The present study investigates the use of hedging devices in the readers’ comment section of the newspaper The Guardian Online. Two comment sections were chosen for the contrastive study: ‘Politics’ in the subsection ‘Comment is free’ and the series ‘Problem solved’ in the subsection ‘Life and style’. The corpus-based analysis of the frequency of hedges has revealed that the incidence of hedging devices in comments on personal issues is higher (by 19.2%) than on political articles. Three of the most frequently occurring hedging devices, namely, might, SEEM and I (don’t) think underwent further contextual analysis: the utterances containing these items were classified according to their illocutionary force, applying Bach’s (2003) classification of illocutionary acts. The most commonly hedged speech act types, characteristic of each section, were revealed.  Subsequently, an attempt was made to account for these findings from the perspective of ‘face’ and ‘facework’ as represented by Brown and Levinson (1987), Lim and Bowers (1991), MacGeorge, Lichtman and Pressey (2002), Ting-Toomey and Kurogi (1998). Since hedging is considered to be an effective strategy in minimizing ‘threats’ to the face of the addressee, it has  been possible to conclude that in discussions of personal issues participants are more concerned to ‘save’ the addressee’s face than in the case of political matters where the comment writers’ ‘self-face seems to be in the forefront.

The problem with which this investigation is concerned is that of determining the influence of instructors' written comments on the test performances of students in selected college subjects. The students were from one university and one junior college. The written comments were designed to be positive in nature and to encourage better future test performances by students. The comments were made in regard to the letter grades received by the students and were placed only on major (as defined by each instructor) objective tests.

The problem of this study was a descriptive analysis of the process of client-centered play therapy. The purposes of this study were (l) to investigate and describe the patterns of play activities, nonverbal expressions, and verbal comments during the process of client-centered play therapy; (2) to determine whether phases of emotional and/or social development do exist during the process of client-centered play therapy; and, (3) to describe any identified phases of emotional and/or social development that exist during the process of client-centered play therapy.

Esta pesquisa qualitativa configurou-se como um estudo de caso dos repertórios interpretativos utilizados na construção de posicionamentos contrários às cotas raciais nas universidades públicas brasileiras, expressos na sessão de comentários à notícia, publicada na internet, da decisão unânime do Supremo Tribunal Federal em favor da legitimidade constitucional do sistema de reserva de vagas baseado em critérios raciais. Partindo da perspectiva epistemológica do construcionismo social e dos instrumentos teóricometodológicos da psicologia social discursiva no estudo da relação entre racismo e discurso, analisei um conjunto de 6 fragmentos de interações, somando 44 registros, retirados de um total de 250 comentários. A organização dos comentários em fragmentos objetivou recortar diálogos espontâneos entre os comentadores, privilegiando aqueles que permitiram o acompanhamento da construção dos posicionamentos contrários ao sistema de cotas raciais. Os resultados encontrados corroboram os achados da pesquisa de Margareth Wetherell e Jonathan Potter (1992) sobre o discurso dos Pakeha Neozelandeses (brancos descendentes de europeus) empregados em posicionamentos sobre o estatuto das relações raciais na Nova Zelândia, particularmente sobre a questão dos programas de ação afirmativa. Tal como nesta pesquisa, o presente estudo de caso encontrou o emprego de argumentos de base liberal na construção de posicionamentos contrários ao sistema de cotas, que no contexto específico das interações analisadas, trabalham em defesa do status quo racista da sociedade brasileira. Nas considerações finais, apontei algumas das vantagens da especificidade do campo empírico recortado para o estudo do racismo, bem como da consideração do racismo como uma prática sócio-cultural de construção de sentidos concretizada a partir do emprego de recursos discursivos disponíveis numa sociedade racista. Sugeri algumas linhas de aprofundamento da análise do material bruto coletado, que ficará disponível para pessoas darem continuidade ao trabalho de analise deste material. Sugeri também a possibilidade de que a abordagem teóricometodológica de trabalho com práticas discursivas e produção de sentido pode ter bons resultados quando aplicada em pesquisas envolvendo grupos de pesquisadores e paridade racial e de gênero. Destaco ainda algumas das possibilidades futuras de pesquisas envolvendo a proposta de pesquisa empírica na sessão de comentários a textos publicados na internet para o estudo dos mais variados temas / This qualitative research was configured as a case study of the interpretative repertoires used in building positions contrary to racial quotas in Brazilian public universities, expressed in the comments to the news published on the Internet, the unanimous decision of the Supreme Court in favor of the constitutional legitimacy of the system of quotas based on racial criteria. Starting from the epistemological perspective of social constructionism and the theoretical and methodological tools of discursive social psychology in the study of the relationship between racism and discourse, I\'ve analyzed a set of 6 pieces of interactions, totaling 44 records taken from a total of 250 comments. The organization aimed to cut fragments comments spontaneous conversations among commentators, privileging those who have allowed the monitoring of the construction of positions contrary to the racial quota system. The results corroborate the findings of research Margaret Wetherell and Jonathan Potter (1992) on the speech of Pakeha New Zealanders (white European descent) employees in positions on the status of race relations in New Zealand, particularly on the issue of affirmative action programs. As this research, this case study found the arguments of neoliberal base to build positions contrary to the quota, which in the specific context of interactions analyzed, work in defense of the racist status quo of the Brazilian society system. In closing remarks, I pointed some of the advantages of specificity clipped to the study of racism empirical field, as well as consideration of racism as a socio-cultural practice of constructing meanings realized from the use of discursive resources available in a racist society. Suggested some lines of further analysis of the crude material collected, which will be available for people to continue the work of analysis of this material. Also suggested the possibility that the theoretical-methodological approach to working with discursive practices and the production of meaning can have good results when applied to research involving groups of researchers and racial and gender parity. Also highlight some of the possibilities for future research involving the proposal of empirical research in the comments to texts published on the Internet for the study of various topics

