Kawa Sherwani

Characteristics of written discourse

• Written discourse is organized and grammatical.
• Written discourse is more structurally complex and more elaborate than
spoken discourse .
• Sentences in spoken discourse are short and simple, whereas they are
longer and more complex in written discourse.
• Embedded sentences is more of a written discourse characteristic which
means having clauses in the sentence.
• Lexical density: written discourse is more lexically dense than spoken
discourse. Lexical density means the ratio of content words (nouns,
verbs, adjectives, and adverbs) to grammatical or function words
(pronouns, prepositions, articles) within a clause.
Genre?
Genre Analysis?

• The French word “genre” means “kind”.

• Genre is a type of discourse (written or spoken), i.e., an essay, a
poem, a recipe, an email, a speech, a tweet, etc.
• These are all different types (or categories) of discourse, and each one
has its own format, type of words, tone, and so on.
• Analyzing a type of writing (or genre) is considered a genre analysis.
• Genre analysis is the study of the social functions of different kinds of
texts. Here, genre analysis is similar to discourse analysis.
 Genre conventions:

Genre conventions include the following components:

• Tone: tone of voice, i.e. serious, humorous, scholarly, informal.
• Diction: word usage - formal or informal.
• Content: what is being discussed/demonstrated in the piece?
• Style / Format (the way it looks): long or short sentences? Bulleted list?
Paragraphs? Short-hand? Abbreviations? Does punctuation and grammar matter?
• Expected Medium of Genre: where does the genre appear? Where is it
created? i.e. can it be online (digital) or does it need to be in print (computer
paper, magazine, etc.)
• Audience: What audience is this piece of writing trying to reach?
• Purpose: What is the goal of the piece of writing? What is its purpose?
 NARRATIVE

• A fictional text used in a variety of modes to amuse, entertain, and to deal with
actual or vicarious (imaginative) experience in different ways.
• Narrative means story telling which contains discourse and power relations.
• Unlike exemplum, the significance of the events lies in the manner of their
construction in the text (how the story is told).
What is narrative analysis?
Example

• For example, if you were interested in understanding

the experiences and beliefs of individuals suffering social
marginalization, you could use narrative analysis to look at the
narratives and stories told by people in marginalized groups to
identify patterns, symbols, or motifs that shed light on how they
rationalize their experiences.
Narrative Data

• The data can be obtained from various sources like stories,

newspapers, letters, autobiographies, visuals and even basic and
deep conversations between individuals. The collected data is then
analyzed to reveal how people express themselves and what kind of
narrative they have.
 COHERENCE and COHESION
• Cohesion is the grammatical and lexical linking within a text or
sentence that holds a text together and gives it meaning.
• Coherence is the logical connection between parts of a text that
facilitates meaning making.
Cohesive devices:
 Thematic progression

 Thematic progression refers to the way in which the Theme of a

clause may pick up or repeat a meaning from a preceding
theme and rheme. According to Martin and Rother in Paltridge
(2000:140), there are three kinds of thematic progression
patterns, they are:
1. Theme reiteration/constant theme
2. Zig-zag/linear theme pattern
3. Multiple theme/split rheme pattern
THEME REITERATION/CONSTANT THEME

This pattern shows that the first theme is picked up and repeated in
the beginning of the next clause. This pattern can be seen below:
Theme 1 Rheme 1

Theme 2 Rheme 2

Theme 3 Rheme 3

Theme 4 Rheme 4

Theme 5 Rheme 5
 ZIG-ZAG/LINEAR THEME PATTERN
It is a pattern when the subject matter in the rheme of one clause is
taken up in the theme of the following clause. This pattern can be
seen below:
Theme 1 Rheme 1

Theme 2 Rheme 2

Theme 3 Rheme 3

Theme 4 Rheme 4

Theme 5 Rheme 5
 MULTIPLE THEME/SPLIT RHEME
PATTERN
In this pattern, a rheme may include a number of different pieces of information, each of
which may be taken up as the theme in a number of subsequent clauses. This pattern can be
seen below:
Theme 1 Rheme 1

Theme 2 Rheme 2

Theme 3 Rheme 3

Theme 4 Rheme 4

Theme 5 Rheme 5
Examples of THEME REITERATION/CONSTANT THEME

John (these) is teaching chemstry (rheme). He teaches

at a secondary school. He likes his students. He is from
Calefornia. He is married and has two daughetrs.
Example of ZIG-ZAG/LINEAR THEME PATTERN

John (theme) is teaching Chemstry (rheme) . Teaching

this topic (theme) is very intersting (rheme). Interseting
classes (theme) are ususally over-crowded classes
(reheme). Large classes (theme) are difficult to be
controled by teachers (reheme). Strict teachers (theme)
can easily control classes (rheme).
Example of MULTIPLE THEME/SPLIT RHEME PATTERN

John is teaching chemstry. Chemstry is a usefule

science. It is used in many industries now. It can be
helpful in producing drugs. It is also used in food
industry.
 Assignment

• Write three paragraphs about yourself:

• First paragraph: use REITERATION/CONSTANT THEME

• Second paragraph: use ZIG-ZAG/LINEAR THEME PATTERN

• Third paragraph: use MULTIPLE THEME/SPLIT RHEME PATTERN