it shapes people's understanding of heroism.

 Conversation Analysis (CA)

Conversation analysis studies everyday conversation. CA researchers are interested in the
micro-level details of conversation, such as turn-taking (speaking vs. listening), gaze (eye
contact), and body language. They may also be interested in how conversation is used to
achieve different social goals, such as building relationships, managing conflict, and
exchanging information.

If you’re a conversation analyst, you could study how people use turn-taking and gaze to
negotiate social status in a job interview.

 Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)

Critical discourse analysis focuses on the relationship between language and power. CDA
researchers are interested in how language is used to construct and maintain social inequalities.
They may also be interested in how language can be used to challenge and resist social
oppression.

You might study how politicians use language to construct and maintain social divisions in a
campaign speech. Think “us vs. them” or “haves vs. have-nots.”

 Foucauldian Discourse Analysis

Foucauldian discourse analysis is a type of CDA based on Michel Foucault's theories. Foucault
argued that discourse is not simply a tool for communication but that it also plays a role in
shaping our knowledge and understanding of the world. Foucauldian discourse analysts are
interested in how discourse is used to construct and maintain social norms and power relations.

If you’re a Foucauldian discourse analyst, you might study how medical discourse constructs
and maintains the power of doctors over patients.

 Rhetorical Analysis
Rhetorical analysis examines how language is used to persuade, inform, and entertain. It looks
at the speaker or writer's purpose, audience, and the strategies they use to achieve their
purpose. They may also be interested in the use of rhetorical devices, such as metaphors,
similes, and rhetorical questions.

In MLK’s “I Have A Dream” speech, he uses the metaphor of a "promissory note" to expose
the American government's hypocrisy. A rhetorical analyst may study how metaphors are used
in speeches to appeal to an audience's emotions.

 Ethnography of Communication
Ethnography of communication is a research approach that combines ethnography and
discourse analysis methods. Ethnographers of communication study how language is used in
different cultural and social contexts. They may be interested in how language is used to
construct and maintain relationships, negotiate social meaning, and perform social identities.

An ethnographer of communication might study how people use language to build

relationships and negotiate social meaning in a workplace setting.

 Pragmatics
Pragmatics is the study of how language is used in context. Pragmatists are interested in how
we use language to convey meaning beyond the literal meaning of the words we use. They may
be interested in the role of factors such as intonation, body language, and shared knowledge in
communication.

A pragmatist might study how speakers use intonation and body language like eye-rolling to
convey sarcasm or politeness.

 Variation Analysis
Variation analysis studies how language varies across different social groups and contexts. It is
interested in factors contributing to language variation, such as age, region, social class, and
gender. They may also be interested in the implications of language variation for social identity
and power relations.

Tomayto or tomahtoe? A variation analyst might study how the pronunciation of the word
"tomato" varies across different regions of the United States.

These approaches do occasionally cross paths. Narrative analysis and critical discourse
analysis can both be used to examine how language is used to construct identity. Conversation
analysis and ethnography of communication can both be used to examine how language is used
to negotiate power relations in social interactions.

While there is overlap between these sub-types, each maintains its unique focus and priorities,
offering different prisms through which to examine language use.

Where Different Discourse Analysis Types

Fit
In Gee’s view, all sub-methods of discourse analysis fit within the two broader approaches to
discourse analysis: 1) language-in-use and 2) socio-political.

Language-In-Use Approaches (How It’s Used)

You choose language-in-use approaches to focus on the linguistics of language use, such as
grammar, syntax, phonology, and structure. They aim to identify and analyze how these finer
language details are used and manipulated in social contexts.

Lee & Bhuyan (2013) show how conversation analysts analyze conversational markers by
coding conversation transcripts. They aim to code conversational markers according to their
function (e.g., turn-taking, overlap, exhalation, disagreement) and try to grasp how this
language is used to negotiate meaning and construct knowledge.
Figure 1. Transcription symbols in conversation analysis (Lee & Bhuyan, 2013, pp. 98-130)
Socio-Political Approaches (What’s Said)
Socio-political approaches to discourse analysis take a more philosophical stance. They are
primarily concerned with how language constructs and sustains societal power dynamics. It's
important to note that while politics is one focal point of socio-political methods, these
approaches have broader applications.

