Assignment 2

What most interest you about talk-in-interaction? What communication problems can conversation analysis provide solutions for?What research are you most interested in learning more about?

You should choose these readings from the EMCA Bibliography. Search the bibliography with keywords of a topic that interests you (e.g. “psychotherapy” or “repair”).

You may need to revise your topic based on the conversation analytic evidence available.

It may be helpful to browse the EMCA wiki bibliography to choose your topic!

The assignment will present ONE main review based on the ‘BPS Research Digest’ style (500-600 words) we have used in class. For the remaining five references, you will write a concise review of no more than 100 words. Each review should achieve the following:

1. Demonstrate an understanding of the key points and concepts of the reading.

2. Demonstrate how this reading adds to our understanding of talk-in-interaction.

3. Demonstrate how this reading provides insights into professional communication. 

Essentially, each review will report the key findings of the paper and explain the interactional details highlighted by the author(s). As a summary, you will show how these findings can contribute to understanding (and improving) collaborative social activities. In other words, what are the implications of the evidence reported in the paper?

Some advice:

Each review in the annotated bibliography needs to:

• Give an overview of the whole paper 

• What did they want to find out? 

• What DID they find out? 

• Method overview (very briefly). Can be one sentence 

• Use your own words, no need for excessive quotes 

• Identify key findings from the paper and explain their significance (focus on importance, not chronological order) 

• Be well written. Use clear direct expression. “If you don’t need it, delete it” 

Preparing one long and five short reviews enables you to spend most time engaging with the research evidence itself (most important) AND practice effective summaries with different requirements (i.e. the sort of writing we ALL need to get good at in our professional lives).

Why not use AI to write these summaries?

Because you are seeking to understand the research evidence! EXPLAINING what the research found in your reviews requires you to distinguish the key import of the research based on a deeper understanding of the phenomena you have learned about in the course (i.e. surface AI summaries cannot do this well).

The assignment also gives you an opportunity to prepare a version of an annotated bibliography.

The description below appears in a Monash University summary:

In general, the purpose of an annotated bibliography is to:

• learn about a particular topic through critically reviewing the literature

• provide an overview of the main issues, arguments and research within a particular area

• encourage deeper engagement with individual sources in order to develop your analytical skills

An annotated bibliography is sometimes given as an assessment task at the beginning of a research project to encourage you to survey and reflect on what has already been discovered about your topic. However, it might also be given as a stand-alone assignment to develop your research and critical thinking skills.

 We are using these reviews in particular to build a body of evidence to explain how a particular practice of talk works in Assignment 3.

You need to include a brief statement of the AIM of your annotated bibliography (what are you trying to find out from reading these papers?).

Use THIS TEMPLATE as a guide for what you should submit in the exam.

Resources to support your Assignments are available HERE.

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