Information For Usyd Participants

Linguistics Office Department  of Linguistics School of Letters and Media Faculty of Arts   ABN 15 211 513 464

 Jane Simpson                                             Amelia Walkley

 Associate Professor                                     Honours Student

 Room 227 F12 ­ Transient University of Sydney NSW 2006  AUSTRALIA Telephone:   +61 2 9351 3655 Facsimile:  +61 2 9351 7572 Email: [email protected] [email protected]  

Hello! I am currently undertaking research into Facebook to meet the requirements for my Joint Honours degree in Linguistics and French at the University of Sydney. The study is about conversations on the social networking site Facebook and involves a linguistic analysis of various wall conversations from users of Facebook from the Sydney University and the University of Lausanne networks. Would you be interested in participating in this study? Your involvement is simple and requires virtually no effort! If you give your consent, I will take an electronic copy of conversations published by you and on your wall on Facebook. The text will be added to my corpus which I will then analyse from a linguistic point of view. Please be aware that being in this study is completely voluntary - you are not under any obligation to consent and - if you do consent - you can withdraw at any time without affecting your relationship with the University of Sydney, nor with the University of Lausanne, nor with me, the researcher. You will remain anonymous, and a pseudonym will be used so as to render you unidentifiable. Should any personal identifying information appear such as phone number in your wall-to-wall conversations, this will not be shown. Please be sure to read the Participant Information Sheet attached. If you would like to be involved in the study please indicate by replying to this email. If you do not reply, this will be understood to mean that you do not wish to participate. Thanks in advance, and I hope to hear from you soon!

Amelia Walkley [email protected]

Facebook Conversations

PARTICIPANT INFORMATION STATEMENT Honours Research Project PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING BEFORE CONSENTING TO PARTICIPATE IN THE STUDY

Conversations on Facebook (1)

What is the study about?

The study is about published conversations on the social networking site Facebook and involves a linguistic analysis of various wall conversations from users of Facebook from the Sydney University and the University of Lausanne networks. The participants will therefore be university students who use Facebook, and the study will examine the way in which language is used in this context. (2)

Who is carrying out the study?

The study is being conducted by Amelia Walkley to meet the requirements for her Joint Honours degree in Linguistics and French at the University of Sydney under the supervision of Dr. Jane Simpson (+61 2 9351 3655) and Dr. Caroline Lipovsky (+61 2 9351 3651). (3)

What does the study involve?

If you decide to take part in the study, all you need to do is to agree to the researcher taking an electronic copy of conversation(s) from your Facebook wall for inclusion in her corpus of data. This simply involves expressing your permission by emailing the researcher at [email protected]. (4)

Can I decline involvement in or withdraw from the study? Being in this study is completely voluntary - you are not under any obligation to consent and - if you do consent - you can withdraw at any time without affecting your relationship with the researcher or with the University of Sydney or with the University of Lausanne. A reply email to the initial inviation email indicating your willingness to participate will be understood as an expression of consent. If no reply is received this will be understood to mean you do not wish to participate. If, after initially indicating consent you wish to withdraw from the study, this must be done by emailing the researcher at [email protected].

(6)

Will anyone else know the results? All aspects of the study, including results, will be strictly confidential and only the researchers will have access to information on participants. You will remain anonymous, and a pseudonym will be used so as to render you unidentifiable. Should any personal identifying information such as phone number appear in your wall-to-wall conversations, this will not be shown.

Facebook Conversations

However, some personal information is required, such as the university network to which you belong and your sex. This will assist the researcher in noting differences in the data, as she will be comparing conversations in terms of the geographical location and the gender of the participants. (7)

Will the study benefit me?

The investigation will shed light on how language is used in computer-mediated communication (more specifically, on Facebook). It may reveal a difference in the use of Facebook or language in an online context according to language and/or location and/or gender. As a Facebook user, it may be of interest to you to understand trends in discourse in this online context. After the linguistic analysis has been completed, you will receive an email describing the researcher’s findings. (8)

What if I require further information?

When you have read this information, the researcher will be available to discuss it with you further and answer any questions you may have. Please feel free to contact the Research Supervisor Jane Simpson (+61 2 9351 3655; [email protected]) or the Honours student Amelia Walkley ([email protected]). (10) What if I have a complaint or concerns? Any person with concerns or complaints about the conduct of a research study can contact the Manager, Ethics Administration, University of Sydney on +612 8627 8175 (Telephone); +612 8627 8180 (Facsimile) or [email protected] (Email). This information sheet is for you to keep

Facebook Conversations