The aim of this study is to investigate what interpersonal relationships are constructedwhen a teacher comments on students’ texts. The investigation is based on 201 comments from one teacher and are analysed with a qualitative and a quantitative method. The theoretical frame of the investigation is founded on functional grammar and interpersonal perspectives, using the categories address, directions, praise, caution, and additions. The results show that directions are the most common feature of interpersonal perspectives found in the teacher’s comments. The second most common category is additions, constituting of confirmations, corrections and help in the teacher’s comments. Furthermore, two equally detected categories in the investigation are address and praise that are detected 53 times each. The least detected category is caution.

As early career researchers, we all want to be successful in securing our first big grant and publishing our research findings in the most prestigious journals. To achieve this success, we need to be able to understand why our grants proposals weren't funded in a grant cycle and why we are asked to make major revisions to the manuscript that we spent so much time on already. Even worse is when we get an outright rejection and don't understand why. A very important skill as a researcher is to be able to interpret the comments from grant and manuscript reviews objectively once we recover from the initial reaction of sadness, frustration, or even anger. This session will provide strategies to tackle the reviewers' comments that will hopefully lead to a successful resubmission.

Denna studie jämför hur kommentarer till nätartiklar på Aftonbladet.se har förändrats från 2010 till 2011 vad gäller innehåll, språk och ton. Mellan dessa år har systemet för kommentering ändrats på Aftonbladet.se, från att det 2010 krävdes registrering och att kommentatorn fick välja ett valfritt alias, till att kommentering sker via ett redan registrerat Facebook-konto med kommentatorns riktiga namn. Studiens syfte är att ta reda på hur diskussionerna och språket i kommentarsfälten påverkas när kommentatorn inte längre får vara anonym. Med kvantitativ innehållsanalys undersöks två artiklars kommentarer per dag under en vecka, 14 till 20 oktober 2010 och 2011, 14 artiklar från varje år. Urvalet av artiklar utgår från vilka artiklar som topplacerats i Aftonbladets pappersupplaga samma dag. Totalt har 1452 kommentarer undersökts med 28 variabler. Variablerna berör bland annat huruvida kommentaren är kritisk, om den svarar på en annan kommentar och om den innehåller stavfel eller andra språkliga misstag. Efter att kodningen genomförts gjordes ett reliabilitetstest där 30 redan undersökta kommentarer analyserades en gång till för att stärka resultatets validitet. Huvudresultatet visar att det 2011 pågår en mer aktiv diskussion mellan de som kommenterar och att kvinnorna har tagit mer plats i kommentarsfälten än tidigare. Detta kan ha sin förklaring i att det är mer lättillgängligt att kommentera via ett Facebook-konto förutsatt att man redan har ett registrerat konto. Språkbruket är i princip det samma båda åren, men kommentarerna har blivit längre och mer sakliga. / This study compares reader comments on articles displayed on Aftonbladet.se, in terms of content and language. Between these years the system for commenting on Aftonbladet.se has changed from a registration, when the user could choose their own alias, to commenting using their already existing Facebook-account with the user’s real name. This study answers the question how and if the reader comments change when the option of being anonymous disappears. This study analyses readers’ comments of two articles every day during two weeks, October 14th to October 20th 2010 and 2011, with a total of 14 articles each year. The selection of articles was based on the articles placement in the printed newspaper Aftonbladet the same day. 1452 comments have been studied through 28 variables. Some of the most important variables were; whether the comment is critical, whether the comment answers another comment and if it contains spelling mistakes. In order to strengthen the validity of the study a test of the reliability was made and 30 comments were re-analysed one more time. The main results of the study indicates that the debate was more active between the users in 2011 than in 2010 and that women to a higher extent started to take place in the commenting area. These results are probably an effect of using the Facebook account for commenting, which is accessible and easy to use.