For instance, discourse analysts may use socio-political methods, like rhetorical analysis, to
study climate change discourse in scientific contexts. Supran and Oreskes (2021) examined
180 ExxonMobil climate-change communications promoting the "Fossil Fuel Savior" (FFS).
They revealed how the corporation employs climate "risk" rhetoric and consumer "demand" to
downplay climate change, normalize fossil-fuel consumption, and shift responsibility to
individuals.

Applying rhetorical analysis allowed the researchers to reveal the patterned framing of climate
change in scientific discourse, whether as a scientific, political, or moral issue.
Figure 2. Graphical abstract of Fossil Fuel Savior (FFS) Frame (Supran & Oreskes, 2021, pp. 696–719)
Here's a summary of how the specific approaches align with these broader categories:

Language-in-use approaches:

 Narrative analysis
 Conversation analysis
 Pragmatics

Socio-political approaches:

 Critical discourse analysis (CDA)

 Foucauldian discourse analysis
 Ethnography of communication
 Rhetorical analysis

Approach Type

Narrative analysis Language-in-use

Conversation analysis Language-in-use

Pragmatics Language-in-use

Critical discourse analysis (CDA) Socio-political

Foucauldian discourse analysis Socio-political

Ethnography of communication Socio-political

Rhetorical Analysis Socio-political

When to Use Discourse Analysis
Discourse analysis is used in linguistics, psychology, sociology, anthropology, communication,
education, and other fields.

Here are some common objectives of discourse analysis:

 To study how language creates and maintains social identities.

 To study how language creates and maintains power relations.
 To examine how language is shaped by and reflects social and cultural values.
 To analyze how language is used to construct and maintain social reality.
 To identify and understand the different ways in which language can be used to
persuade, inform, or entertain.
 To study the relationship between language and other social phenomena, such as
education, employment, and the media.

Materials For Discourse Analysis

You can apply DA to any instance of written or oral language, including non-verbal aspects of
communication like tones and gestures. Some examples include:

 Written texts
o Books, newspapers, periodicals, magazines, brochures, advertisements, business
and government documents, websites, forums, social media posts, and
comments.
 Spoken texts:
o Interviews, conversations, lectures, sermons, political speeches, and courtroom
testimony.

The following sections will cover how to analyze your materials for discourse analysis.

How to Do Discourse Analysis

There is no clear-cut method for conducting discourse analysis, as several approaches exist.
However, here are some fundamental steps for conducting a research study involving discourse
analysis.

SETUP
Step 1: Determine Your Research Approach
The first step is to choose a discourse analysis approach that aligns with your research
questions and objectives. Consider the broader context of your study, such as the field you are
working in and the type of data you will analyze when choosing an approach. You can choose
any of the seven subtypes listed above – or other options.

Step 2: Gather Data (Analytical & Contextual)

Once you have chosen an approach, you collect data. The type of data you collect will depend
on your research questions and the approach you are using. Common data sources include
interviews, surveys, social media posts, news articles, and academic papers. You can find a
comprehensive list of material options in previous sections.

You should also explore how the material was produced and the medium (political speech,
magazine, interview, etc.). By holistically considering all these elements, you gain a better
contextual understanding of your data.

Step 3: Prepare Your Data

Once you have collected your data, you should organize it for efficient analysis. If you are
using hard copies, make additional annotated versions. If you use digital data, create a system
for tagging and organizing your files.

The interpretive steps in discourse analysis can be time-consuming. It helps to organize your
data for easy reference by establishing a data-tracking process. There isn't a universal
approach.

For reference, language-in-use methods tend to annotate small text chunks for linguistic
features, numbering each line of text as a reference marker. Socio-political approaches tend to
use larger data sets to uncover larger, overarching ideas. You can organize the process
manually by pen and paper, using an Excel spreadsheet or word processor or QDA software
like Delve to streamline your data analysis.

