SFV4500 Applied analyses workshop - qualitative method Course description

The welfare state works and exists through a wealth of texts. Texts as different as Norwegian Official Reports, journals, white papers, articles, news articles, letters, textbooks, literary texts and minutes of meetings contribute to form perceptions in society and influence important decision-making processes. How a "client", "user", "patient" or "resident" is portrayed in a journal can play a decisive role in the person's future life. The course focuses on language as a force in the welfare society and in the interaction between the social welfare administration's employees and the individual client.

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After completing the course, the students are expected to have achieved the following knowledge and skills:

Knowledge

The student has advanced knowledge of

• different traditions in textual analysis
• different theories about power and language
• different genres of text of importance to the welfare state

Skills

The candidate is capable of

• discussing how different methods of textual analysis can be applied in practice
• conducting analysis of all types of text material
• reflecting over language and text as forces in the welfare society and in his/her own academic work

Teaching is organised as a combination of lectures and practical analysis work in groups and through plenary discussions. The student will acquire a reflective attitude towards the tools of analysis through independent work with different texts.

The practical analysis work takes place in the form of two writing seminars. Prior to the first seminar, the student must submit the draft of an essay. Feedback from the person responsible for the seminar will be given in the first seminar. Prior to the second seminar, the student must submit a reworked draft of the essay, and read the first draft of two fellow students. During the second seminar, the student must provide written and oral opponent feedback on the drafts. Attendance is required at both seminars in order to receive opponent feedback and comments from the seminar tutor.

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The students must write an essay based on a text of their choice. In this essay, the students must analyse the chosen text based on one of the methods of analysis included in the syllabus. The chosen method of analysis must be substantiated on the basis of how applicable it is in relation to the chosen research question and text. The essay must be 10 pages long, +/- 10 %. The students who participate in the writing seminars, will receive feedback on the first draft of their essay from two fellow students and the lecturer halfway through the course. Work on the essay continues, and is then submitted by the set deadline.  

A grade scale with grades from A to E for pass and F for fail is used.

The essays are graded by one internal and one external examiner. The external examiner will grade 25 % of the exam papers. The grades awarded for the papers assessed by an external examiner form the basis for determining the level for awarding the different grades. The internal examiner shall take the external examiner's assessment into consideration in the grading of all the exams.