Work in my absence Mon - investigation analysis support

Analyticals,

I'm sorry I still can't be with you. You need to be principally working on your analysis for your coursework, so here's some support (see tasks in bold a tthe bottom of the post). Keep chipping away at everything else too. Please let me know if anything is unclear because I am really poorly and struggling.

Remember this is an investigation, not an essay. In the draft you submit to me, the analysis needs to be sub-divided under sub-headings that are not related to which piece of data you are looking at e.g. transcript 1, transcript 2, but instead are sub-headings that will help you to explore your hypothesis. This means that you need to give an overview of the data in each section of the analysis (under each sub-heading), not explore each piece of data seperately (although of course you will need to do that in the early stages - see my post on quantifying the data).

Basically, to structure the analysis section you need to 1) choose sub-headings 2) present quantified data in the form of tables/charts and then 3) explore those findings PEE+theory+context, relating it all to your hypothesis.

Choosing sub-headings:

• consider how you are testing your hypothesis e.g. if you are looking at the use of CDS, your subheadings might be 'interrogatives',' child-led discourse', and 'simplification and diminutives' (notice that they are features of CDS across a range of frameworks that I know to be significant in my data and that will allow me to explore the uses of CDS in the transcripts in a structured, comparative way)
• they don't necessarily need to be techniques, they could be key questions e.g.  'In which ways is dominance established by the dominant participant?' (Notice that this question allows the exploration of not only who may be the dominant participant in each of the transcripts but how they achieve this and could call for more subheadings under this key question.)
• the quantifying you have done should lead you to choose these headings thoughtfully because it should point you to the significant or puzzling findings that need exploration with PEE

Tables/charts

• tables and charts are an important part of your analysis - they help provide evidence of all the thinking you have been doing in order to test your hypothesis and are the basis for your findings
• they should represent the most interesting of your quantified data and should help you to explain why you have chosen to focus on particular areas of the data e.g. if you are looking at gendered language in written texts, you might have a table of which lexical fields dominate and then choose to explore the top two with PEE analysis 
• they should be introduced at the start of the section in a clear and useful way that establishes why they are interesting/useful and an overview of what they show
• they should be positioned where they will be useful to the reader of your investigation and referred to in the analysis, not just be for show
• ensure that they reflect how much data you have e.g. percentages are useful but ranges in addition clarify how significant differences are (see my quantification of data post)

PEE

• because of the word-limit, you need to be highly selective about what you explore: pick significant or puzzling findings and look at quotes in context (AO3 out of 20 marks - for tentatively exploring how meanings and representations are affected by social, cultural issues etc.), applying all relevant theories (AO2 out of 15 marks) and exploring techniques using terminology, clearly guiding the reader (AO1 out of 15 marks).
• always relate your explorations back to your hypothesis - remember, that's what the investigation is about - how far is your hypothesis supported/contradicted (not proven/disproven because it is such a small investiagtion) by the data you have collected?

Please post any quantified findings you have discovered (in note form but clear to a reader who doesn't know what you are investigating) and possible sub-headings by Wednesday for me to look at as soon as I can and for the rest of the class to learn from and comment on with suggestions and questions. Comment on at least three posts by Friday.

You may go over the word-count at the drafting stage but it is better to have more that you can select the best bits from to raise the consistency of the quality of the overall piece. You might end up leaving out a whole sub-heading in order to go into more depth on the others... but it is great to have that option - all the work you do improves your skills so nothing is wasted.

Email me if you need to, as always, and I will get back to you when I can.