Systemizing the research process will make it easier to navigate to the relevant passages in
your data during analysis. It also lets you start devising how to present reader-friendly results
in the write-up. Sunderland (2018) offers a simple outline of how one could organize data but
warns things are not always as neat as this table.

Figure 3. An example template for organizing discourse analysis (Sunderland, 2018, pp. 9 - 28)

ANALYSIS
Step 4: Contextualize Your Data
Your data was not created in a vacuum. Think back to our earlier example of the critical
discourse analyst studying centuries-old texts. They use language as the key to unlock broader
insights into the author's society, achieving a better understanding of the data's complete
context. Your data should include social, historical, and cultural background, as well as the
source's origin, language, and audience reception.

Here, the process actually began in step 2. Collecting information about material production
and its presentation medium is crucial for putting your data into context.
In this section, we've focused on discourse analysis as an example. Keep in mind that the
approach might look entirely different when dealing with language-in-use methods that stay
much closer to the text, such as conversation analysis or narrative analysis.

Step 5: Examine the Structure of the Text

After contextualizing your data, you analyze how the author has organized their ideas and
arguments. This forms its “structure,” which can provide further context.

Look for key sections where the main ideas are concentrated, and understand how they relate
to one another. You also want to analyze how the author or speaker presents arguments
through headings, formatting, introductions, and conclusions.

For example, you can identify the key arguments that the author is making and how they are
supporting those arguments. You can also identify the different viewpoints that are represented
in the text and how the author is negotiating those viewpoints.

Understanding the text structure, you can better understand the author's purpose and meaning.
It also helps improve the rigor of your qualitative analysis and results.

Tips for analyzing text structure:

 Read the text carefully and take notes. As you read, pay attention to the author's main
ideas and how they are organized. You may find it helpful to take notes or memos on
the key sections of the text and their connections to each other.
 Look for signal words and phrases. Signal words and phrases are used to indicate the
structure of a text. For example, words like "first," "second," and "third" often indicate
a chronological order. Words like "however," "on the other hand," and "in contrast"
often indicate a compare/contrast structure.
 Use graphic organizers. Graphic organizers can be helpful for visualizing the structure
of a text. Some common graphic organizers include flow charts, co-occurrence
matrices, Venn diagrams, and mind maps.

Step 6: Collect and Analyze Discursive Statements

After coding and analyzing text structure, you move on to collect and dissect discursive
statements. Let’s start here: what is a discursive statement?

Discursive statements are the basic building blocks of discourse. They are coherent units of
meaning that are used to construct and maintain social realities. Discursive statements can be
simple or complex, but they all share a common feature: they are sentences or phrases used to
convey ideas or arguments on a topic.

A discursive statement about climate change might be: "Climate change is a real and serious
threat to our planet." This statement is coherent and meaningful, and it expresses a clear
position on the issue of climate change.

Equally important are discourse strands, which are coherent sets of discursive statements that
are related to a particular topic or issue. They are often used to position a speaker or writer in
relation to a particular audience. Discourse strands are the overarching themes arising when
grouping related discursive statements.

A climate change discourse strand might include discursive statements like: "Human activities
cause climate change," "Climate change has global negative impacts," and "Climate change is
a real and serious threat to our planet."
This discourse strand is also coherent and meaningful, and it positions the speaker or writer as
someone who is concerned about climate change and believes that action needs to be taken to
address it.

Tips for using discursive statements:

 Uncover key messages in a text.

 Grasp the author's positioning concerning the audience.
 Reveal underlying values and assumptions.
 Understand how text constructs social reality.
 Identify discourse strands.

If you’re new to discourse analysis, start by analyzing discursive statements in different texts
like news articles or political speeches. This sharpens your ability to identify and analyze these
statements and deepens your grasp of discourse in various contexts.

Lenses For Analyzing Discursive Statements

Gee offers 28 lenses or “tools” to help dissect discursive sentences.[5] He suggests that by
using different lenses to frame and interpret data, we can better understand how language is
used to communicate, persuade, and construct meaning.

Here, you want to build upon the context gleaned during steps 3 and 4. Remember that
qualitative analysis is an iterative process. The more you can contextualize your research and
understand all frames of reference, the more rigorous your results become.

