How do people use language in Facebook status updates?

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How do people use language in Facebook status updates? 

In investigating this question, many factors had to be considered. Firstly, the type of status updates that would be used. Would they be random or handpicked? Do I take them from a distinct group of people or from the entire Facebook network? For these first two questions, the answers were more or less obvious, for both a fair analysis and ease of collecting and collating actual data.

They were randomly selected, and taken from a specific group of Facebook users – namely my ‘friends’ on the network. This will obviously have an effect on the result of my data, as it won’t be a fair conclusion for all Facebook status’ and some aspects may be heavily influenced by other factors – youth culture, technologies influence etc.

The next factors to be considered were more specific, as to when the data would be taken: i.e. at certain points in the day, to allow for the possibility of more people online or a trend of status’ discussing a certain going on at a specific time. It may also inflict upon the actual language used as one could hypothesise more vulgarisms and even taboo might be used the later in the day it gets. Times of year could also impose upon context of language which may be dependent upon analysis. The age group also would have a large affect on the data and therefore analysis as to what is analysed, i.e. Vulgarisms, neologisms, elision of lexis etc.

For these two specifics, the answer came mainly for the same reasons as before; taking a simple ‘latest 100 status updates’ on a random day and having the age group already taken care of through the act of choosing only ‘my friends’, closing this down to a minimum of 14 years old up to 20 at the oldest. This 6 year age gap seemed insignificant enough to trim down and the difference in language structure and level within the gap would be minimal and non detrimental.

I collected the latest 100 status updates from a possible 460 people at 5.50pm, Monday 20th July 2009.

This though, did throw up some problems. There is the possibility on Facebook to update your status more than once, in fact, however often you want to. Therefore, there were repeats where somebody in the list had updated their status more than once within the ‘100’ band. In my opinion thought, this didn’t have any effect on the concrete data I had, or the analysis to be done as it would simply be analysing the language itself, and not the influence of the single person. A whole group of people yes, as conclusions can be drawn afterwards as to their collective view of ‘a Facebook status update’. Only if gender, age or any other human social characteristic was being paralleled with a certain language characteristic would this matter.

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How did young people ages between 14 and 20 use language in 100 Facebook status updates as of 5.50pm on Monday 20th July, 2009?

Looking at the collected data in an organised fashion made many stand out features of Facebook updates immediately apparent. The first was the sheer amount of apparent non conformity to Standard English, many examples of neologisms, homophones and non standard clipping are rife throughout the research shown in the appendices. Some used quotes from various sources: music culture, film and simply quotes from other people, friends or otherwise. Some used vulgarisms as expected, but not as ...

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spelling is correct but issues with grammar have made some sentences harder to read, especially with unnecessary repetition. Proofreading is vital to ensure that any submitted work is clear and as concise as possible.

A very well informed and explained methodology section covers many of the intricacies and practicalities of performing such an investigation in a reliable way, as well as highlighting areas where other variables could confound reliability. An evaluation would cover these in greater depth and should also offer improvements which is important for showing your understanding of the subject and of the scientific element of the investigation. The A level investigation coursework is much more scientific than anything you would have done in an English course previously. I would have preferred to see a short paragraph covering the reasoning behind the choice of investigation, demonstrating a genuine interest in the chosen area of linguistics. It is vital to be very specific in your methodology so that you can refer back to it when completing your evaluation/conclusion and the candidate could have improved on this, for example, by mentioning the exact time of day the status updates were collected at. However it’s important to note the correct and proficient use of subject-specific terms e.g. neologisms as this gets you into the higher marking bands, especially when syntax is also mentioned.

This coursework gives good examples of a sufficiently detailed introduction and methodology as well as a detailed and complex analysis which includes plenty of lexical and syntactical terminology. This is done by giving a few examples for each aspect they are focusing on e.g. name being the subject of status. Sufficient breadth of linguistic terminology is achieved despite the writer focusing heavily on the syntax of their data. This is important as examiners can only award marks for the features you highlight so it’s worth mentioning as many as you can, providing it doesn’t confuse the point you’re trying to make. A lack of conclusion and evaluation is the major problem with this piece but it would not be fair to dismiss it entirely as it demonstrates good data-analysing techniques incorporating charts and comparisons and drawing examples from these by quoting percentages and possible reasons, vital for impressing A level examiners. However mentioning a few more theories or theorists would demonstrate understanding and an ability to link together various aspects of the curriculum. This would also be beneficial when writing the conclusion as you could link the findings back to a particular mentioned theory and therefore assess the validity of the results, approach the task as scientifically as possible for better grades. When writing an evaluation remember to pick up on any problems you may have mentioned earlier on and suggest possible improvements giving reasons why these changes would make your findings more reliable/easier to carry out etc. as this is what examiners are looking for.