Proposal

Research Skills English Language Proposal

Group 2:

• Charlotte Ashley
• Charie Allen
• Louis Atkinson
• Rebecca Marshall
• Samantha Guess

Research Topic:

The topic we have chosen to investigate is swearing. We have decided to look at the differences in the use of taboo language between male and female.

Relevant Reading:

Our chosen topic requires a lot of background research, and not just to do with swearing itself. Having said this, most of our reading will focus on swearing, and so far we have found the following:

• Language and Gender by Mary Talbot
• Forbidden Words by Keith Allan and Kate Burridge
• Men Talk by Jennifer Coates
• Researching English Language: A Resource Book for Students by Alison Sealey
• Swearing in English: Bad Language, Purity and Power 1586 to the present by Tony McEnery
• Swearing: A Social History of Foul Language, Oaths and Profanity in English by Geoffrey Hughes
• Gender and Discourse: The Power of Talk by Alexandra Todd and Sue Fisher
• Corpus and Sociolingustics: Investigating Age and Gender in Female Talk by Brona Murphy
• Why We Curse: A Neuro-psych-social Theory of Speech by Timothy Jay

This background reading will highlight any similar studies that can help us during our investigation, especially with any problems that could be encountered. We have come across one problem whilst conducting preliminary research, and so have found some relevant reading to help us combat that. Alison Sealey has highlighted the problem of distinguishing gender because of the unclear distinction between male and female; not all males are masculine and not all females are feminine. Because of this, we have included some books addressing gender dysphoria and gender identity:

• Ambiguity and Sexuality by Williams S. Wilkerson
• Masculinity and Femininity by Geert Hofstede

What Our Research Will Answer:

The main question we want to answer is: How do the attitudes towards swearing differ between men and women? To achieve this, we are asking more specific questions which are:

• Which word is deemed more offensive in the opinion of women compared to the opinion of men?
• Which word is used more frequently used by women and by men?

We are interested to know if the words deemed more offensive will be the same according to both genders, or if one word which is deemed more offensive by women, may be the most frequently used by men, or vice versa.

Methodology:

To carry out our investigation, we will be using questionnaires. We plan to send out 50 questionnaires, 25 to women and 25 to men. In our questionnaires, we will include questions asking after gender, location and age, as well asking the attitudes towards swearing. Although our investigation is based on gender, we will take into consideration age and social background to make the investigation a fair representation of men and women.

Data:

The data we will collect includes:

• Age (brackets)
• Gender
• Location
• Most offensive word (we will have ranking questions, so the participant can rank the most offensive to least offensive)
• Most frequently used swear word

Analysis Methodology:

We will analyse the data using scatter graphs. Scatter graphs will allow us to easily see any patterns/correlation between the male and female data.

Presentation:

We will be presenting our findings through a vodcast – a video podcast.