Here are some of the different lenses to choose from, each offering a unique perspective on the
structure and meaning of these sentences:

 Identify Linguistic and Rhetorical Mechanisms: Linguistic and rhetorical

mechanisms are what authors use to create and convey meaning in texts. These
tools/lenses include word groups, grammar features, rhetorical figures, direct and
indirect speech, modalities, and evidentiality.
o Word groups are combinations of words that have a specific meaning. For
example, the phrase "climate change" is a word group that refers to a specific
phenomenon.
o Grammar features are the rules that govern how words are combined to form
sentences. For example, the grammar feature of subject-verb agreement ensures
that the subject and verb of a sentence agree in number.
o Rhetorical figures are special ways of using language to create a particular
effect. For example, the rhetorical figure of simile is used to compare two things
using the words "like" or "as."
o Direct and indirect speech are two ways of reporting what someone has said.
Direct speech is when you repeat someone's words exactly, while indirect
speech is when you report what they said without using their exact words.
o Modalities are words that express the speaker's or writer's attitude towards the
truth of a statement. For example, the modal verb "may" expresses uncertainty,
while the modal verb "must" expresses certainty.
o Evidentiality is a way of expressing how the speaker or writer knows something.
For example, the word "saw" expresses that the speaker or writer witnessed
something directly, while the word "heard" expresses that the speaker or writer
heard something from someone else.
 Subject Lens: Explore why speakers choose specific subjects or topics and how they
convey their message about them. Consider whether alternative subjects could have
been chosen and why they weren't. Analyze how information is organized in terms of
subjects and predicates. Ask questions such as: "Why did the speaker select this
subject?" and "How does this choice affect the message?"
 Intonation Lens: Investigate how a speaker's intonation contour, which refers to the
rising and falling pitch patterns in speech, influences the meaning of their utterance.
Identify the idea units used, the placement of intonational focus (the part of the
utterance that carries the most emphasis), and what is foregrounded or backgrounded.
Examine the attitudinal and emotional meanings conveyed through intonation. When
dealing with written texts, read them aloud to determine the necessary intonation
contours for a complete understanding. Ask questions like: "How does the speaker's
intonation, or pitch patterns, affect the message?" and "What emotions or attitudes are
conveyed through intonation?"
 Frame Lens: After completing the discourse analysis, revisit the contextual aspects and
consider additional contextual information that may alter your analysis. Delve deeper
into the context to uncover relevant elements that may have initially been overlooked.
Ask yourself: "Is there more to the context that could change my analysis?"
 Doing and Not Just Saying Lens: Analyze how discursive sentences are employed to
achieve specific purposes, such as persuasion, information, or entertainment. Look
beyond the explicit content to understand the underlying intentions of the speaker, who
may have multiple objectives. Consider questions like: "What is the speaker trying to
accomplish beyond conveying information?" and "Are there multiple layers of intention
in the communication?"
 Stanza Lens: Study the organization and structure of discursive sentences within
individual sentences and larger texts. Stanzas refer to distinct sections of text within a
longer communication. Identify stanzas and their clustering within extended
communication to aid in organizing your interpretation of the data. Questions to
consider include: "How are discursive sentences organized within the text?" and "Do
stanzas provide a structural framework for the communication?"
 Activities Building Lens: Examine how discursive sentences contribute to the
construction and maintenance of social activities. Determine which practices or
activities the communication is promoting or performing. Consider the social groups,
institutions, and cultural norms that support and normalize these activities. Ask
questions like: "What social activities are being built or enacted through this
communication?" and "Who are the intended participants in these activities?"
 Identities Building Lens: Investigate how discursive sentences are used to shape and
uphold social identities. Identify the recognizable identities the speaker aims to enact or
make others acknowledge. Examine how the speaker addresses the identities of others
in relation to their own and the invitations for others to adopt specific identities. Key
questions include: "What social identities is the speaker trying to establish or
recognize?" and "How is the speaker positioning others in terms of identity?"
 Situated Meaning Lens: This lens examines how the meaning of discursive sentences
is shaped by the social context in which they are used. It focuses on the specific
meanings that listeners must attribute to words and phrases based on the contextual
interpretation. Questions to address include: "How does the social context shape the
meaning of words and phrases?" and "What specific meanings are attributed to
language in this context?"
 Figured World Lens: This lens analyzes how discursive sentences are used to create
and sustain figurative worlds, such as those found in stories, poems, or plays. It
identifies the assumed and implied typical stories or figured worlds that the
communication conveys and invites listeners to adopt. Explore the participants,
activities, interactions, language forms, people, objects, environments, institutions, and
 values within these figurative worlds. Ask questions like: "What kind of figurative
world is being constructed here?" and "What elements define the world within this
communication?"
 Big D Discourse Lens: Examine how discursive sentences are used to construct and
maintain broader social discourses, such as the discourse of science or politics. Analyze
how language, as well as actions, interactions, beliefs, values, and various objects and
technologies in specific environments, enact socially recognizable identities and engage
in socially recognized activities. Identify the Discourse (with a capital 'D') that this
language belongs to and understand the kind of identity the speaker or writer seeks to
enact. Questions to consider include: "What Discourse is this language part of?" and
"What type of identity is the speaker trying to establish or acknowledge?"
 Big C Conversation Lens: Investigate how discursive sentences contribute to the
creation and preservation of social conversations. Determine the assumed knowledge or
information that hearers or readers are expected to possess. Analyze the
communication's connection to broader historical and social issues, debates, and
discussions among Discourses. Questions to address include: "What issues and debates
does the communication assume its audience knows?" and "Is the communication
participating in a larger historical or social conversation?"

