1. ASSIGNMENT 2
ANALYSIS OF CORPUS ON BLOG
Group Members : Siti Nur Diyana Mohd Ghazali (0727706)
: Nurul Liyana Binti Janah@Zainal (0723990)
: Noor Arina Binti Muhamad (0726896)
: Melisa Nurjustina Elwiana Muhd Alwin Liew (0719306)
Course Code : ENGL 4740
Course Title : Computer Application in Language Studies
Section :1
Instructor : Dr. Rozina Abd. Ghani
Semester : 2, 2010/2011

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Introduction
One of the modes of Computer Application Communication is blog. A blog is a type
of website or part of a website. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular
entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video.
Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. Blog can also be used as a
verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog. Most blogs are interactive, allowing
visitors to leave comments and even message each other via widgets on the blogs and it is
this interactivity that distinguishes them from other static websites (Wikipedia).
Therefore, we have chosen a blog by Nasree Najmi (www.reethekick.blogspot.com)
who is currently pursuing his master degree in Sports Science at UiTM, Shah Alam to be
analysed. He is an ex-ICT graduate of IIUM. He actively involved in Taekwondo and Karate
(martial arts) and has his own training classes. Using this sample of corpus from the blog, we
have analysed important aspects of language of the corpus which are the intention of
writings, information contained in the blog, language used and symbolism. Not forgetting the
two linguistics aspects that we also focus on; The Cooperative Principles and Politeness. We
studied his blog and have done a personal interview with him to get a better understanding of
his blog.
Intention
His main intention creating a blog was at first, to reply to an argument posted by a
coach. He wants to make clear of some issues pertaining to Taekwondo tournament which
somehow dissatisfy a coach. Since that incident, he keeps on using his blog mainly to share
his ideas and experiences and to exchange thoughts with the readers. However, he seldom
updates his blog. In his blog, he likes to touch on issues which can capture his readers‟

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attention. Issues like health, Islamic thoughts and personal life are very much fond by people.
Each topic has its own messages and values. For example, when he talks about Dajjal, he
mainly wants to share his readings with his readers, when he talks about his Convocation Day
and his family visit to India, he merely shares his own experiences and when he touches on
health topic, it is just to add some general knowledge and facts to his readers. When he
writes, he loves to leave a punch-line in every post to emphasize the message of his posts.
Information
When we view his blog, the first sight that captures our attention is some pictures
which are displayed on the top of his blog. The pictures resemble his personalities and his
hobbies. Then he describes that he would love to share his experiences and knowledge
through his blog with the readers. There is a lot of information from his blog archive that can
benefit us. It is because he shares everything from his experiences that he has gone through in
his life and there is also some knowledge about Islam that has been shared such as „Dajjal‟.
Other various information such as his Convocation Day which gives meaning to his life,
“Syawal in India”, Back to the Root, “Marhaban Ya Ramadhan”, “Health is Wealth”, and
“Tanggungjawab Black Belt yang Tak Gentleman are shared in his blog.
We found out something interesting from the interview done. His topics of writings
are very much influenced by the way how he was brought up. His father has taught him to be
disciplined and how to be a good leader. They always talk about issues about life, discipline
and Islamic issues. That is why, the topic of “Dajjal”, is there on his post. In every post, he
will leave the moral of the story to give a reflection to his readers. Furthermore, his post on
“Health is Wealth” the information gives benefits to his readers.