The present study examines typical features of internet language found in user-generated comments collected from commenting groups from four online magazines aimed at different readerships: (1) adult women (Working Mother and Mothering), (2) adult men (Esquire), (3) young women (Seventeen) and (4) young men (Gameinformer). Approximately 5,000 words from each commenting group were collected, creating a 21,087 word corpus which was analyzed with regard to typographic (emoticons, nonstandard typography of and, personal pronouns you and I) and orthographic features (abbreviations, acronyms) as well as syntactic and stylistic features resembling spoken language (contracted forms, ellipsis of subject and/or verb and commenting tone). The results show that adult men wrote the longest comments, followed by adult women, young men and young women in descending order. Furthermore, as for the typical features regarding typography and orthography, it was found that among the four commenting groups, adult men and adult women used them very sparsely, young men used them occasionally and young women used the features most frequently. The analysis of tone showed that adult men mostly used an aggressive or neutral tone, while adult women, young women and young men mostly used a friendly or neutral tone. Young women used an aggressive tone more often than adult women and young men. Moreover, regarding the syntactic and stylistic features, results revealed that the young men were the most frequent users of ellipsis of subject and/or verb, followed by adult women, young women and adult men. Contracted forms were used extensively in the potential places of contractions, regardless of commenting group. Since young men used the ellipsis of subject and/or verb most frequently of all commenting groups and also used the contracted forms in all potential places of contractions, the conclusion is that the young men used a style that is closer to spoken English than the three other commenting groups. / Den här studien undersöker språkdrag som är typiska för språk på internet. Det material som har undersöks har hämtats från användarkommentarer i nättidningar som är riktade till fyra olika läsargrupper: (1) kvinnor (Working Mother, Mothering), (2) män (Esquire), (3) unga kvinnor (Seventeen) och (4) unga män (Gameinformer). Cirka 5 000 ord hämtades från kommentarsfälten för varje tidning, vilket resulterade i en korpus som omfattade 21 087 ord totalt. Korpusen analyserades med hänsyn till typografiska språkdrag (smileys, ickestandardiserad stavning av personliga pronomen I och you samt and) och ortografiska språkdrag (förkortningar, akronymer) samt syntaktiska och stilistiska språkdrag som påminner om talspråk (sammandragningar, ellips av subjekt och/eller predikatsverb, tonläge). Resultaten visade att män skrev de längsta kommentarerna, följda av kvinnor, unga män och unga kvinnor i fallande ordning. Vad gäller typiska typografiska och ortografiska språkdrag visar resultatet att de återfanns mycket sparsamt i kvinnornas och männens data, att de återfanns då och då i de unga männens data och att de unga kvinnorna var de som använde dessa språkdrag mest frekvent. Analys av tonläge i användarkommentarerna visade att män oftast använde en aggressiv eller neutral ton, medan kvinnor, unga kvinnor och unga män oftast använde en vänskaplig eller neutral ton. Unga kvinnor använde en aggressiv ton oftare än kvinnor och unga män. Utöver detta visade resultatet att ellips av subjekt och/eller predikatsverb var mest frekvent i de unga männens användarkommentarer, följt av kvinnornas, de unga kvinnornas och männens. Sammandragna former användes näst intill undantagslöst i hela korpusen. Eftersom pojkarna uppvisade mest frekvent användning av ellips av subjekt och/eller predikatsverb samt använde sammandragna former i full utsträckning, kan slutsatsen dras att de unga männens syntax är mer påverkad av engelskt talspråk än syntaxen hos de tre andra kommenterande grupperna.

