Stylistics and Discourse Analysis

Welcome to LANG A332 Stylistics and Discourse Analysis.

This course is a full-year, ten-credit, higher-level course for HKMU students seeking one of the following degrees:

• Bachelor of Arts in Language and Translation (BALT); or
• Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Language and Translation (BAHLT).

Although LANG A332 Stylistics and Discourse Analysis is a higher-level course, there is no specific prerequisite for enrolment in the course. You are advised, however, to have completed ENGL A202 The Structure of Modern English or its equivalent before taking LANG A332.

Purpose of this Course Guide

As LANG A332 might be the first course that you have taken through Hong Kong Metropolitan University (HKMU), you might not be aware of the study skills required for distance learning and how HKMU courses are organized. If you have taken HKMU courses before, then you should be well aware of both of these issues. Whichever group you belong to, however, please read this Course Guide thoroughly before you look at the study units or your textbooks.

This Course Guide briefly tells you what the course is about and how you can work your way through the course materials. It suggests the amount of time you will likely need to spend to complete the course and it will give you a general idea of when your assignments are due. For detailed information on assignments, however, please refer to the Assignment File, and for information concerning due dates and cut-off dates for work to be submitted please refer to the Presentation Schedule.

About the course

LANG A332 aims to introduce you to the disciplines of stylistics and discourse analysis. It introduces the basic concepts in these fields and develops a practical and principled approach to the analysis of both written and spoken language.

The course moves sequentially through four main areas, with an emphasis on text analysis in the first part of the course.

1. You will be introduced to sentence level analysis of text and then to the analysis of larger units of written language.
2. You will be shown how the concept of discourse is then broadened to include important socio-cultural and cognitive dimensions.
3. You will develop an understanding of how stylistic features and devices can be used by authors and readers, and speakers and listeners, to recover meaning from text and spoken discourse.
4. Finally, you will be introduced to the new technological affordances of the Internet age and computer mediated conversation, and the effect this is having on how we approach discourse analysis and stylistics.

The study units, textbooks, self-tests and assignments will help you master the topics over a period of approximately 40 weeks.

Course aims

LANG A332 aims to introduce you to the disciplines of stylistics and discourse analysis. It introduces the basic concepts in these fields and develops a practical and principled approach to the analysis of both written and spoken language.

Course learning outcomes

To clarify, the outcomes now are:

1. Analyse the basic concepts and main theoretical developments in stylistics and discourse analysis.
2. Examine and interpret in depth the different types of written texts, using textual, socio-cultural and cognitive approaches to text analysis.
3. Employ basic concepts in the analysis of naturally occurring spoken discourse.
4. Discuss the main implications of the social and cultural context for the interpretation of meaning in both written and spoken discourse.
5. Review the relationships between discourse and new technology in the 'information age'.

The following 'Course overview' includes the ten topics or units that are covered in the course, the weeks of study for each unit, and the assessment schedule for the course.

Course overview

The following table gives a general overview of the course structure.

As well as this Course Guide and the ten study units, the course materials include the following:

• two set textbooks (which you are required to purchase)
• supplementary materials which are included in the study units
• various online readings
• An Assignment File
• A Presentation Schedule.

Set textbooks

There are two compulsory textbooks for LANG A332:

Gee, J P (2014) An Introduction to Discourse Analysis: Theory and Method, 4th edn, London: Routledge.

Wright, L and Hope, J (1996) Stylistics: A Practical Coursebook , London: Routledge.

Supplementary readings

Selected sections from supplementary sources may be introduced where appropriate.

Online readings

You will be directed to relevant websites and articles located on the Web for self-study purposes.

The Assignment File

Assignment details are contained in your Assignment File. The general nature of these assignments is described in the 'Assignments' section below. You must complete your assignments and send them to your tutor in accordance with the timetable provided in the Presentation Schedule. You are encouraged to submit your assignments via the Online Learning Environment (OLE). You can also send them by mail (together with an Assignment Form).

The Presentation Schedule

You can find the Presentation Schedule for this course on the OLE. In this schedule, you will see the dates by which your tutor must receive your assignments. Please note that you must submit all your assignments in time to reach your tutor by the dates shown in the Assignment File.

How to work through the course material

You should pay particular attention to this Course Guide and all instructions in the study units. You should make every effort to attend all your tutorials where you will meet other 'distant' learners.

