Discourse Analysis Essay Final

   Svitlana Chaykivska

   Dr. S. Chandler

   English 3029

   04/18/2012

Discourse Analysis Essay “Chat Room”

            One of the method of research analysis is the discourse analysis method 

which gives an opportunity to evaluate dialogue in a meaningful way. Everyone 

who analyzes a transcript will reach conclusions based on his/her own perspec-

tive. By analyzing an interview one can learn much about the interviewee and 

something about the interviewer. I found that “Chat Room” is an interesting, 

challenging and funny transcript. An interviewee talks about her life experien-

ces using technology. Person A  the interviewee tells person S the interviewer 

that her technology experiences began in 5^th grade when she and her friends 

would “ go in chat rooms and chat…, exchange pictures with people that lived 

in our area that was our age…” This type of activity continued through high 

school.

           I shall discuss in my Discourse Analysis essay the question: How does 

person A grow through her experiences, positive and negative, by using tech-

nology, language and her social life skills? The conversation between person 

S and person A goes from one topic to another, from the unfamiliar and “scary” 

to the unusual and funny in excerpt two. Person A shows that she is humorous, 

friendly, curious, more knowledgeable about computer use, protective of sib-

lings, trusting, yet afraid in excerpt one. Also I found that person S, had a good 

strategy, using questions, comments and humor made Person A feel comfort-

able and confident “ we’ll be careful if we publish this(laughing)”, “oh you did 

(laughing)you did”.

           In the transcript “ Chat Room” person A tells the interviewer about her 

first experience with technology called “web tv”. This statement shows it was 

long time ago probably in nineties. Also as I mentioned it began in 5^th grade 

and continued to high school. During these years person A developed her tech-

nology skills. In the family nobody but she was able to understand “web tv”. The 

interviewee was able to “check email and also chat strangers’, which shows that 

person A was brave enough to explore, yet it “was dangerous cause I think I talk-

ed to a pedophile”. The absence of parental controls gave her more freedom 

“ My parents didn’t know how to put restrictions, they weren’t too familiar with 

it”. Yet she was scared. In 5^th grade she gave a stranger her “phone number” while 

chatting. Then when he called she “hung up”. What made her to do this? It shows

that person A was curious and she wanted to find out what is going to happen. 

But, “… as soon as I heard a deep voice I was like, that is not a kid…, I’m wearing

pajamas – bye”. She was frightened because she said that “ Oh my gosh, he’s going 

to find where I live, my mom’s going to kill me, so I didn’t go on WebTv for a long 

time”. However, looking through her experiences nobody and nothing could stop 

her from exploring technology further in both excerpts. This shows that she was 

courageous. Her negative experience partially changed the way she used  in life. 

She became more knowledgeable, less frightened at the end of excerpt one. She 

was “careful” and able to control her siblings. Person A said “… when my sister

started going online I would check up on who she’s talking to, I would look over, 

I would check the history, see what websites she went on”.

           Person A continued growing in her use of technology in middle school and 

high school “by that time I was able to email who ever I wanted, and research, very 

familiar with the internet”.

           In excerpt two person A shows her big improvement in continuing to develop 

her computer use skills and social skills by going into chat rooms to “chat with our 

friends, exchange pictures with people that lived in our area that was our age.” But 

did she remember her old story that caused her to see the danger in chat rooms? 

Her “adventure with technology” in excerpt two, shows that she did not consider this

to be as dangerous as she did in excerpt one. She willingly sent pictures to her friends. 

Then she sent a picture to a stranger. If this had not happened to be her pastor’s son 

who recognized the photo, this could have been very dangerous. In the end of excerpt 

two person A admitted that it “…was a weird story” which both she  and interviewer

turned humorous. Her chat room experiences show that she developed from a naïve 

to a more knowledgeable participant. She could handle danger lurking in cyberspace 

more easily.   

Blog #9 DA Draft

Svitlana Chaykivska

Dr. S. Chandler

Eng. 3029

03/28/2012

           

Discourse Analysis Essay  “ Chat Room “

I understand Discourse Analysis to be one of the methods of research analysis,

built on true stories or events. Everybody has the same opportunity to examine the 

same discourse and reach his or her own conclusion on its meaning. The Chat Room 

is a very interesting transcript, composed of two excerpts in which a conversation is 

developed between two people with different points of view and age. It takes place in 

a chat room where person A tells about her childhood experiences using the computer.

           I shall discuss in my Discourse Analysis essay the question: How does person A 

grow through her experiences, positive and negative, by using technology, language 

and her social life skills? The conversation between person S and person A goes from 

one topic to another, from the unfamiliar and “scary” to the unusual and funny in 

excerpt two. Person A shows that she is humorous, friendly, curious, more know-

ledgeable about computer use, protective of siblings, trusting, yet afraid in excerpt 1.

           Person A shows her enthusiasm as a child with what she could do with techno-

logy, when she says “ I loved it – I loved it because when I discovered what AOL 

was…” She also recognizes now the dangers that technology can present. She also 

tells the interviewer that she realized how dangerous misuse of technology by a 

child could be. As a fifth grade student she was able to check e-mail and chat with 

strangers. These statements prove that person A was curious but afraid. Person A 

was brave enough to talk to strangers and even gave telephone number to a possible

pedophile. When the person called, fear struck her and she “hung up”. The realization 

that what was so dangerous that she kept this incident to herself for many years. She 

didn’t tell parents what had happened and she “didn’t go on WebTv for a long time”. 

