Informative Discourse

By Group 5

David TanResa Yulita

Rezki AnggikaYeni

Main functions of discourse

• Information• Expression• Argumentation

Two kinds of method in measuring comprehension of a text

1. Without the assistance of the reader --- readability formula (e.g. Flesch formula)

2. Requires proofreaders to give insight into the process of understanding a text :– Offline : measuring comprehension after reading – Online : measuring comprehension during reading

Steps in Readability Formula

1. Collecting texts from different levels of difficulty

2. Analyzing texts based on text characteristics:– Length of words– Percentage of abstract words– Number of subordinate clauses per sentence– Number of prepositions per hundred words

Steps in Readability Formula

3. Processsing statistically4. Result of statistical processing determine:– which text characteristics contribute the most to

the outcome of a reading comprehension test– how often this characteristics should or may

occur in order for a text to be readable for a certain level

Flesch Formula

• Named after Rudolp Flesch• Contains two variables : word length and

sentence length• Easy to apply

1. Flesch Readability Formula (R.E.)

R.E. = 206,84 – (0,85 x wl) + (1,02 x sl)

Excerpt from ‘Great Expectation’

My father’s family name being Pirrip, and my Christianname Philip, my infant tongue could make of both

names nothing longer or more explicit than Pip. So, I calledmyself Pip, and came to be called Pip.

I give Pirrip as my father’s family name, on the authorityof his tombstone and my sister - Mrs. Joe Gargery, whomarried the blacksmith. As I never saw my father or my

mother, and never saw any likeness of either of them (fortheir days were long before the days of photographs), my

first fancies regarding what they were like,(100 words)

HOW TO MEASURE FLESCH FORMULA

1. Get a sample of 100 words. Start each sample at the beginning of the paragraph. Put a pencil mark after the 100th word. Count as a word all letters, or numbers or symbols surrounded by white space. Count contractions and hyphenated words as one word: 1948, $19,892, C.O.D., e.g., etc.

2. Count the average sentence length by counting the number of words and then dividing it by the number of sentences in the sample. If the 100th word mark falls at the middle of the sentence, count it as one sentence if the word falls after more than half of the words in it.

In counting a sentence, count each unit of thought that is grammatically independent of another sentence of clause, if its ending is marked by a period, exclamation point, question mark, colon or semi-colon.

3. Multiply the average sentence length by 1.015. 4. Count all syllables and multiply .846. This is the average word length.

5. Add the results of 3 and 4.

6. Subtract the total from 206.835. This is the reading ease score. Reading ease = 206.835 - (1.015)(average sentence length + (.846)(syllables per 100

words)

R.E. = 206,84 – (0,85 x wl) + (1,02 x sl)

SL = 100 = 25 x 1,02 4 = 25,5WL = 119 x 0,85 = 101,15

R.E. = 206,84 – (0,85 x 119 ) – (1,02 x 25) = 206,84 – (101,15 + 25,5) = 206,84 – 126,65 = 80,19 (easy, for fourth grade)

Some objections concerning Flesch formula

• Does not guarantee to be applicable to other kinds of texts without adaptation because the test is based on a collection of school tests

• Different from symptoms, variables such as word and sentence length say little about the readability of a text

• The text-comprehension tests used as a bench model often have a somewhat dubious status

• Readability formulas are not sensitive to such important discourse characteristics as cohesion and coherence

2. Methods that require proofreaders

Kinds of test :1. Offline method2. Online method • Readers can be asked questions about the text• Readers can be asked to retell the text or write a summary of it• Readers can be asked to judge the text on its

comprehensibility by means of a think-aloud protocol or by indicating a text's strengths and weaknesses, by putting pluses and minus in the margin (the plus-minus method)

• Readers can be asked to rank different versions of the text according to comprehensibility.

1. Offline method

• Cloze test --- fill in the missing word• Readers can be asked questions about the text• Readers can be asked to retell the text or write a summary

of it• Readers can be asked to judge the text on its

comprehensibility by means of a think-aloud protocol or by indicating a text's strengths and weaknesses, by putting pluses and minus in the margin (the plus-minus method)

• Readers can be asked to rank different versions of the text according to comprehensibility.

2. Online method

• Measuring reading speed --- the faster, the more comprehensible

• Recording eye movement --- the faster, the more comprehensible

JUDGING DISCOURSE

QUALITY

FAILURE TO GET OUR MESSAGE ACCROSS

• One of the main causes to get our message across to the reader is the lack of quality of the text.