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Alongside these posts, we have noticed that he put his complete profile and his own
picture to let the readers know his background. From that information, we have the prediction
that perhaps he is a simple and a low profile person. In overall, each post that he has shared
has a valuable moral value in it and it is very useful to the readers who view his blog to get
some general insight.
Language
We analyzed Nasree‟s blog and found out that the language used in his blog is more
informal and thus makes the blog quite democratic form of expression. His communication to
readers is usually direct and casual. Some posts, however, are formally written. His blog
posts do not go through editors or spellcheckers necessarily and hence he takes the liberty to
freely use language as he wishes.
Sociolinguistics is a study of the speaker‟s age, sex and social class. A bilingual
blogger like Nasree, is faced with the choice of two languages for his posts. While some
bloggers prefer to keep them separate, others choose to write in both languages. In the case of
Nasree, he prefers to share his thoughts, express his emotions and ideas mostly in Bahasa
Melayu as he uses mostly Bahasa Melayu in his daily conversations. However, when it comes
to facts, he prefers to write them in English.
In terms of stylistics and semantics, Nasree‟s way of writing his blog posts differs
from one another. When he talks about his emotions or whenever he wants to give a critique,
his message is much more direct to the readers, uses informal style of writing and certain
punctuation marks to connote his state of mind. On the other hand, when he talks about health
and life experiences, his way of writing is much more rule-based.

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Symbolism
Symbols and pictures are frequently use in the blog to make the blog looks
interesting. Some bloggers use more pictures in the blog than words. Sometimes pictures
speak to the world as the famous quotation sings that “A picture worth a thousand words”.
Colours of the background and colours of the pictures can attract readers. Symbols and
pictures are important to invite as many followers as they could.
Nasree does not use the emoticons constantly. He only uses emoticons four times
throughout his blog and prefers simple emoticons. Most of his post uses a normal writing
manner. He uses the question mark in a normal way and at the right spot. There are posts in
his blog which use question mark twice to show his seriousness in getting the answer for his
questions. The background picture of his blog also gives a simple connotation. He has chosen
that background because he likes it and of its simple design. Therefore, it connotes him as a
simple person and someone who likes art.
One thing that captures of eyesight is when he uses numbers as his username which is
511sidekick. 511 is the trademark number of his family. That number also has been used as
his personal cell phone number and his car plat number. The word sidekick resembles his
involvement in Taekwondo and sidekick is one of the basic kicks in Taekwondo. The pictures
that are used in this blog are relevant to every story that he writes. The writers put his own
pictures and this show his guts in exposing himself to the public. He does not afraid of being
responsible of his own writing when he chooses to put his own picture in his blog. The
pictures that are used suit his writings.

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Cooperative Principles
People who obey the Cooperative Principles or known as Gricean Maxims in their
language used will make sure that what they say in a conversation furthers the purpose of that
conversation (Wikipedia). The four sub-principles, called maxims are being discussed further
under The Cooperative Principles. The four maxims are Quantity, Quality, Relation and
Manner. His writings fit all the maxims mentioned and can be seen throughout his posts in
his blog.
Politeness
Politeness in an interaction can then be defined as the means employed to show
awareness of another person‟s face. In this sense, Politeness can be accomplished in
situations of social distance or closeness. Showing awareness for another person‟s face when
that other seems socially distant is often described in terms of respect or deference. Showing
the equivalent awareness when the other is socially close is often described in terms of
friendliness, camaraderie, or solidarity. When we tend to save another‟s face, we can pay
attention to their negative face wants or their positive face wants (Yule, 2011). Thus, under
Politeness, we have analysed his positive and negative face wants. In this case, he has his
own freedom to write anything he fond of. Not only that, his writings is meant to be shared
and to be liked by others without hurting their feelings.
Literature Review
The first article entitled Using Blogs to Enhance Critical Reflection and Community
of Practice written by Shih-Hsien Yang from the Department of Applied Foreign Languages,
National Formosa University, YunLin, Taiwan has been reviewed and this paper seeks the
use of blogs as a reflective platform in the schooling processes of English as Foreign

