ABSTRACT
In Part one of this coursebook we approached critical reading and writing through analysis of the surface grammar and vocabulary of texts. This is a semantic approach in which we examine what is encoded in the Text and explain it ideologically, in terms of the ideas and power structures of a society. However, for critical analysis to be complete and valid, we have to take a complementary discoursal approach in which Text is seen as a bridge between a writer and a reader. This is a more contextualised analysis which recognises the multiplicity of meanings that a Text can generate and the reader's work in constructing a meaning out of it. So in Part two the approach to Text will not be decoding or semantic description but making inferences and hypothesising. As a result, this part corresponds to level 2 in Table 0.1, p. 3.
