Data analysis

I feel like my data is representative of my data pool as I collected it over a 12 month period which enabled me to collect a wide range of letters. However there was a slight limitation as I had to eliminate certain letters from the data pool. This was due to confidentiality reasons, so I had to remove them so that my investigation remained ethical. In spite of this, I so still feel like I was able to collect enough data to analyse. There are several examples of things I will be able to quantify from my data. For example, I could observe the frequency of when imperatives are used to assert power of a command to the reader. Furthermore, I could also look at the number of times deontic modal verbs are used to imply an obligation to do what the letter is requesting. One aspect of my data that I had not originally considered that could lead to me slightly changing the focus of my investigation is to make sure I consider certain variables that will lead to different amount of power techniques/strategies used between individual letters. These variables are the ones suggested by Brown and Levinson, how social distance, power distance and the degree of imposition has an effect on the appropriate use of linguistic strategies used to assert power. This could have an effect on my investigation as the letters I collected over a 12 month period are from different senders, or if they are from the same one they are addressed to different individuals and therefore the weight of face threats may have beeen compensated to adjust for this. The theory I have researched so far is concordant with what I predicted I would be able quantify from my data.