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Language (EFL) student teachers, who learnt to teach English for future employment in
Taiwan. They made use of blogs as a platform to critically reflect on their learning processes
as well as to test the impact of blogs for their own professional growth (Yang, 2009).
According to Yang (2009) two instructors created a blog as a discussion forum so that the
student teachers could participate in and examine their own reflection process. The data
collected was qualitative in nature, consisting of student teachers‟ posting messages and
comments on the blog, surveys on the student teachers‟ reflective experiences using blogs as
reflection tools, and group reflective dialogues recorded by instructors in class meetings over
the implementation of blogs during the course. The results showed that the student teachers
energetically discussed teaching theories and their implications through blogs (Yang, 2009).
Based on Yang, (2009) all of the 43 teachers who took part in this study were reflective, and
some critically reflected on their thoughts and made significant comments; and the
participants considered technology a useful platform for reflecting and communicating with
each other. The positive implications for the use of blogs as a medium to provide and
promote critical reflection for EFL teachers are discussed. Yang quoted Efimova and Fiedler
(2003) that blogs is characterized as “personal diary-like-format websites enabled by easy to
use tools and open for everyone to read”. Godwin-Jones (2003) in Yang (2009) article also
indicates that through blogging, people are able to document their reflections about things
relevant to their daily life experiences, sharing such things with their friends, families, and/or
group members. He further points out that blogs and other social networking sites provide
new opportunities and incentives for personal writing.
According to the second article entitled “Gender differences in usage, satisfaction,
self-efficacy and performance of blogging” by Eric Zhi Feng Liu and Yu Fang Chang, female
users update blogs more than male users. Female users love to talk about gossip and that is
the reason they use blogs more than male users (Zhi & Yu, 2010). According to Zhi & Yu

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(2010) “Students have high self-efficacy in using the blog because the instructor can answer
or solve their problem immediately in the class or provide them with practice time in class”.
There were no gender differences in both satisfaction and self-efficacy. This implies that both
men and women in the class were satisfied with the teaching of blogging, and that they
confidently used blogs after the class (Zhi & Yu, 2010).
In the third article entitled “Blogging in teacher professional development: Its role in
building computer-assisted language teaching skills, Puvaneswary Murugaiah et al (2010)
cited McLaughlin and Oberman (1996) that a teacher who learns, gains an understanding of
new concepts of content and pedagogy as well as the new role of educator that he plays. The
researchers also cited Yang (2009) blogs present a platform for teachers to improve
themselves through interaction with others. Moreover, from Efimova & Fiedler (2003), blogs
promote community building as they are constructed by people who share mutual interests to
discuss common issues. Puvaneswary Murugaiah et al (2010) quoted Barlett-Bragg (cited in
Muwanga-Zake et al, 2010), blogs provide an opportunity to engage in and scaffold
knowledge construction and blogging has the potential to boost constructivist cognition and
meta-cognition (higher order thinking skills).
Analysis
The two aspects that are discussed in this analysis are The Cooperative Principles and
Politeness. The four sub-principles, called maxims are being discussed further under The
Cooperative Principles. The four maxims are Quantity, Quality, Relation and Manner.
Besides that, Politeness is very much put into focus of this discussion. The reason these two
linguistic aspects are taken is because they occurred much throughout his blog.
The Maxim of Quantity (Quantity of Information) talks about how to make our
contribution as informative as is required (for the current purposes of the exchange) or how

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not to make our contribution more informative than is required (Yule, 2011). His writings fit
the two descriptions. He writes little to avoid his readers get bored and he writes much to give
his readers full information and a clear picture of what he wants to say. For example, when he
talks about „Dajjal‟ and „Health is Wealth‟, he provides as much information as he could to
create the awareness to his readers on these issues. At the same time, he wants to make clear
of the issue that he critiques on like „Tanggungjawab Black Belt yang Tak Gentleman‟. On
the other hand, when he posted „Back to the Root‟ and „Marhaban Ya Ramadhan‟, he simply
wants to greet his readers and to welcome the month of Ramadhan and to give moral values
of the importance of being a good servant of Allah.
The Maxim of Quality (Be Truthful) talks about how we should not say what we
believe to be false and which we lack of adequate evidence (Yule, 2011). In this case,
Nasree‟s blog is reliable as 80% of his posts are from his own experiences for instance; the
posts on „Syawal di India‟ and when he shares his experience on his Convocation Day.
Furthermore, he knows what to say and is an expert of the topics he shares. There are some
issues posted by him are based on his readings and taken from reliable sources like the topics
of dajjal and health. He does not violate the Maxim of Quality by exaggerating his creative
writing to look good in the eye of his readers.
The Maxim of Relation (Relevance) talks about the relevancy of what we uttered and
to always be relevant (Yule, 2011). He often compares his experiences with his friends and
analyse those experiences and see the relevancy of the information before posted the
information to his blog. He has his own arguments and interpretations of certain issues and
always looks for reliable and relevant sources. As in the issues of ‘Dajjal, he gets the
information from prominent and knowledgeable Ustaz. From the interview done, we found
out that the health topic is taken from a Professor‟s blog in India. In addition, we have
noticed that all his posts‟ titles are relevant with the content of the message that he wants to