• Attention has to be given to quality assessment

PAUL DIEDERICH - 1960

- CONTENT- IDEAS

- CLARITYRELEVANCE

-ERRORS IN USAGE-SENTENCE STRUCTURE- PUNCTUATION- SPELLING

ORGANIZATION

Businessmen in this group look at the organization of the text

• VOCABULARY

Publishers and writers concentrated on the choice of words and vocabulary

PERSONAL QUALITIES

JUDGMENTIDEAS

MECHANICS

ORGANIZATION

WORDING

FLAVOR

low middle high

1. General meritideas 2 4 6 8 10

organization 2 4 6 8 10

wording 1 2 3 4 5

Flavour, style 1 2 3 4 5

II. Mechanics

Usage 1 2 3 4 5

Punctuation 1 2 3 4 5

Spelling 1 2 3 4 5

Handwriting 1 2 3 4 5

• FLAVOR (HIGH)• THE WRITER SEEMS QUITE SINCERE AND

CANDID AND HE WRITES ABOUT SOMETHING HE KNOWS, OFTEN FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. YOU COULD NOT MISTAKE THIS WRITING FOR THE WRITING OF ANYONE ELSE

• FLAVOR (LOW)• THE WRITER REVEALS HIMSELF WELL

ENOUGH BUT MEANING TO. HIS THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS ARE THOSE OF AN UNEDUCATED PERSON WHO DOES NOT REALIZE HOW BAD THEY SOUND

The CCC Model

• 1. CORRESPONDENCEBy correspondence is meant that the quality of a

text is only good if the sender achieves his goal and if the text fills a need on the part of the receiver.

2. CONSISTENCEThe quality of a text is greatly affected by the

sender’s ability to maintain the choice made .( a principle of structure, a manner of wording, layout)

3. CORRECTNESSIt requires the text to contain no mistake whether

in content or in form.

correspondence

consistence correctness

A. Text type 1. Appropriate Purity of genre

Application of genre ruler

B. CONTENT 2. Sufficient information

AgreementBetween facts

Correctness of facts

C. STRUCTURE 3. Sufficient coherence

Consistence structure

Correct linking words

D. WORDING 4. Appropriate wording

Unity of style

Correct syntax and choice of words

E. PRESENTATION

Appropriate layout

Layout adapted to text

Correct spelling and punctuation

correspondence consistence correctness

A. TEXT TYPE

1. Appropriate Purity of genre

Application of genre ruler

B. CONTENT 2. Sufficient information

AgreementBetween facts

Correctness of facts

C. STRUCTURE

3. Sufficient coherence

Consistence structure

Correct linking words

D. WORDING

4. Appropriate wording

Unity of style

Correct syntax and choice of words

E. PRESENTATION

Appropriate layout

Layout adapted to text

Correct spelling and punctuation

THE IMPROVEMENT OF DOCUMENTS

ALICE DAVISON AND ROBERT KANTOR 1982

• A. if given a chance before another fire comes, the tree will heal its own wounds by growing new bark over the burned part.

• B. if given a chance before another fire comes, the tree will heal its own wounds . It will grow new bark over the burned part.

Britt Louise Gunarsson - 1984

• FOCUS ON >>> FUNCTIONAL COMPREHENSIBILITY• NO SEMANTIC CHARACTERISTICS• NO SYNTACTIC• YES TO PRAGMATIC FACTORS

HARGIE, TOURISH AND WILSON(2002)

• RESULTS OF COMMUNICATION AUDIT OF HEALTH SERVICES DEPARTMENT

NARRATIVE

1. The structure of fairy tales The characters in fairy tales according to

Propp:- Villain- Donor- Helper- Princess or person looked for- Dispatcher- Hero - False hero

Functions in magical fairy tales according to Propp:

1. Absentation2. Interdiction3. Violation 4. Reconnaissance5. Delivery6. Trickery7. Complicity8. Villainy9. mediation,

the connective incident10. Beginning counteraction 11. Departure

Preliminaries

Complication

12. The first function of the donor13. The hero’s reaction 14. Provision or receipt of a magical agent15. Guidance(……)30. Punishment31. Wedding

The sociolinguistics approach

- purpose: “to find out if there were correlations between the social characteristics of storytellers and the structure of their stories”

- Labov and Waletzky’s story structure: orientationComplicationEvaluationSolutionCoda

Other opinion about the structure of narrative;

- Orientation- Complication- Resolution

“Cinderella story ‘’Once upon a time, there was a young girl named Cinderella. She lived with her step mother and two step sisters. The step mother and sisters were conceited and bad tempered. They treated Cinderella very badly. Her step mother made Cinderella do the hardest works in the house; such as scrubbing the floor, cleaning the pot and pan and preparing the food for the family. The two step sisters, on the other hand, did not work about the house. Their mother gave them many handsome dresses to wear.One day, the two step sister received an invitation to the ball that the king’s son was going to give at the palace. They were excited about this and spent so much time choosing the dresses they would wear. At last, the day of the ball came, and away went the sisters to it. Cinderella could not help crying after they had left.“Why are crying, Cinderella?” a voice asked. She looked up and saw her fairy godmother standing beside her, “because I want so much to go to the ball” said Cinderella. “Well” said the godmother,”you’ve been such a cheerful, hardworking, uncomplaining girl that I am going to see that you do go to the ball”.Magically, the fairy godmother changed a pumpkin into a fine coach and mice into a coachman and two footmen. Her godmother tapped Cinderella’s raged dress with her wand, and it became a beautiful ball gown. Then she gave her a pair of pretty glass slippers. “Now, Cinderella”, she said; “You must leave before midnight”. Then away she drove in her beautiful coach.Cinderella was having a wonderfully good time. She danced again and again with the king’s son. Suddenly the clock began to strike twelve, she ran toward the door as quickly as she could. In her hurry, one of her glass slipper was left behind.A few days later, the king’ son proclaimed that he would marry the girl whose feet fitted the glass slipper. Her step sisters tried on the slipper but it was too small for them, no matter how hard they squeezed their toes into it. In the end, the king’s page let Cinderella try on the slipper. She stuck out her foot and the page slipped the slipper on. It fitted perfectly.Finally, she was driven to the palace. The king’s son was overjoyed to see her again. They were married and live happily ever after.

