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This course will explore the nature of written communication and various ways of investigating it. The class will first explore the relation between written and spoken language, genre and generic structure. Schema theory will be addressed, as well as the role of schemata in comprehension. The uses of several specific language features (including the use of verb tenses and of nominalizations) will be investigated in texts, and these language features will be related to larger text structures and/or to text quality. Both quantitative and qualitative techniques of textual analysis will be used. Implications for the classroom will he discussed.

Students will:

1. become acquainted with current theory concerning the nature of text and text understanding,

2. develop skills in analyzing written texts along several linguistic parameters,

3. examine texts produced both by proficient writers and by non-proficient writers.

1. Students will be expected to do three or four analyses of written texts. Each analysis will focus on specific language features.

2. Students will be expected to write a term paper exploring some aspect of written communication. This paper should involve both a survey of the extant literature and an analysis of primary data.

John Swales. 1990. Genre Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.