As its title suggests, this book mainly deals with written discourse by combining theoretical and practical studies. Grounded in extensive and up-to-date sources, Deborah Cameron and Ivan Panovic provide a well-organized introduction to discourse analysis, which is instrumental for readers working in linguistics and other disciplines, such as anthropology, psychology, philosophy, sociology, or media studies.

Compiled from both a scientific and cognitive perspective, the book consists of three parts on written discourse studies. In Part 1, ‘Preliminaries’, much attention is paid to basic concepts from which readers can gain insights into writing and written discourse. Chapter 1 defines discourse and discourse analysis, explaining that a holistic view is what is used throughout the book. Chapter 2 examines current debates on the nature and significance of writing, as well as the ways that spoken discourse distinguishes itself from written discourse. Chapter 3 probes into the intricate relationship between linguistic technologies, social media, and communicative practices. Chapter 4 elaborates on script and spelling systems, asserting that different writing styles affect the meanings conveyed in written communication.

Part 2, ‘Approaches’, offers numerous methods of addressing discourse analysis. Chapter 5 acts as an overview that allows readers to navigate through different ways of conducting written discourse studies, which are explained with graphic illustrations in the following five chapters. Chapter 6 discusses Critical Discourse Analysis as a politically committed approach that needs to take multiple dimensions into consideration. In Chapter 7, Corpus-Based Discourse Analysis is introduced in more detail, concluding that quantitative approaches are efficient in finding nonobvious language patterns and processing large quantities of linguistic data. Chapter 8 emphasizes the importance of Multimodal Discourse Analysis in exploring written discourse, highlighting the fact that the world is filled with mixed semiotic combinations including texts, images, music, and so on. Chapter 9 looks at the distinctiveness of an approach based on online technology, Computer-Mediated Discourse Analysis. Chapter 10 explores how to understand meanings through the mixture of linguistic codes and scripts.

Part 3, ‘Applications’, has an in-depth discussion on the practicality of making written discourse analyses. More specifically, Chapter 11 addresses the feasibility of using discourse analysis in analyzing written texts in social research. Chapter 12 discusses three student projects, giving valuable advice on how to design one's own project, including how to plan and carry out research, how to collect the data, and how to strike the balance between ‘analyzing’ and ‘writing up’; above all, it provides readers with a chance to experience what it is like to work with written discourse in a real context.

Activities can be found throughout the book in an attempt to help readers examine each theme more deeply. There is also a brief summary, resources for further reading, and helpful notes at the end of each chapter. Additionally, a selection of technical terms, reference books, and an index can be found at the end of the book. Overall, this book can serve as a valuable reference tool for students, scholars, and researchers engaged in written discourse.