Document Type
Book Review
Publication Date
2002
Publication Title
Discourse & Society
Volume
13
Issue
5
First Page
693
Last Page
694
Abstract
What I like very much about this book is that it epitomizes the notion of qualitative research. It is a beautifully written exploration of the way mediated discourse gets accomplished, but it also clarifies ways of analyzing discourse with rich discussions of theory and analysis based on a number of illustrations taken from everyday events. Scollon explores an everyday practice that most people probably take for granted, and he proposes a way of examining this ‘practice’ in a new way. This practice is ‘handing’, and it serves as the centerpiece of this book. We ‘hand’ books to each other, we hand coffee cups, we hand pillows, we hand babies, we hand money. This exploration of handing centers on first language acquisition data; Scollon finds that ‘handing’ is itself a part of larger, more complex practices. As a ‘smaller’ practice, handing aggregates with other practices into a constellation that Scollon calls a nexus of practice.
Recommended Citation
Bramlett, Frank, "Review of Mediated discourse: The nexus of practice. London: Routledge by Ron Scollon" (2002). English Faculty Publications. 10.
https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/englishfacpub/10
Comments
The final published version of this book review can be found here: http://das.sagepub.com/content/13/5/691.full.pdf+html.