The articles included in these proceedings were presented at a text analysis symposium on 14 and 15 April 2014. The presenters represented a range of educational institutions: Belarusian State University, Belarus; Kristianstad University, Sweden; Linnaeus University, Sweden; Lund University, Sweden; Malmö Academy of Music, Sweden; Malmö Borgarskola, Sweden; Minsk Academy of Public Administration, Belarus; St Petersburg State University, Russia; University of Latvia, Latvia; and West University of Timișoara, Romania.

The six sessions covered a range of subjects related to text and discourse analysis. The first session, “Text Analysis and Literature”, included papers on Tomas Tranströmer, John Fowles and Alice Munro. The second session, “Discourse Analysis”, discussed topics as diverse as traditional culture as a discourse, categories of text and discourse and their role in collecting, organising and interpreting data, and analysing song lyrics. Session three, “Text Analysis in Teaching and Literature”, considered the appreciation of literature in second language reading, how to teach literary theory through detective stories, and stylistic devices in Somerset Maugham’s short story “Louise”. The fourth session, “Text Analysis in Teaching and Writing considered issues as diverse as text analysis and teaching writing, plagiarism detection systems in higher education, and teacher feedback and autonomy. The fifth session, “Text and Discourse Analysis for Change”, discussed a range of issues including a linguistic perspective on Swedish official documentation on children, linguistic interference and commonly occurring mistakes in Swedish secondary schools, and text analysis at university-level. The final session, “Text analysis and ICT” included papers on Filipino transnational identities in blogs, text analysis in the age of technology, and the contextualisation, organisation, and textualisation of IT operational documentation

The symposium also saw the launching of a new journal, Contemporary Society and its Discourse Representations. Further information may be obtained from Professor Irina Oukhvanova-Shmyrova, Belarusian State University, at ioukhvanova@gmail.com.

All articles have been peer reviewed and contributors have been invited to edit their papers in accordance with the reviewers’ instructions. The final version is the sole responsibility of the contributor.

Special thanks go to the participants and contributors to this volume; we hope that you will visit us again. Our grateful thanks also go to Kristianstad University for the use of the university premises and for subsidising the publication of the conference programme and the conference visit to Naturum Nature Centre, as well as for providing refreshments during the breaks. We also wish to thank Anders Håkansson for assisting with the publication of this volume.