You can use these lenses to analyze discursive sentences in various ways. The linguistics and
rhetorical mechanism lens helps dissect how a politician persuades voters in a campaign
speech. The subject lens helps look at how news articles cover specific events. The figured
world lens unveils how poets create moods in their poems.

Identifying data through these different lenses helps you gain insights into the author's
intentions and how the text shapes meaning. All this information can be useful for
understanding the author's point of view, analyzing the effectiveness of a persuasive text,
identifying bias in news reporting, and more.

INTERPRETATION
Step 7: Interpret the Data
The final step in discourse analysis is to interpret your findings. This involves connecting your
findings to explain the essence and functionality of the discourse. You have spent the previous
steps considering the discourse's background, authorship, and societal implications. Now, you
tie it all together into a cohesive, well-organized write-up.

Step 8: Present Your Findings

Once you have interpreted your findings, you need to convey your results in an organized way.
This may involve writing a research paper, giving a presentation, or creating a multimedia
product. Be sure to emphasize the relevance of your findings and present a compelling case
supported by evidence from your analysis.

Framing the Analytical Process

Let’s connect the dots to wrap our heads around what is actually happening during the research
process.

Within discourse analysis, there are three main steps that occur:

1. Understanding context (Steps 1-4)

 2. Examining the structure (Step 5)
3. Dissecting statements with various lenses (Step 6)

In a nutshell, your analysis will involve honing in on individual statements while considering
the broader context. Think of this process as a pyramid.

Figure 3. Pyramid depicting the analytical heirarchy for discourse analysis ( Ho & Limpaecher, 2023)

 At the base of the pyramid lies the context. Every interview, document, or text is
situated within some context, be it cultural or otherwise.
 Moving up a level, we encounter the structure of these interviews, documents, or texts.
While they consist of discursive statements, these statements are part of a larger
rhetorical structure that's important to understand.
 At the apex of the pyramid are the statements themselves. Statements form the core of
texts, and discourse analysis offers various lenses that delve deeply into these
statements.

Advantages of Discourse Analysis

 Deeper Understanding: Discourse analysis helps you get beneath the surface of texts
and conversations. It reveals the underlying meanings and structures that may not be
immediately apparent, providing a richer grasp of the subject matter.
  Contextual Insight: By analyzing language within its context, you gain insights into
the social, cultural, and historical factors influencing communication. This makes it
particularly useful for understanding complex or sensitive issues.
 Exploring Power Dynamics: Discourse analysis is a powerful tool for uncovering
power imbalances and hierarchies in communication. It can highlight whose voices are
heard and whose are marginalized, shedding light on social injustices.
 Research Versatility: It's adaptable and can be applied to a wide range of materials.
From literature and politics to everyday conversations and social media, this versatility
allows you to explore various aspects of communication.