Study units

You should read the study units carefully as they guide your learning and tell you how to approach any assignment related to the unit. Otherwise, you may miss important information. You must read both the study units and the textbooks — they are not alternatives. Moreover, you should also read articles related to the topics — the more widely you read, the better your appreciation and understanding of the course will be.

Each unit is divided into a number of sections. The first section provides an introduction of the unit. The next sections constitute the contents of the unit. These sections will guide your learning. The final section contains the unit summary, references, a glossary and answers to the self-tests and activities.

Self-tests and activities

You will come across non-assessed self-tests and activities in each of the study units. These are designed to help you remember and apply what you have learned and to prepare for your assignments and the examination. The self-test questions provide you with immediate feedback on your understanding of subject matter just learned. By answering these questions and referring to the suggested answers (included at the end of every unit), you can check your progress accordingly. However, you should attempt all questions before referring to the answers.

Checking understanding

After you have finished the unit, please check whether you have achieved the set objectives. If you encounter any problems, please make notes and raise these with your tutor as soon as possible.

Your assessment for this course is made up of two components — continuous assessment (i.e. assignments) and a three-hour final examination. You must pass both components to achieve a pass in the course. The course is designed to help you progress easily from the required readings to the assignments and examination. You will be required to apply the information and techniques learned during the course when doing the assignments.

There will be altogether four assignments, and the best three will account for 50% of your final course grade. The assignments must be submitted to your tutor for formal assessment according to the deadlines stated in the Presentation Schedule. Note that the table in the 'Course overview' section found earlier in this Course Guide gives you an indication of when your assignments are due, but please check your Presentation Schedule for the official and exact dates. (Note that the non-assessed self-test questions are not part of your formal assessment, but you should do them before progressing to the assignments.)

Assignments

During the 36-week period of distance learning, the submission of the four assignments serves three purposes:

1. Assignments provide a mechanism for you to maintain your progress through the course.
2. Assignments test your understanding of the topics.
3. Assignments also provide an opportunity for you to apply what you have learned by completing some application work and analysis.

Assignments, after being marked by the assigned tutor, are returned to you so that you can be aware of your mistakes and clarify any misunderstandings. In addition, you can also broaden your perspective through your tutor's feedback. Assignments generally consist of essay-style questions, problem-solving exercises and case analyses.

How to do your assignments

For each assignment, please read through the questions and the instructions accompanying them in the Assignment File. Read the questions carefully and make sure you understand what is required before attempting them. Please make sure that each assignment reaches your tutor on or before the deadline. However, if you cannot finish your assignment on time, you must contact your tutor before the deadline to discuss the possibility of an extension. Your tutor may grant you an extension of up to seven days. If more time is needed, you must obtain approval from the Course Coordinator or the Dean of the School of Arts and Social Sciences. The Course Coordinator is authorized to grant an extension of up to three weeks from the due date, but for anything beyond three weeks you must apply formally to the Dean. No marks will be awarded for any late assignments without prior approval obtained from the tutor, Course Coordinator or the Dean.

If your assignments call on you to write a 'research-type' paper, you must be careful when you use other sources in your research. If you commit plagiarism, you will be penalized severely. Plagiarism is the theft of somebody else's work or ideas. This applies just as much to using the work of other students as it does to the authors of books. However, you may include parenthetical references to the works you cite, e.g. (Wright and Hope 1996, 38). If you do, you should include a section at the end of your assignment called 'References' where the full name, title, date and place of the publication appear.

The correct way to cite a reference is:

Wright, L and Hope, J (1996) Stylistics: A Practical Coursebook . London : Routledge.

Final examination

The final examination for this course (which will be a closed book examination) will be three hours long and counts for 50% of the total course grade. You should use the time between finishing the last unit of the course and the examination to review the entire course. You might find it useful to review your self-tests, assignments and your tutor's comments on them before sitting for the examination. You will be advised of examination arrangements after you send in your examination registration card.

The final examination covers information from all parts of the course and will be in a form you have already experienced in self-tests and assignments. Do not worry that the examination will contain tricky questions. That would not be consistent with the clear, open approach the HKMU takes to help its learners succeed in their studies.

