We must inquire how it functions within the general acquisition of knowledge through discourse and how it could function more effectively for wider participation. Discourse analysis should continually reflect upon its own procedures. Given the unmanageably large and diverse range of data, each project must be selective and focused and so should declare and justify its motives in terms of epistemological interests. Discourse analysis obliges the investigator to engage and reengage with discourse. The idealized separation of subject from object, or investigator from data, is not feasible here.
Discourse analysis is rich and expansive rather than formalized and reductive.
Discourse cannot be adequately analyzed with a fixed algorithm for reifying it into a configuration of formal symbols. To master its issues and problems, discourse analysis must adopt an encompassing interdisciplinary perspective. Discourse analysis should interact with institutions and groups both inside and outside the academy to pursue urgent issues and problems. We cannot assume that our current methods address all the most pressing issues. The highest goals of discourse analysis are to support the freedom of access to knowledge through discourse and to help in revealing and rebalancing communicative power structures.