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deliver. This method plays an important role because it can easily capture the attention of his
readers.
The Maxim of Manner (Be Clear) talks about how to avoid obscurity of expression, to
avoid ambiguity, to be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity) and to be orderly (Yule, 2011)
when we conversing. He always speaks directly and does not have any hidden meanings. He
avoids being ambiguity in his writings and shows his real expression. For instance,
„Tanggungjawab Black Belt yang Tak Gentleman‟ shows his dissatisfaction while when we
read on his Convocation story, we can sense his happiness. The wordiness of his posts is
depending on the issues that he wants to focus on. If it is wordiness, it is because of the
tendency to give full information of the issues such as in the issue of “Dajjal” where he is
giving the accurate and useful information. If it is brief, it is merely to let his readers to get
the gist of his information and to avoid his readers get bored.
For the Positive Politeness Strategy, it means being complimentary and gracious to
the addressee but if this is overused the speaker may alienate the other party. Thus, under
Politeness, we have analysed his positive and negative face wants. In this case, he has his
own freedom to write anything he fond of. Not only that, his writings is meant to be shared
and to be liked by others without hurting their feelings. He starts his blog posts with “Salam”
and ends with “have a nice day, Wassalam”. These greetings make readers feel welcomed
and give them a pleasant feeling while reading. Most of the issues that are brought up in his
blog posts are positive. Even if it sounds negative, it is just merely a critique. Therefore, it
gives impact or tends to influence people to respond in a positive manner as well, particularly
when there are different opinions between the blogger and the readers. In addition, when the
relationship is socially close between the blogger and the reader, the comments are more
polite even if they disagree with the writer‟s ideas.

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His writings are seen as positive and were written in a polite manner. He does not like
to critique in a negative way as he considers the feelings of his readers. He critiques directly
to his target person but in a good manner as in “Tanggungjawab Black Belt yang Tak
Gentlemen”. He knows to whom he wants to give his message to regardless of the
relationship that he has with any particular person. Most of his messages are for his general
readers and are meant to capture their attentions.
Among the benefits of using blog is to influence others and to be influenced by others.
By reading others‟ blogs, Nasree could gain new knowledge and insights on certain issues
which of his interests. For that reason, it is important not to be irrational and be too emotional
in writing something and when want to criticize someone. That is why he uses this politeness
strategy when addressing his readers which is very much effective in delivering messages and
at the same time respecting readers‟ feelings and faces.

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References
Liu, Z. F. E. & Yu, F. C. (2010). Gender differences in usage, satisfaction, self-efficacy and
performance of blogging. British Journal of Educational Technology, Vol. 41( 3).
Puvaneswary Murugaiah et al (2010). Blogging in teacher professional development: Its role
in building computer-assisted language teaching skills. International Journal of
Education and Development using Information and Communication Technology
(IJEDICT), Vol. 6 ( 3), 73-87.
Yang, S. H. (2009). Using blogs to enhance critical reflection and community of practice.
Educational Technology & Society, Vol.12 (2), 11–21.
Yule, George (2011). Pragmatics. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.
Blog. Retrieved on 15th February 2011 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog
Cooperative Principle. Retrieved on 11th February 2011 from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooperative_principle
www.reethekick.blogspot.com