The Psycholinguistic Approach

Rules PHRASE-STRUCTURE RULES

for describing the structure of a story

Consists of:Story : Setting and Episode

Beginning, Development, and Ending

Complex Reaction and Goal Path

setting event structure

event episode

event event state beginning development ending 1 2 3

event complex goal emphasis reaction path

stateevent event simple goal attempt outcome 11 4 reaction

internal internal event eventevent state 6 7

event event event 8 9 10

a

at c c

c c c

c

Mandler and Johnson

Wilensky

Literature

- setting, beginning, reaction, attempt, results, and ending

Story-point element attracts interest

Story : Characters - a main character or protagonis

Nancy Stein and Margaret Policastro

Protagonis A causal relationship

Story

Subject Event

The Organizational Approach

A new approach Ethnography of Communication

The study of discourse in relation to the social and cultural control

- How people relate to each other - How to position themselves as members of a group, a family, a school, etc.

Narrative are always heard from someone else Non-participant narratives

A field of research

organizational or institutional studies

Support in carrying out of the work that has to be done and help to create the

identity or the culture of an organization and its employees

Questions (Linde) :

1. On the basis of what kind of discourse phenomena can we distinguish between a participant narrative and a non-participant narrative?

2. How can we detect whether or not the narrator establishs himself as a member of a group?

Question no.1

Dinnovia: how do text characteristics influence the readability of a text?

Answer no.1

Text characteristics influence the readability of a text in a way that the existence of many long words and abstract words will make the text more difficult than the use of less of them. The difficult text will then have no readability while the less difficult one will have higher level of readability

Question no. 2

Yati : Should the text in readability formula use 100 words or should it be more?

Answer no. 2

100 words in the beginning of a text is enough to be analyzed to determine the readability of a text. In other words, if the level of readability of a text is found out from the first 100 words analysis, the rest of the words usually have the same pattern or the same level of readability. Thus, the first 100 words is usually the representation of the readability of a text itself

Question no. 3

fatmawati : explain about two flavors (high and low)

Answer no. 3

Low flavorThe writer reveals himself well enough but

without meaning. His thought and feelings are those of an uneducated person

High flavorThe writer seems quite sincere and candid . He

writes something he knows from his experience. You could not mistake this writing for the writing of anyone else

Question 4

Sutan : Please explain about the CCC table and how to judge it ?

Answer no. 4

It contains fifteen different points . The evaluation points have to be worked through from top to bottom and from left to right.

Question no. 5

Fatmawati : Explain about differences between participant and non participant

Answer no. 5

• Participant is a person who tells a story or narrative about himself. He is an active subject from the beginning of the story. As example, Robby tells his first experience in applying a job two years ago to his colleague.

• Non-participant is a person who tells a story about his friend, his groups, or his cultures. He is a passive subject from the beginning, even though we find the word that indicate the story teller. As example, Robby tells about his friend experience in applying a job. At the end of the story, Robby says that he also had the same thing, but the focus of the story is his friend.

Question no. 6

Willy :Why William Labov and Waletzky cannot resolve the issues of sructural differences which deals with the social characteristics of storytellers and the sructural stories in (sociolinguistic approach)

Answer no. 6

because the social characteristic of each storytellers are different to tell story depending on the social class. It can be seen from the different level students such as SMP student between SMA students, it is automatically different in structure. Therefore, the issues are not resolved. Moreover, this issue is only taught to SMP and SMA students in order to produce narrative text by considering the generic stucture of the text. However, the investigation still provides information on the structure of everyday narratives.

Question no. 7

Willy : explain the differences between sociolinguistic approach and psycholinguistic approach.

Answer no. 7

the sociolinguistic approach can be taught in SMP and SMA which is related to text type (genre) by considering the generic structure and the language features of the text. Meanwhile, the psycholinguistic approach is only taught to university students even if the literature class. In addition, it should also consider the school curriculum in order to get the appropriateness if it is taught in SMP and SMA. Therefore, the psycholinguistic approach should be in university students.