Coding Streams of Language: Techniques for the Systematic Coding of Text, Talk, and Other Verbal Data

Coding Streams of Language is a systematic and practical research guide to coding verbal data in all its forms—written texts and oral talk, in print or online, gathered through surveys and interviews, database searches, or audio or video recordings. The thoughtful, detailed advice found in this book will help readers carry out analyses of language that are both systematic and complex. Situating themselves in the relatively new line of mixed methods research, the authors provide guidance on combining context-based inquiry with quantitative tools for examining big picture patterns that acknowledges the complexity of language use. Throughout Coding Streams of Language, exercises, points for discussion, and milestones help guide readers through an analytic project. As a supplement to the book, YouTube videos demonstrate tools and techniques.

Cheryl Geisler is professor of Interactive Arts and Technology at Simon Fraser University, where she served as the inaugural Dean of the Faculty of Communication, Art and Technology. She has written extensively on the nature of texts, especially those mediated by new technologies. A recognized expert on verbal data coding, she organized a special section of the Journal of Writing Research (Vol 7, No 3) on current and emerging methods in the rhetorical analysis of texts and wrote an article on coding in the April, 2018 issue of Written Communication. She has published more than fifty articles, book chapters, and conference proceedings, as well as five books including Analyzing Steams of Language (2004). She has received awards for her work from Computers and Composition, the Rhetoric Society of America, and the National Communication Association. She is a Fellow of the Association of Teachers of Technical Writing.

Jason Swarts is professor of English, specializing in technical communication, at North Carolina State University. His research focuses on practices of social cognition that are supported by texts and influenced by mobile networking technologies. He has written more than twenty articles as well as two books that both rely on techniques of verbal data analysis outlined in this book: Together with Technology (2007) and Wicked, Incomplete, and Uncertain (2018). His research has been recognized with awards from the National Council of Teachers of English, the Society for Technical Communication, and the Association for Teachers of Technical Writing.