Linguistics Office

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

 Jane Simpson                                             Amelia Walkley  Room 227
 Associate Professor                                     Honours Student F12 ­ Transient
University of Sydney NSW 2006 
AUSTRALIA
Telephone:   +61 2 9351 3655
Facsimile:  +61 2 9351 7572
Email: jane.simpson@usyd.edu.au
awal2560@uni.sydney.edu.au  

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
awal2560@uni.sydney.edu.au

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 awal2560@uni.sydney.edu.au.

(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
awal2560@uni.sydney.edu.au.

(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; jane.simpson@usyd.edu.au) or
the Honours student Amelia Walkley (awal2560@uni.sydney.edu.au).

(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 gbriody@usyd.edu.au (Email).

This information sheet is for you to keep

Facebook Conversations