Published 7 August 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a879
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a879

Practice

Qualitative Research

Discourse analysis

¹ Department of Psychiatry, Wilson Centre for Research in Education, University of Toronto, 200 Elizabeth Street, Eaton South 1-565, Toronto, ON, Canada M5G 2C4, ² Department of Medicine, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, and Wilson Centre for Research in Education, University of Toronto, 2075 Bayview Avenue, Room HG 08, Toronto, ON, Canada M4N 3M5 , ³ Department of Psychiatry, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, Centre for Faculty Development, and Wilson Centre for Research in Education, University of Toronto, 200 Elizabeth Street, Eaton South 1-565, Toronto, ON, Canada M5G 2C4

Related to doi: , 10.1136/bmj.a288doi: , 10.1136/bmj.39602.690162.47doi: , 10.1136/bmj.a1020doi: , 10.1136/bmj.a949doi: 10.1136/bmj.a1035

This articles explores how discourse analysis is useful for a wide range of research questions in health care and the health professions

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Previous articles in this series discussed several methodological approaches used by qualitative researchers in the health professions. This article focuses on discourse analysis. It provides background information for those who will encounter this approach in their reading, rather than instructions for conducting such research.

Discourse analysis is about studying and analysing the uses of language. Because the term is used in many different ways, we have simplified approaches to discourse analysis into three clusters (table 1) and illustrated how each of these approaches might be used to study a single domain: doctor-patient communication about diabetes management (table 2). Regardless of approach, a vast array of data sources is available to the discourse analyst, including transcripts from interviews, focus groups, samples of conversations, published literature, media, and web based materials.

View this table:   Table 1  Three approaches to discourse analysis

 

View this table:   Table 2  Three approaches to a specific research question: example of doctor-patient communications about diabetes management

 
. . . [Full text of this article]

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