You can choose from a selection of several chapters of books by scholar Deborah Tannen. The paper should be at least five pages (roughly 1,250 words) in length. Additional sources or references are not required for this assignment, but if you quote, paraphrase, or summarize a source (including the reading or the text), you must document it following APA format.
These are the questions/points to ponder that you can use to develop your reaction paper, but feel free to ask yourself additional questions. Remember that this paper should give your reaction to what you have read, meaning you may agree, disagree, or both. However, you cannot merely say you agree. You must explain why clearly.
1. After reading the selection you have chosen, think about either your own situation that reflects the subject of the reading or about situations with which you are familiar, or both. You should not use full names or real people, please! It is preferable to give people aliases rather than use their names.
2. Outline some of the characteristics of the communication situations described and analyzed in the reading.
3. Did you identify with the people and situations in the selection? How? If not, how do you engage differently in interpersonal communication in similar situations to the ones described and analyzed?
4. After reading the selection, what knowledge did you gain about interpersonal communication in general?
Here is the selection of readings:
Conversational Style: Analyzing Talk Among Friends
(2005)
Deborah Tannen
Read Chapters Two, Three, and Four
Family Talk: Discourse and Identity in Four American Families
(2007)
Deborah Tannen, Shari Kendall, and Cynthia Gordon, eds.
Read Chapter 1 plus any other chapter, 2-11
Gender and Discourse
(1994)
Deborah Tannen
Read Introduction and Chapter 3
You’re Wearing That? Understanding Mothers and Daughters in Conversation
(2006)
Deborah Tannen
Please let me know if you can accomodate this. It is important that I meet all these requirements and that you have access to this particular source. Thanks.