Disadvantages of Discourse Analysis

 Complexity: Discourse analysis can be intricate, demanding a deep understanding of
linguistic and social theories. This complexity might deter some researchers from using
it.
 Subjectivity: Interpretation plays a significant role, and different analysts may arrive at
varied conclusions when examining the same text. Subjectivity is inherent in qualitative
analysis, so you should take steps to validate your results, such as through peer
debriefing, reflexivity, or by using a mixed-method study.
 Time-Intensive: Comprehensive discourse analysis can be time-consuming, especially
for newcomers. It involves meticulous interpretation of texts and can be particularly
demanding for longer or more extensive materials.

Thematic Analysis vs. Qualitative Content

Analysis vs. Discourse Analysis
Discourse analysis is an interpretive approach for examining texts, differing from more
structured methods like qualitative content analysis and thematic analysis. It involves making
interpretations based on the material itself and your own contextual knowledge.

At a high level, discourse analysis takes a particularly close look at a particular conversation.
The corpus tends to be smaller because you generally dedicate a larger amount of time to
analyzing smaller amounts of data. Content analysis and thematic analysis tend to take a
broader look at themes across a large data set.

Here’s a more detailed explanation of each qualitative method:

Discourse Analysis
Discourse analysis is a broad approach that examines how language is used in social contexts
to create meaning. It is interested in how language is used to construct and maintain social
reality, power relations, and identity. Discourse analysts often use a critical lens to examine
language, paying attention to how it can be used to reproduce or resist social inequalities and
power dynamics.

Thematic Analysis
Thematic analysis is a qualitative approach that identifies and analyzes themes across a dataset.
Themes are patterns of meaning that occur in multiple parts of the data. Thematic analysts may
use a variety of methods to identify themes, such as coding and line-by-line analysis.
Qualitative Content Analysis
Content analysis is a systematic approach to analyzing the content of data. It is often used to
quantify the frequency of certain words or phrases in the data, as you would in summative
content analysis. Content analysts may also use coding to categorize the data into different
categories.

Here is an example of how to differentiate these qualitative methods:

Discourse analysis of a news article about a crime might examine how the language used in
the article constructs the victim and the perpetrator. It might also examine how the article uses
language to frame the crime and promote a particular viewpoint.

Thematic analysis would look at more than one news article. A thematic analyst could
identify themes in news articles across five different news outlets, examining how these themes
are represented differently by each news outlet.

Content analysis of the same news article might count the number of times that certain
keywords are used, such as "victim," "perpetrator," "crime," and "punishment.", comparing the
frequency of these words to other news articles about similar crimes.

In general, discourse analysis is more interested in the social and communicative aspects of
language, such as how it is used to convey power dynamics. Thematic analysis and content
analysis are more interested in the meaning and content of language, including identifying
overarching themes or patterns in the text.

Examples & Resources For Discourse

Analysis
It might be beneficial to look at practical instances of discourse analysis, as they have been
instrumental in creating the article you're currently reading. Here are some useful resources to
further your understanding of discourse analysis in qualitative research.

1. An Introduction to Discourse Analysis: Theory and Method (Gee 2011)

Gee is generally considered a leading voice in modern-day discourse analysis. His book serves
as an excellent introduction to discourse analysis. The book offers a comprehensive overview
of various methodologies and theories, presented in an easily understandable manner. You
also find valuable guidance on transcribing data for discourse analysis and effectively
conducting this type of analysis.

Samples of discourse analysis are included in later chapters. The glossary is a very handy
reference for new discourse analysts. We’ve included an excerpt from the book, which
highlights the significance of considering language use in discourse analysis.

Gee offers one example where a researcher initiates an interaction with a student. The student
is asked to explore the concept of light by using a lightbox to observe how a focused light
beam interacts with various plastic shapes, including a prism that creates a colorful rainbow
effect. Notational symbols are used to highlight speech features, which we explain below.

