Reviews for Structuring Sense: The Normal Course of Events, Vol. 2

The average rating for Structuring Sense: The Normal Course of Events, Vol. 2 based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-02-03 00:00:00 Daniel Chilbert I have mixed feelings about this book. One of the things that is particularly good about it is that at the end of each chapter there is a list of books that you might want to read to get more information on what you've just read - but not just a list, a kind of blurb too. This is a really nice idea. There are also exercises to apply some of what you have learnt - and that is nice too. The problem is that within the chapters themselves the examples used are often remarkably crap - well, at least, I thought so. I guess I need to remember that this is a kind of textbook and so it is meant to be read by people who are very much not me. What does that mean? Well, it means people who are able to quote large slaps of Sex in the City without feeling in the least embarrassed and, I know, as hard as it is to image, actually be quite fond of the show. I have never seen even five minutes of the show, so you could think me just an ill-informed snob, but now I've read the bits of the script contained here - I have to say, what is wrong with you people? How can you watch such utter crap? Were you dropped on your head as a child? Given that, I found a lot of this a bit annoying. However, this did bring together a lot of stuff I have been reading and even pointed me in directions where I really ought to go next in my reading. But, that said, the problem really was that when I've read people like Fairclough, I always come away thinking - "oh my god, I really wish I could think like that. Jesus, wow." My advise is to not expect that reaction from this book - but if you have no background at all in discourse analysis and want to know what all the excitement is about, this is probably a very good place to start. However, DO NOT end here. Honestly, it gets so much better. I'm serious, so much better. When you read people really using this well as a form of analysis of the world we live in - it is like nothing else. As the Italians say, meglio di sesso.

Review # 2 was written on 2018-07-04 00:00:00 Margarita Quintana Paltridge provides a very clear overview of various modes of discourse analysis. There are lots of jumping off points into the literature, and practical exercises to show how to apply the various theories and methods. In my Discourse Analysis class we had to leave Paltridge to look at Ethnography of Communication, which perhaps was a gap of some kind.