Discourse analysis (DA) is a form of analysis that focuses on language above the level of single utterance. The term discourse is sometimes used to refer to patterns of meaning that organize the different sign systems used by humans as part of constructing and navigating their worlds. These signs may be viewed strictly in terms of verbal language or, as the Critical Textwork shows, in terms of the notion of sign more generally, that is, any pattern that the material continuum can take (including bodies, cities, film, images). DA attempts to "recover meaning" from the "texts" that encode these discourses.