This chapter is really a summary of all the steps and tools that have been covered in Chapters 1 through 6 and it follows directly from Chapter 7, which explained how to identify clause boundaries. The main goal of this chapter is to integrate all the information covered so far and present it as a proposal for a functional–structural approach to analysing grammar.

The very first step in analysing text is to identify individual clauses, since the clause is the main unit of interest for the systemic functional linguist and it is through the clause that the meanings of the text are realized. However, it would have been impossible to begin this book with an explanation of how to confidently recognize clause boundaries simply because so many factors contribute to this identification and it would be confusing to attempt to deal with all of them at the same time.

Developing an understanding of the clause is best approached in stages. In this book a decision was made to begin the first stage in Chapter 4 by considering the clause as representation and analysing the experiential meaning in the clause. Then building onto this Chapter 5 explored how to analyse the interpersonal meanings of the clause. The third and final stage in analysing the clause was presented in Chapter 6, which focused on the textual metafunction. Having now covered the various concepts in sufficient detail, the structures and meanings related to the clause, all this information can be put together in a single approach to grammatical analysis. The goal of this chapter is to present a set of guidelines for the beginner analyst that will cover all stages of the analysis so that it can be carried out in a systematic and consistent way.