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Yet precisely how interpretation and response are carried out in the game of conversation remains a puzzle. The goal of discourse analysis, as broadly conceived, is to unravel this mystery: To describe the game, to illuminate its often obscure rules, to clearly mark out its boundaries and to identify its players, coaches and referees.

Conversation analysts study conversations - of all kinds. They are happy to put under the microscope anything from diagnosing schizophrenia to answering questions in court, and from talking over family matters at dinner to guiding a pilot through fog. All are done through talk.

A structuralist approach to media studies has the advantage of opening up many new areas for analysis and criticism. However, questions about structuralist assumptions and methods still remain, and we are seriously lacking in satisfactory answers, many of which remain beyond the scope of this investigation.

It is difficult to give a single definition of Critical or Discourse Analysis as a research method. Indeed, rather than providing a particular method, Discourse Analysis can be characterized as a way of approaching and thinking about a problem. In this sense, Discourse Analysis is neither a qualitative nor a quantitative research method, but a manner of questioning the basic assumptions of quantitative and qualitative research methods.

English Discourse e-journals are intended for purposes of teaching and research. We publish three separate editions: English Discourse in Composition English Discourse in Research English Discourse in Literature