This document provides an overview of critical discourse analysis (CDA). It discusses key principles of CDA, including how social and political issues are constructed through language use and how power relations are negotiated in discourse. The document also outlines how CDA is conducted, examining framing of texts, agent-patient relations, and issues like genre, modality, and identity. Some criticisms of CDA are noted, such as the need to involve text producers/consumers, and responses to these criticisms are presented.