306G W18 McMurry

ENGL 306G

306G W18 McMurry

ENGLISH 790       CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS       WINTER 2018

Dr. Andrew McMurry

HH 265,  Office hours: Monday 1:00—2:30, Tuesday 2:00—3:00 ext. 32121      amcmurry@uwaterloo.ca

Course description:

This course will provide students with an introduction to the theories, methods, and materials of critical discourse analysis. CDA takes the view that all discourses reproduce and recirculate dominant social and political formations, that, in essence, everyday language practices and hegemonic ideologies are deeply interwoven. Case studies in this course will be derived from a variety of sources, including politics, business, environmental discourse, literature, media, television, film, and video games.

Texts:

How to Do Critical Discourse Analysis, David Machin and Andrea Mayr

Other texts will be posted to our Learn website

Assignments:

25%: Midterm test on key concepts and terminology

25% + 5%: Field study and presentation—the field study is your examination, using CDA approaches, of some discourse that you tracked over the term. The write-up should be about 2000 words, and the presentation of your results should take no more than 10 minutes.

35%: Final exam—this will be a take-home consisting primarily of a few essay-type questions.

10%: Contribution to class—may include in-class discussions, short response papers/quizzes, posts on Learn site (no late submissions).

Schedule (the updated schedule with student presentations and oral exam dates and times will be posted on ACE):

Date

Topics

Readings/Activities

Jan 3

Introduction

 

Jan 8

Discourse & ideology

Ch 1

Jn 10

Words

Ch 2

Jan 15

Images

Ch 2

Jan 17

Verbs

Ch 3

Jan 22

People

Ch 4; mini-field trip

Jan 24

People

Ch 4

Date

Topics

Readings/Activities

Jan 29

Action

Ch 5

Jan 31

Action

Ch 5

Feb 5

Nominalization

Ch 6

Feb 7

Rhetoric

Ch 7

Feb 12

Truth

Ch 8

Feb 14

 

midterm concept test

Feb 19

Reading week

no class

Feb 21

Reading week

no class

Feb 26

Consumerism

 

Feb 28

Political discourse

 

Mar 5

Climate change

 

Mar 7

Gender relations

 

Mar 12

Video games

 

Mar 14

Literature

field study due (lateness = 10% per day)

Mar 19

Presentations

 

Mar 21

Presentations

 

Mar 26

Presentations

 

Mar 28

Presentations

 

Apr 2

Presentations

 

Apr 4

Catch-up/Exam preview

 

The Fine Print:

Academic Integrity: In order to maintain a culture of academic integrity, members of the University of Waterloo are expected to promote honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility.

Discipline: A student is expected to know what constitutes academic integrity, to avoid committing academic offences, and to take responsibility for his/ her actions. A student who is unsure whether an action constitutes an offence, or who needs help in learning how to avoid offences (e.g., plagiarism, cheating) or about “rules” for group work/collaboration should seek guidance from the course professor, academic advisor, or the Undergraduate Associate Dean. When misconduct has been found to have occurred, disciplinary penalties will be imposed under Policy 71 – Student Discipline. For information on categories of offenses and types of penalties, students should refer to Policy 71 - Student Discipline.

Grievance: A student who believes that a decision affecting some aspect of his/her university life has been unfair or unreasonable may have grounds for initiating a grievance. Read Policy 70 - Student Petitions and Grievances, Section 4.

Appeals: A student may appeal the finding and/or penalty in a decision made under Policy 70 - Student Petitions and Grievances (other than regarding a petition) or Policy 71 - Student Discipline if a ground for an appeal can be established. Read Policy 72 - Student Appeals.

Other sources of information for students:

Academic Integrity website (Arts) Academic Integrity Office (UWaterloo)

Accommodation for Students with Disabilities

Note for students with disabilities: The AccessAbility Services office, located on the first floor of the Needles Hall extension, collaborates with all academic departments to arrange appropriate accommodations for students with disabilities without compromising the academic integrity of the curriculum. If you require academic accommodations to lessen the impact of your disability, please register with the AS office at the beginning of each academic term.