Working with Discourse is designed for researchers and students interested in exploring how speakers and writers construe meaning through discourse. It draws on tools for discourse analysis that were developed in systemic functional linguistics and register and genre theory, but it requires no prior knowledge of functional linguistics and avoids academic complexity wherever possible. Rather, the book an accessible set of analytic tools that can be used with ease in a range of disciplines. These are introduced in clear steps, through analyses of a set of stories, arguments, reviews, procedures and other texts that exemplify how meanings are constructed and contested in a culture by focusing on current issues of truth and reconciliation in post-apartheid South Africa. Readers are guided through these text analyses from five complementary perspectives on meaning, exploring the ways in which: · people and things are introduced and tracked though a text; · messages are logically related in discourse sequences; · people, things, processes and qualities are construed and related; · people, things and processes are appreciated, judged and valued; · all these elements of meaning are synthesized and organized as waves of information in a text.These detailed analyses provide a practical resource for application in any field in which discourse analysis has a role, including educational research, critical discourse analysis, cultural studies, text linguistics, and language and literacy teaching. It is equally useful as a textbook for undergraduate and postgraduate courses in these fields and as a reference guide for researchers.