Text in Their Social Contexts

Including Discourse Analysis in Qualitative Projects or

Catherine F. Schryer, Professor and Chair, Ryerson University, Toronto◦ cschryer@ryerson.ca

Genre Theorist –texts in their social contexts

Completed projects that combine discourse analysis and qualitative analysis◦ Negative letters, Case presentations, consulting

reports, forensic reports, dignity interviews, transplant list

Developed a model investigating texts in their social contexts

Investigated discursive forms of identity in medicine, social work and optometry (case presentations)

Investigated discursive strategies used to communicate across professional boundaries (reports, letters)

Investigating within healthcare team discursive strategies (lists, rounds, technology)

Genre theory (Miller, Bakhtin) allied with structuration theory (Bourdieu, Giddens)

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Genres-- constellations of regulated and regularized improvisational strategies triggered by the interaction between individual socialization or “habitus” and an organization or field

--trajectory entities through which participants negotiate their way through time and space

Jazz

Operationalize Bourdieu’s “social praxeology”

Two Steps◦ To represent objective structures that define

external constraints = Discourse Analysis

◦ To reintroduce lived experience of agents= Interviews and review of published material

Walking a Fine Line: Writing Negative Letters in an Insurance Company

◦ 26 letters

◦ 3 interviews

◦ wide ranging discourse analysis

Co-Management in Healthcare: Negotiating Professional Boundaries

◦ 75 letters and reports in pairs

◦ 14 interviews

◦ Focused discourse analysis—modality in verbs

The trial of the expert witness: Negotiating credibility in court documents in child abuse cases.◦ 82 letters

◦ Interviews:6 writers, 4 readers

◦ Focused discourse analysis on equatives

Hodge and Kress, 1993. Language as Ideology

“the grammar of a language is its theory of reality”

Actionals (relationships perceived in the real world)

◦ Transactives (SVO)

Mary (S) fires (V) John (O).

◦ Non-Transactives (SV)

Mary (S) falls down (V).

Relationals

◦ Equative

Mary is a terrorist. (noun)

◦ Attributive

Mary is evil. (adjective)

Transformation are never “innocent” and have two functions: “economy and distortion”

Three types◦ Nominalizations- Verb becomes a noun = Freeze process,

helps to hid agency Eg. The nurse documents the change. Vs. Documentation of

change exists.

◦ Passives – Loss of agency, accountability The radiologist performed the tests. (active) The tests were performed by radiologists. (passive) Tests were performed. (passive)

◦ Negation “There is not a tiger in this room” – implies that there could be

a tiger in the room.

Research Questions◦ What strategies constitute this genre?

◦ What strategies distinguish effective from ineffective letters?

◦ What kinds of agency do these letters create?

what you, the reader, could do, be, or have

what we, the company, could do, be, or have

what other entities (doctors, files, documents) could do, be, or have.

Effective

Average

Ineffec Total

L 25 L 20 L18 L10 L2 L1

Trans 6 6 2 3 2 4 23

Non tran

10 0 0 3 2 2 17

Attrib 2 2 0 1 3 3 11

Nominal

7 5 3 2 2 2 21

Passive 0 0 2 2 2 2 6

Negative

2 2 1 1 2 1 9

A world in which you the reader could apply your claim, make a request, give reasons and obtain documents

And sometimes you could get better

Effective

Average

Ineffect

L25 L20 L18 L10 L2 L1 Total

Trans 9 3 3 1 5 5 26

Non Tran

2 2 4 1 0 0 9

Attrib 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Nomin 1 0 0 2 4 4 8

Passive 3 4 6 3 5 5 23

Negative

1 2 3 4 1 1 12

We the company could inform you, conclude that your are capable (or not), terminate your claim, decide your case, decline your claim.

Effective

Average

Ineffect

L25 L20 L18 L10 L2 L1 Total

Trans 3 6 8 2 3 5 27

Non Tran

0 2 0 1 2 4 9

Attrib 4 1 1 3 2 6 17

Nominal

12 12 15 5 12 16 73

Passive 4 4 2 3 7 3 23

Negative

3 1 1 0 3 3 11

“The current findings available indicate that your depression appears to be stable”

“All the evidence provided to us indicates that there is no major limitation preventing you from returning to some non-stressful occupation.”

Therefore, we must decline your claim for long term disability benefits.

We are unable to continue your claim…

We will be terminating your claim…

When the Americans and the Japanese went to war, we had to evacuate the Western coast and we had to stay 100 miles away from the coast. Some were sent to camps, others chose to just come out east. And in my family’s case they came to Toronto. Others went to Montreal. We called that evacuation. And when we came out here it was a different place . . . at that time, there were several very intelligent young men who graduated and, because of the war situation, they got no job except maybe gardening or mundane type work. But my people were strong. (4)

General research question◦ What are the discursive strategies used by

healthcare providers to negotiate meaning across professional boundaries?

Physicians writing to social workers, police, courts regarding their opinion as to whether a child had suffered maltreatment

Physicians not allowed to “diagnose” child abuse– legal category

Accreditation, credibility issues

Qualitative data analysis of interviews–using Nvivio◦ Data from the theme of Credibility –instances where

participants reflected on the letters as conveying certainty or uncertainty

Letter analysis – using Wordsmith◦ 72 letters focusing on physical abuse divided into 3

categories: positive evidence of abuse; some concern for abuse; no evidence

◦ Located evaluative adjectives and adverbs; Tracked their use across the three categories

Lexeme # instances # & % corpus

# & % eg/cat

# & % category

Apparently 7 5; 7% 7; 100% 5; 13%

Consistent 186 55;73% 147; 79% 37; 95%

Highly 14 10; 13% 14; 100% 10: 26%

Possibly 18 7; 9% 18; 100% 7; 18%

Reportedly 72 24;32% 57; 79% 17; 44%

Representative

21 12; 16% 20; 95% 11:28%

Suggestive 6 5; 7% 6; 100% 5; 13%

Surprising 5 3; 4% 5; 100% 3; 8%

Suspicious 18 13;17% 18; 100% 13; 33%

Typical 11 9; 12% 9; 82% 7; 18%

Evaluative lexemes are more prevalent in letters indicating abuse.

Words such as apparently, highly, possibly, probably, serious, suggestive, surprising, suspected, suspicious, uncommon, and unexplained only appear in those letters.

Much of the boundary work is conducted through evaluative lexemes that both constrain interpretation but leave room for alternative interpretations – eg highly suspicious.

by flying by the seat of my pants.

Parameters or selection criteria◦ Research question

◦ Time

◦ Writers, readers

◦ Genre, text type

Exclusions◦ Genre – not the same social action

Big enough for analysis, but not too large

Immersion in data set

Looking for possible patterns

Intuitive

Can use a concordance software package Warning: They do not do analysis for you!

Select concepts

Create definitions of concepts

Find paradigm examples

Sort data into categories

Double check analysis

See where data fall

Make sense of it all

Once data collapsed into large data sets you will probably have to refine your categories

Examples◦ Compared data patterns in “effective” and

“ineffective” letters

◦ Compared different usage patterns in letters and reports

◦ Compared differing strategies in forensic letters (diagnosing abuse, uncertain, no abuse).

Two large data bases result

Can feel like “overwhelmosis”

Strategy: Emphasize one over the other

Result –one theme from interview data that helps explain context

Raid respectfully◦ Understand context of definitions

Work with a linguist if possible

Do homework

Check analysis with a linguist

To SSHRC for supporting this research

To you for attending