Svenska befolkningens hälsa började på allvar att uppfattas som en samhällelig angelägenhet redan under 1700- talet och idag tar det sig uttryck i bland annat mätmetoder som BMI (Body Mass Index), vilket avser att undersöka befolkningens hälsa. Inom BMI området kan en brist på forskning upplevas på bland annat BMI:s påverkan. Människan tillbringar allt mer av sin vakna tid till medier, både professionella och privata aktiviteter fyller människans liv och dessa genomsyras av medietexter, mediebilder och kommunikationstekniker av olika slag. Syftet med denna undersökning var att beskriva hur BMI diskursen utspelar sig vid läsarkommentarer på internetbaserade tidningsartiklar. Metoden som användes i undersökningen var diskursanalys där läsarkommentarer på internetbaserade tidningsartiklar analyserades. Något som var representativt inom BMI diskursen var att individer i förhållande till sig själva reflekterade över vad som var normalt gentemot BMI. De uppfattningar som framkom bestod av utseendemässiga och hälsomässiga uppfattningar. Ofta upplevdes BMI som ett alldeles för snävt förhållningssätt till vad som är normalt. Det framkom även utsagor kring betydelsen av ”sunt förnuft” vid tolkandet av BMI:s funktion. BMI diskursen som framtonade sig ur läsarkommentarer bidrog med en komplex bild kring människors värderingar, människosyn och grundläggande uppfattningar. / The Swedish public health began to be seriously perceived as a societal concern as early as 1700. Today this takes form as methods of measurement like BMI (Body Mass Index) which are meant to investigate the population’s health. A lack of research can be experienced in the BMI area, for example research of BMI's influence. We spend more of our waking time to the media, both professional and personal activities fill our lives and those are influenced by media texts, media images and communications technologies of different kinds. The purpose of this study was to describe how the BMI discourse takes place at reader comments on internet-based articles. The Method of this study was discourse analysis in which the reader comments were analyzed. The results showed that it was representative in the BMI discourse for individuals in relation to themselves reflect on what was normal in relation to BMI. These views emerged as to what normal was comprised to both physical appearance and health. BMI was often perceived as to narrow approach to what is normal. The important use of “common sense” when interpreting BMI´s function was stated inside the BMI Discourse. The BMI Discourse that emerged from reader’s comments contributes to a complex context about human values, humanity and fundamental beliefs.

Marginalijos – svarbus, informatyvus knygos elementas, atskleidžiantis ne tik marginalijų ypatybes, sukūrimo laiką, vietą, bet ir jų kūrėjo visai kitą asmenybės pusę. Bakalauro darbe aptariama marginalijų samprata, tyrimų kryptys ir vienas iš sudėtingiausių aspektų – marginalijų klasifikacija. Darbe analizuojamos Ž. Mikšio ŠU bibliotekai dovanotų knygų marginalijos, kurios sudaro tokias grupes: paprastosios arba bendrosios marginalijos, taisančiosios marginalijos ir papildoma informacija. Pagal marginalijų kūrėjo ryšį su tekstu, jo pateikiamią vertinimą šios grupės suskirstytos į smulkesnius pogrupius. Atlikus tyrimą, paaiškėjo, kad didžiąją marginalijų dalį sudaro paprastosios marginalijos, turinčios neigiamą reikšmę. Ž. Mikšio kritiški įrašai knygose atskleižia jo požiūrį į Lietuvoje leidžiamas knygas, jų kokybę, leidėjus. Taisančiųjų marginalijų ir papildomos informacijos pagrindinė funkcija – pagalba skaitytojui. Prieduose pateikiamas šaltinių sąrašas, kurį sudaro 297 knygos, iš kurių buvo išrinktos marginalijos. Taip pat prieduose pridėti įdomesni, informatyvesni Ž. Mikšio marginalijų pavyzdžiai. / Marginalia is an important and informative element of the book. What is more, it reveals not only the characteristics of marginalia, the creation of time, place, but also includes a completely different personality side of the creator. These Bachelor's thesis discusses about the concept of marginalia, research directions, and also focuses on one of the most challenging aspects – classification of marginalia. Moreover, this paper aims to provide analysis of marginalia, which are selected from the donated Ž. Mikšys books to Šiauliai university library. In this case they consist of the following groups: common marginalia, emendation marginalia and additional information. According to marginalia creator’s connection with the text and his presented evaluation, it has been decided to divide this group into smaller sub-groups. The investigation has shown that the majority of the marginality consist of ordinary marginality, which have negative meanings. Criticized Ž. Mikšys records in the books reveal his approach regarding the books published in Lithuania, their quality and publishers. The main feature of emendation marginalia and additional information – the aid to a reader. In the annexes is given a list of sources which indicates 279 books, and all marginalia have been selected from the presented books. It is important to mention that annexes include more interesting and informative examples of Ž. Mikšys marginalia as well.