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A Level English language Investigation Coursework

Hi! Months ago I was set my coursework for my English language course and one piece is to do a language investigation. The actual piece should be an investigative report on language, for example looking at the ways two different newspapers report on something, or looking at and analysing the differences between political speeches. However, I have no idea what to do mine on and i was hoping somebody would be able to suggest some ideas for it? Thanks!
Is this AQA? I just finished my A Levels and got full marks on both my AS and A2 AQA English Language B coursework so can offer advice
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Anderz22
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Original post by LoveToArgue
Is this AQA? I just finished my A Levels and got full marks on both my AS and A2 AQA English Language B coursework so can offer advice

Yeah it's AQA
Original post by Anderz22
Hi! Months ago I was set my coursework for my English language course and one piece is to do a language investigation. The actual piece should be an investigative report on language, for example looking at the ways two different newspapers report on something, or looking at and analysing the differences between political speeches. However, I have no idea what to do mine on and i was hoping somebody would be able to suggest some ideas for it? Thanks!


Any particular stuff you enjoyed at AS you would want to investigate further?

I think you need to firstly decide which type of communication you want to investigate; written, electronic or spoken? I say go for spoken because there's loads of theories about spoken linguists and it's so much easier to write about. You would have to transcribe your data that you use but it's easy once you get the hand of it.

I got full marks on my A-level and it was investigating how male and female genders swear and in which conversational context they use different swearing.
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Anderz22
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Original post by The Empire Odyssey
Any particular stuff you enjoyed at AS you would want to investigate further?

I think you need to firstly decide which type of communication you want to investigate; written, electronic or spoken? I say go for spoken because there's loads of theories about spoken linguists and it's so much easier to write about. You would have to transcribe your data that you use but it's easy once you get the hand of it.

I got full marks on my A-level and it was investigating how male and female genders swear and in which conversational context they use different swearing.

I was thinking of going for spoken because it is easier to talk about but I was really struggling on how to go about collecting data for it as well as structuring it - any advice? thanks
Original post by Anderz22
I was thinking of going for spoken because it is easier to talk about but I was really struggling on how to go about collecting data for it as well as structuring it - any advice? thanks


Your data will be all the transcripts you will have to transcribe. So, find the topic you want to do, make sure you know there's a lot of research for your investigation. Then, if you have enough find data from things that are easy. For example, I chose Celeb Big Brother 2013 because everyone swears on there and it was easy access to get to i.e I could pause and rewind if I didn't quite catch what was said. There was also subtitles available and it wasn't scripted so it was much easier to write about too.

Have you decided on what you're investigation yet?
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Anderz22
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Original post by The Empire Odyssey
Your data will be all the transcripts you will have to transcribe. So, find the topic you want to do, make sure you know there's a lot of research for your investigation. Then, if you have enough find data from things that are easy. For example, I chose Celeb Big Brother 2013 because everyone swears on there and it was easy access to get to i.e I could pause and rewind if I didn't quite catch what was said. There was also subtitles available and it wasn't scripted so it was much easier to write about too.

Have you decided on what you're investigation yet?


I'm not too sure on a topic yet, I have a couple ideas like the difference of language between women of different ages and the difference in language between David Cameron and Theresa May but I haven't decided on anything. Once I have my data how do I structure my actual essay and what exactly do I talk about? Thanks for your help by the way! I haven't had much guidance from a teacher so I'm pretty clueless so thank you!
Original post by Anderz22
I'm not too sure on a topic yet, I have a couple ideas like the difference of language between women of different ages and the difference in language between David Cameron and Theresa May but I haven't decided on anything. Once I have my data how do I structure my actual essay and what exactly do I talk about? Thanks for your help by the way! I haven't had much guidance from a teacher so I'm pretty clueless so thank you!


