Reasoning with Rapley

Thank you, Tim Rapley, for making sense of this new world of discourse analysis!

After reading the first five chapters of Rapley's Doing Conversation, Discourse and Document Analysis I have more answers, more rationale, and more questions -- my favorite signs of learning-in-process. Here are a few of my new beginnings at sense-making.

When analyzing discourse, I am focused on "how language is used in certain contexts" (p. 2). I am able to view language as constructive - it produces the world I/we live in. The social constructionist traditions tell me that my "understanding of things... is not somehow natural or pre-given but rather is the product of human actions and interactions, human history, society and culture" (p. 4). Further, this knowledge is created by me and by my interactions with others. It is "performative and functional" (p. 7). My goal in discourse analysis is to examine "how the specific thing [I am] interest in routinely occurs or 'comes off' as it does" (p. 21).

Dr. Paulus' references to how people "work up" a "performance" of their identity in action is beginning to make sense. How do I "perform" researcher, student, teacher, etc. in my everyday activities and language use? I invoke certain societal norms when I address my class and say, "Let's get started." The students know how to perform the student role and I know how to perform the teacher role. If I were studying such an interaction, I should look for the unusual, the inconsistent, the disruptions of that performance. Or, I might look at the language in use of these performances to see what they might say about the culture of "doing school." Be patient with me, followers, I am just beginning to understand...