During her interview person A mentioned four times the word “dangerous” and three 

times the word “scary”. This underlines that a person A is the fear that she had and 

realization that one must be must be careful in the use of technology.         

           At the end of excerpt one person A admitted how frightened she was. This 

caused her to become strict with her younger sister and brothers. Her awareness of 

the danger that she faced and that her siblings could face resulted in her becoming 

more knowledgeable in the use of technology. Her story show a development from 

the naïve to the more knowledgeable. Person A continued growing in high school.   

She became more literate than she was before “ I was able to email who ever I 

wanted, and research, very familiar with the internet.”

           In excerpt two person A shows her big improvement in continuing to develop 

her computer use skills and social skills by going into chat rooms to “chat with our 

friends, exchange pictures with people that  lived in our area that was our age.” But 

did she remember her old story that caused her to see the danger in chat rooms? Her 

“adventure with technology” in excerpt two, shows that she did not remember. She 

willingly sent a pictures to her friends. Then she sent a picture to a stranger. If this 

had not happened to be her pastor’s son  will not recognized the photo, this could 

have been very dangerous.

 The two excerpts show that person A made progress in computer skills. 

She did not learn to use the computer responsibly. No matter how great your 

computer skills are, you need to use the computer responsibly, because of the danger 

lurk in cyberspace.

Blog 8 Visual analysis

What methodology do Farrell, Azipe and McAdam use in their study? What methods? How did their assumptions shape their research finddings? Why is or isn't this a valid study?

     Using the book "The Arrival" by Shaun Tan researchers Farrell, Arizpe and McAdam observed, collected data and analysed how immigrant and non-immigrant children construct meaning from visual images. Thus immigrant children had difficulties in expressing themselves in writing. For example, when pictures from
"The Arrival" book were shown to both an immigrant and non-immigrant child the immigrant child showed his ability to respond to them based on his/her own life experience, where as the non-immgrant child did not.
     By doing this experiment researchers used annotated spreads as a method to decode strategies of visual analysis used by both immigrant and no-immagrant children. the researchers concluded that the differences between these children is that the immigrant child was able to respond because of his/her own life experiences. Annotated spreads were composed of four categories: experiential, interpersonal, compositional and interpretive.
     I think researchers did a valid study even though they recognized that their research is a work in progress and needs to be fine tuned. Their approach gave valuable explanations, answers, clues to how children constract meaning from visual image. It will help them to develop critical literacy skills.    

Blog 7 Discourse Analysis project

Svitlana Chaykivska

Dr. S. Chandler

Eng. 3029

03/28/2012

           

Discourse Analysis Essay  “ Chat Room “

I understand Discourse Analysis to be one of the methods of research analysis, 

built on true stories or events. Everybody has the same opportunity to examine the same discourse and reach his or her own conclusion on its meaning. The Chat Room is a very interesting transcript, composed of two excerpts in which a conversation is developed between two people with different points of view and age. It takes place in a chat room where person A tells about her childhood experiences using the computer.

            I shall discuss in my Discourse Analysis essay the question: How does person 

A grow through her experiences, positive and negative, by using technology, 

language and her social life skills? The conversation between person S and person 

A goes from one topic to another, from the unfamiliar and “scary” to the unusual 

and funny in excerpt two. Person A shows that she is humorous, friendly, curious, 

more knowledgeable about computer use, protective of siblings, trusting, yet afraid 

in excerpt 1.

            Person A shows her enthusiasm as a child with what she could do with 

technology, when she says “ I loved it – I loved it because when I discovered 

what AOL was…” She also recognizes now the dangers that technology can 

present. She also tells the interviewer that she realized how dangerous misuse 

of technology by a child could be. As a fifth grade student she was able to 

check e-mail and chat with strangers. These statements prove that person A 

was curious but afraid. Person A was brave enough to talk to strangers and 

even gave telephone number to a possible pedophile. When the person called, 

fear struck her and she “hung up”. The realization that what was so dangerous 

that she kept this incident to herself for many years. She didn’t tell parents 

what had happened and she “didn’t go on WebTv for a long time”. During 

her interview person A mentioned four times the word “dangerous” and three 

times the word “scary”. This underlines that a person A is the fear that she 

had and realization that one must be must be careful in the use of technology.         

            At the end of excerpt one person A admitted how frightened she was. 

This caused her to become strict with her younger sister and brothers. Her 

awareness of the danger that she faced and that her siblings could face resulted 

in her becoming more knowledgeable in the use of technology. Her story show 

a development from the naïve to the more knowledgeable. Person A continued 

growing in high school.  She became more literate than she was before “ I was 

able to email who ever I wanted, and research, very familiar with the internet.”

            In excerpt two person A shows her big improvement in continuing to 

develop her computer use skills and social skills by going into chat rooms to 

“chat with our friends, exchange pictures with people that  lived in our area that 

was our age.” But did she remember her old story that caused her to see the 

danger in chat rooms? Her “adventure with technology” in excerpt two, shows 

that she did not remember. She willingly sent a pictures to her friends. Then 

she sent a picture to a stranger. If this had not happened to be her pastor’s son   

will not recognized the photo, this could have been very dangerous.

The two excerpts show that person A made progress in computer skills.

She did not learn to use the computer responsibly. No matter how great your 

computer skills are, you need to use the computer responsibly, because of the 

danger lurk in cyberspace.