Gee also touches upon “stanzas,” which he describes as “tone units that deal with a single topic
or perspective, and which “appear to have been planned together.” Tone units are a set of
words said with one uniform intonation contour, meaning they are said as if they “go together.”
For instance, if a friend says, "I can't believe we're going to the beach!" In this sentence, "I
can't believe" and "we're going to the beach" are two-tone units. Each is said with the same
level of enthusiasm, making them feel like they "go together" in the conversation.

Gee shows that stanzas are created through interaction. He provides a simple example of how
discourse analysts can flesh out meaning from a language-in-use approach by applying the
Stanza Lens:

 Double slash (“//”): Tone unit is said with a rising or falling pitch of voice that sounds
“final,” as if a piece of information is coming to a finish.
 Underlined words: Carry the primary stress within their tone unit.
 Two periods (".."): Signify a noticeable pause.
 "Low pitch": Refers to the preceding unit being spoken at an overall low pitch.

Figure 4. Example of how to transcribe a stanza in discourse analysis (Gee, 2011, pp. 118)
While this example isn't from Gee's book, Medina (2005) used discourse analysis to interpret
Latina/o children's writing in role-play and explore issues related to identity and power in
drama. We offer this illustration to show how stanzas can be structured and defined, along with
the discourses she discovered within each stanza.
Figure 5. Extract defining and structuring stanzas in discourse analysis (Medina, 2005, pp. 109)
2. Discursive Psychology and Discourse Analysis (Potter 2012)
In this book, you'll find comprehensive examples that showcase the practical application of
discourse analysis. It also illustrates the common practice of transcribing data before
embarking on the analysis. The book serves as a valuable resource to see how discourse
analysis actually works in practice. In this extract, pay close attention to the line numbers on
the left. These lines are typically referred to in the analysis and interpretation of the data.

Figure 6. Extract showing how to use markers in transcribing data (Medina, 2005, pp. 109)
In this transcript example, "Dad" signals the call's end in the Announcement. He then provides
two dentist-related Accounts as to why. This indicates the need to close the call while also
showing care for Sue. Accounts help maintain relationships by highlighting the speaker's
consideration for the other person. It's a helpful example, but sometimes call closings are more
complex as people focus on the other's situation.

3. Conversation Analysis and Institutional Talk: Analyzing Data (Heritage

2004)
This is an influential book on how to conduct conversation analysis. It contains good examples
of how to conduct the analysis and how to interpret the data as well (see screenshots below). It
deals with various levels of analysis like turn-taking, the overall organization of the
interaction, sequence organization, and more.

This is a typical high-level text, which would commonly be found in graduate courses where
students are learning about discourse analysis. It is both theoretical and practical and a useful
guide for how to conduct a type of discourse analysis.

The following extract shows a typical way of transcribing data for discourse analysis. As in
Potter’s example, mind the line numbers on the left, as well as the specific notational devices
and markers discussed by Gee.

Figure 7. Line numbers in transcriptions for conversation analysis (Heritage, 2004, pp. 227)
The following extract displays a typical approach to presenting your analysis. The transcription
includes the referenced lines, structured into distinct sections. This emphasizes their
significance and enables readers to navigate to those parts quickly.
Figure 8. Presenting interpretations by referencing line numbers (Heritage, 2004, pp. 228)

Try Delve For Discourse Analysis

If you want to streamline your research and not rely on pen and paper, here are some tips for
using Delve to code your data for discourse analysis:

1. Start by creating a list of coding categories. These categories should be based on your
research questions and the theoretical framework you are using. As you code your data,
you may need to add or refine new categories.
2. Import your data into Delve. The software supports various data formats, including text
files, transcripts, and social media posts.
3. Assign codes to specific passages of text. You can do this by clicking on the passage
and selecting the appropriate code from the coding menu. You can also assign multiple
codes to a single passage.
4. Use Delve’s search and filtering features to analyze your data. You can search for all
passages that have been assigned a particular code or you can filter your data to only
show passages that have been assigned multiple codes.
5. Use Delve's other features to support your discourse analysis. For example, you can
take notes on your data, create transcripts, and generate visualizations.