Critical Discourse Analysis (hereafter CDA) is a cross-discipline set forth in the early 1990s by a group of scholars such as Theo van Leeuwen, Gunther Kress, Teun van Dijk, and Norman Fairclough (Wodak & Meyer, 2001). Since the last decade or so, there has been a resurgence of the application of the theory of CDA to a range of studies (Bloor & Bloor, 2007; Bayram, 2010; Jahedi & Abudullah, 2012; Parham, 2013; Akogbeto & Koukpossi, 2015; Koussouhon & Dossoumou, 2015; Koussouhon & Amoussou, 2016; etc.).In view to spurring on the use of that research paradigm, the current study attempts to clarify what it means to say that one is doing critical discourse analysis. In that endeavor, it sheds light on the principles underlying the concept, the methods it draws on, as well as the focal approaches to CDA that have thus far been put forth by prominent scholars.