Our revised Group Learning Agreement:

The topic we have chosen to investigate is swearing. Our original idea was to investigate how the use of taboo language differed according to gender, but as Alison Sealey has highlighted, there is an unclear distinction between the concept of ‘male’ and ‘female’ and so it would prove difficult. Because of this, we have decided to re-direct our investigation and look at the use of taboo language across different age groups.

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
*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
*Researching English Language: A Resource Book for Students by Alison Sealey
*Foccussing on Language by Mark Sebba

This background reading will highlight any similar studies that can help us during our investigation, especially with any problems that could be encountered. It will also be useful in giving our findings context and support.


What Our Research Will Answer:
The main question we want to answer is: How do attitudes towards swearing differ between age groups? To achieve this, we need to ask more specific questions focusing on:

*The familiarity of the participant with specific swear words
*The contexts in which the participant may use swear words
*How offensive the participant finds specific swear words
*The frequency that swear words are used by the participant

We are interested to know if swearing is considered more offensive by one particular age group, or if it is viewed in a similar way by people of all ages. We would also like to find out whether patterns of use vary notably across age groups – for example, does one group swear more on average? Context is very important in the use of swearing and we would like to find out if age has an impact on when/why people swear.


Methodology:
To carry out our investigation, we will be using questionnaires - we plan to send out 50. We will attempt to gather an equal number of samples from each age group, but the individuals themselves will be selected randomly.

We will include questions confirming age and gender, as well as questions addressing the use and attitudes of the participant towards swearing.

We are aware of the sensitivity of our research topic, and will endeavour to cause as little offense to our participant as possible by incorporating a statement explaining who we are and the nature of our investigation. In accordance with BAAL ethical guidelines, we will ensure that potential participant have a full understanding of the investigation and our intentions for the data collected, and that they give full consent to take part.


Data:
The majority of the data we collect will come from closed questions regarding:
*Age (brackets)
*Gender
*Familiarity with swear words
*Offensiveness of swear words
*Context of use
*Frequency of use

However we intend to incorporate a number of open questions in order to broaden our data and give perspective to potential patterns within our findings.


Analysis Methodology:
We will quantify the data and look for potential patterns and recurrent answers before suggesting links to age in accordance with our reading. We will use scatter graphs to display and illustrate our findings.


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