This module has three aims: (1) to enable students to differentiate between various definitions of discourse, genre and text; (2) to enable students to apply a range of analytical methods to different genres of mainly spoken and written discourse; and (3) to familiarize students with specific analytical approaches to spoken and written discourse. Whilst it takes account of the various meanings that the term “discourse” has across the social sciences and humanities, it shall primarily be concerned with discourse seen as language in use. This means that we shall look at the technical details of linguistic analysis, while also asking how different kinds of language use relate to society as a whole. The seminars will involve practical hands-on work with texts and transcripts representing a variety of genres. While dealing with both spoken and written discourse, the module is divided into analytical approaches informed by areas such as pragmatics, critical discourse analysis and, to a lesser extent, cognitive linguistics.