Discourse Analysis: An Overview for the Neophyte Researcher

The key aim of this paper is to introduce to the novice researcher the various ways in which discourse analysis, as a methodology, may be applied t o health and social care improvement research, to show how usual taken-forgranted assumptions and views of the world may be challenged in the quest for deeper an d more critical meaning. The paper will explain what is mean t by discourse analysis as a research methodology and how some researchers choose to use discourse analysis in their work. Definitions of discourse and discourse analy sis will then be addressed together with an explication of th e different traditions of discourse analysis. In turn, difficulties surrounding the development of specific guid elines for techniques of ‘doing’ a discourse analysis will be presented, before finally moving on to outline the advantages and limitations of discourse rese arch and the latest debates in the field