To earn a pass grade for the course, an overall mark of 40% or better is required, but you must attain an average mark of 40% or better on the assignments and a mark of 40% or better on the final examination. An average mark of 40% on the continuous assessment component is required before you are permitted to sit for the exam. You are therefore advised to submit all assignments and to sit for the examination. If, for some good reason, you are not able to complete all assignments or sit for the examination, contact your Course Coordinator to see if alternative arrangements can be made.

The following table gives a summary of LANG A332's assessment components.

Tutors conduct face-to-face non-compulsory tutorial sessions with a group of students (approximately 30) over the duration of the course as per the tutorial schedule. At these sessions, key course concepts are reviewed and reinforced, group and individual exercises are conducted, topical issues are discussed, individual student questions are answered, and assistance is provided relative to assignments.

Tutors also make themselves available for weekly telephone contact at a time and phone number arranged with their tutorial groups. In addition to tutorial work and telephone tutoring, tutors mark the assignments according to marking criteria provided by the Course Coordinator. Tutors are encouraged to provide you with comprehensive and timely feedback. The Course Coordinator is responsible for training the tutors, providing marking criteria, monitoring a sample of marked assignments and providing feedback to the tutors.

Twenty hours of tutorial support (10 two-hour sessions) will be provided for students of LANG A332 Stylistics and Discourse Analysis. Tutorials are not compulsory but you are strongly urged to attend them all.

In addition to the tutorials, there are supplementary lectures on topics relevant to the course materials, aiming to enrich your learning experience.

You are encouraged to put the following strategy into practice for working through LANG A332:

1. Read this Course Guide carefully. Check the suggested study schedule and mark down important dates like assignment due dates and tutorial dates. Try to keep up with the schedule and meet the dates.
2. Start the first study unit. Read the introduction of the unit.
3. Work through the unit. The unit embodies a suggested sequence of study, but you can revise it to suit your own judgement and strategy.
4. Read the text, readings and check websites whenever the unit suggests you do so.
5. Attempt the activities and self-tests included in each section. Then check the feedback given at the end of the unit, and consider the discussions.
6. Review the objectives for the unit to confirm that you have achieved them. Review the study materials and/or talk to your tutor if you are not sure that you have met the expectations.
7. Turn to your Assignment File and complete the assignments according to the instructions. Submit your work before the due date.
8. After you have turned in your assignment, do not wait. Start working on the next unit. Note that only in this way can you keep on schedule.
9. After your assignment has been marked and returned to you, read through it and pay particular attention to your tutor's comments and queries. Clarify any doubts immediately by phoning your tutor.
10. After completing the last unit, review the whole course and prepare yourself for the final examination. Check again that you have met the course objectives and unit objectives.

You need to be regular in your study, because this is the only way you can keep what you have learned fresh in your mind — and keep on schedule. Note that time is tight but that time is in your own hands! You also need to be active in thinking, and always ask 'why' The exercises in the units will stimulate your thinking, but you also need to challenge yourself to further your understanding of the logic underlying the study materials.

LANG A332 has been designed to introduce you to the disciplines of stylistics and discourse analysis. It has been structured to take you from the basic concepts in these fields through to the development and implementation of a practical and principled approach to the analysis of both written and spoken language.

We hope you enjoy studying stylistics and discourse analysis and find it useful in your daily life. You might find some units of the course easy, but some are more difficult and challenging. Although you have to depend on yourself to get through the course, assistance from Hong Kong Metropolitan University is always available and your tutor is ready to help.

We wish you every success!

A note about the course developer

Dr Michael Courtney has a BA (Hons) from the University of East Anglia in the UK, an MA in Applied Linguistics and Stylistics from the University of Essex in the UK, and a PhD in Applied Linguistics from City University, Hong Kong. He has over 30 years teaching and research experience in applied linguistics and language education in Europe, the Middle East, mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia (including 15 years experience teaching and researching in Hong Kong and mainland China). Dr Courtney is currently a lecturer and academic advisor for the University of Hertfordshire School of Management and Business, and external examiner for the Department of Management Studies at Hong Kong University (SPACE). He is also engaged in publication and research in relation to business and professional communication issues and employability agendas. He recently published a professional communication skills course for Chinese universities. He has taught professional communication and academic writing for international postgraduates at Imperial College in London. He has also taught at both secondary and tertiary levels in the UK and Hong Kong and published widely on the application of linguistic theory to language teaching practice, particularly in relation to oral language development. His research has focused on conversation analysis and oral task design and evaluation, based on interactive approaches to performance assessment.