If you're going to do Cameron and May then I would recommend you either analyse gender specifically, or just their specific idiolects, or another specific topic. I tried to be all-encompassing in my first draft including analysis of gender and power, but in the end I gave up with gender and just focussed on power because of the word limit.
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Original post by LoveToArgue
If you're going to do Cameron and May then I would recommend you either analyse gender specifically, or just their specific idiolects, or another specific topic. I tried to be all-encompassing in my first draft including analysis of gender and power, but in the end I gave up with gender and just focussed on power because of the word limit.


Is it better to keep it on the simpler side then rather than trying to complicate it?
Original post by Anderz22
Is it better to keep it on the simpler side then rather than trying to complicate it?


definitely best to keep on it simple. I split mine up into 3 sections based on different areas of language and power so I could get in all the detail; as I did breadth not depth which got me full marks.
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Original post by LoveToArgue
definitely best to keep on it simple. I split mine up into 3 sections based on different areas of language and power so I could get in all the detail; as I did breadth not depth which got me full marks.


what did you do yours on? if you don't mind me asking?
Original post by Anderz22
what did you do yours on? if you don't mind me asking?


Nope sure. Initially I planned on comparing the language between Sandi Toksvig and Stephen Fry in their role as the presenter of QI (therefore analysing power and gender), but this seemed too complex as i had to incorporate both power and gender.

Then I decided to compare the presenters of QI, Celebrity Juice, and Have I Got News for You, but there was not enough stuff (in my opinion) in HIGNFY to analyse, so I just stuck to Keith Lemon and Stephen Fry. This was the best turnout as both shows had a similar structure and lots of off-script discussions so i could analyse the spontaneous speech. Plus, Lemon and Fry are very different so it made comparison easy
Original post by Anderz22
I'm not too sure on a topic yet, I have a couple ideas like the difference of language between women of different ages and the difference in language between David Cameron and Theresa May but I haven't decided on anything. Once I have my data how do I structure my actual essay and what exactly do I talk about? Thanks for your help by the way! I haven't had much guidance from a teacher so I'm pretty clueless so thank you!


If you're going to do your first topic (which i think is great), then make sure there's enough research already out there. Think of two ideas like women's language and age and something else then pick the topic that has the most research.

I wouldnt do the politics one sinply because if you its ambiguous. Will you be investigating what's being said or how its being said? The former would be harder because its blended and speeches are planned so less spontaneous. If its how then you need to have a solid understanding of the IPA and on phonology/phonetics.

I dont have access to my coursework at the moment. But you should pick your topic youll be investigating first, then get your data, then think about essay structure.
Original post by The Empire Odyssey
Any particular stuff you enjoyed at AS you would want to investigate further?

I think you need to firstly decide which type of communication you want to investigate; written, electronic or spoken? I say go for spoken because there's loads of theories about spoken linguists and it's so much easier to write about. You would have to transcribe your data that you use but it's easy once you get the hand of it.

I got full marks on my A-level and it was investigating how male and female genders swear and in which conversational context they use different swearing.



Hi Im doing my A level coursework now and it needs to be submitted soon I would appreciate if you could highlight the key factors that get you the most marks as I am at the finishing point of my essay.

Thank you
this was very helpful :smile:
(edited 3 years ago)
Original post by The Empire Odyssey
Your data will be all the transcripts you will have to transcribe. So, find the topic you want to do, make sure you know there's a lot of research for your investigation. Then, if you have enough find data from things that are easy. For example, I chose Celeb Big Brother 2013 because everyone swears on there and it was easy access to get to i.e I could pause and rewind if I didn't quite catch what was said. There was also subtitles available and it wasn't scripted so it was much easier to write about too.

Have you decided on what you're investigation yet?


Hi! I am currently in the midst of deciding and beginning my A level coursework for English and I am very interested int the investigation you chose, may I ask how you went about it? i.e. did you investigate context, gender theories etc?
Reply 16
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ellawds
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hi, I am doing AQA and would love some advice/ ideas on the coursework please!

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