TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract

Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION: THE ISSUE AND THE CONTEXT

• The utility of CMC and DA in nursing

Chapter 2. A TRIPARTITE FRAME OF REFERENCE

• Introduction
• Postmodern & post-structuralist theory
• Multiple paradigm research in nursing
• Fairclough's social theory of discourse

Chapter 3. COMMUNICATIONS ON THE INTERNET

• Introduction
• A brief history of the Internet
• Computer-mediated communications
• Electronic mail (e-mail)
• Computer conferences
• Lists
• Nursing on the Internet

Chapter 4. LITERATURE REVIEW

• Introduction
• Technological issues
• Applications of and research on CMC
• Psychosocial aspects
• CMC versus FTF
• Socialisation or isolation
• Power, gender and culture issues
• Discourse and linguistic aspects
  • Introduction
  • A new writing space? The oral-literate dichotomy
  • Genres and turn-taking
  • Research approaches and analytic units
  • Real-world use of CMC
  • Educational applications
  • Organisational applications
  • Nursing on the Internet: the rhetoric
  • Nursing on the Internet: the reality
• Summary

Chapter 5. METHODOLOGY

• Introduction
• The case specified, the corpus identified
• The research questions
• Discourse analysis
• Rigour, validity and generalisability
• Ethical and intellectual property issues

Chapter 6. STUDY RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

• Introduction
• Data about the list and usage
• Interviews with users
• The corpus and its context
• Analysis of the corpus
• Discourse practice
  • Introduction
  • Genres
  • Intertextual chains
  • Discourse practice conditions
• Text analysis
  • Introduction
  • Politeness and repair
  • Modality
  • Interactional control & turn-taking
• Social practice
  • Introduction
  • Community and self
  • Power/ideology
• Multiple threads to discussion

Chapter 7. CONCLUSION AND SUMMARY

• Future directions
• Notes

REFERENCES

Copyright Peter J. Murray 1996

Last updated: 07 July 1996