Transforming collected raw-state data into research results involves the use of certain precedures so as to systematize, categorize and enable its analysis by the researcher.In the specific case of the analysis of communications, adequate mechanisms are demanded so one is able to find in data obtained by means of interviews, messages and documents in general information that illustrate, explain or help bring investigated phenomena to light. Among such mechanisms are the analysis of contents and the analysis of speech as theorical-methodological propositions, intending to surpass their status as “simple techniques of analysis†and compose a field of knowledge. Thus, this present text has been elaborated aiming to providing a better understanding about what constitutes the contents and speech analyses, so as to providing researchers with some subsidy for their adequate utilization. For such, the authors intended to approach these two fields of knowledge, primarily giving their definition, contextualizing them and reporting their historical origins. Next, the authors sought to dealing with each one’s utilization, operationalization and organization, as well as with their specificities. Later, some comparisons between the analisys of contents and the analysis of speech were elaborated, aiming to facilitate the reader’s understanding. Last, some final considerations were woven which deal with the limitations of this work in the sense of trying to approach, in a short essay, two areas of knowledge about which a vast amplitude of studies, publishings and research already exist.
