Where the meaning units begin and end? Using the paragraph below from an interview transcript, mark meaning units using different colors of text, highlighting or font styles (bold, italic, etc.). Do this two times - the text is repeated on the next page. See if you can "hear" different break points for the meaning units the second time. 1. First effort There's a lot of, of tasks that are involved in nursing now. I've watched it evolve over the years. Um, and I think sometimes people just get bogged down in, okay, "now I've got this to do next, "I've got this to do next, I've got this to do next, I need to hurry up and get this stuff done. And oh my God, now I have to wash my hands, you know and, somebody's going to make me. And it says I have to sing happy birthday. Well, do you know how long that song is when I've got...?" But, there's... you know, you can still multitask while washing your hands. You know, it's not that you're focused solely on that. And I think, you know, people just get so bogged down that they don't realize washing your hands is a good opportunity to then do a quick safety-check of the room. While you're washing, look around. See what you have available. Look up on the patient's monitor. See what their heart rate, and their respiratory rate, and their SATs are. You can still get stuff done. It's just a question of reassuring them that they can do it, um, and having them slow down. Um, and you know, that this is just as important for patient's safety as giving them the proper antibiotic, as you know, making sure that their, their nutrition is up to snuff. You know, making sure that you don't give them any more problems than they already came in with is my thought.

2. Second effort There's a lot of, of tasks that are involved in nursing now. I've watched it evolve over the years. Um, and I think sometimes people just get bogged down in, okay, "now I've got this to do next, "I've got this to do next, I've got this to do next, I need to hurry up and get this stuff done. And oh my God, now I have to wash my hands, you know and, somebody's going to make me. And it says I have to sing happy birthday. Well, do you know how long that song is when I've got...?" But, there's... you know, you can still multitask while washing your hands. You know, it's not that you're focused solely on that. And I think, you know, people just get so bogged down that they don't realize washing your hands is a good opportunity to then do a quick safety-check of the room. While you're washing, look around. See what you have available. Look up on the patient's monitor. See what their heart rate, and their respiratory rate, and their SATs are. You can still get stuff done. It's just a question of reassuring them that they can do it, um, and having them slow down. Um, and you know, that this is just as important for patient's safety as giving them the proper antibiotic, as you know, making sure that their, their nutrition is up to snuff. You know, making sure that you don't give them any more problems than they already came in with is my thought.

1. For this journal entry, you will do reflective thoughts

you may change color or style of font, or use highlighting to show break points.

take a break, and then try it again, and see if you can hear different break points each time.

2.How did your identified meaning units compare to other ways of separating or organizing text-based information, like sentences or paragraphs?

3. How easy or difficult was it for you to "hear" different break points?

4. When you looked through the examples, you agree with how meaning units were identified? If possible, identify one or more examples of a meaning unit in the example texts which you thought should be broken up at different points.

5. One alternative is to identify units based on each line of text. This has clear advantages because it does not take as much effort or thought. What are potential disadvantages to line-by-line break points in identifying meaning units?