Interpersonal Communication & Culture
Start by consulting your Final Paper Guidelines document on BB to make sure you understand the content, length, and organization requirements for the paper. Generally speaking, you are expected to carry out some original analysis on data that you propose. This is a piece of empirical research on interaction. This means you need to ‘collect’ ‘data’ on ‘interactions’. Collecting means: locating an audio/video recorded “actual talk” and transcribing it or observing real life interactions and taking notes. Thus, ‘data’ can be a clip of some sort that you have transcribed, or some observation notes (similar to ethnographies), while ‘interaction’ means you cannot use general observations on life, dry statistics, or any other data that does not include, in some way, examples of people interacting together.
Your analysis must be fairly deep (so your data cannot be too long), but broad enough to cover multiple concepts from our course materials. You also may NOT use data from any readings, activities or videos on the syllabus, nor any examples or data that you previously used in a DB. In my experience, students have done best on this paper when they have chosen a topic in which they are genuinely interested; personally, academically, or professionally. Please consult the Final Paper Guidelines for ways to approach assignment conceptualization. In similar classes, students have documented code switching in their families over the course of a day, compared different incidents of humor in their workplaces, collected data from interviews with friends or family members, analyzed interactions at sorority or fraternity meetings, and analyzed clips from movies for issues such as gender. With regards to the proposal, there are no requirements for format in terms of headers, paragraphs or bullets, but it should be about two pages in length. The proposal MUST include: 1) a research question, 2) a one-paragraph summary of ideas, 3) examples of what theoretical concepts you might use and 4) a data sample. The data sample can be part of a transcript or observation notes (you may exceed the one page if the sample of your transcript is a little long). I grade the proposal for effort, rather than absolute accuracy, but the more thought out and developed it is, the more feedback and advice I can give you for the paper. Additionally, keep in mind the following general guidelines for coherent paper structure:
1. An intro paragraph with at least a thesis statement about your research question as well as a descriptive sentence of what you did. (e.g., ‘I observed data from … to see if …’, or ‘I analyzed data from … using the concepts of …’). You may or may not ‘give away’ the ending to your paper here, depending on your preference.
2. A few paragraphs in which you explain the theoretical concepts that you used. These must come directly from your readings, and cover in some detail the aspects of these concepts that apply most directly to your analysis (e.g., you may list all the potential functions of narrative but discuss at some length the one(s) that apply to your data). This section must include both your own paraphrasing, as well as direct quotes from the readings (and NOT my slides!). Check minimum requirements for references.
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3. One to three paragraphs in which you provide a general description of your data. If you are analyzing a scene from a movie or TV show for which you provide a transcript in the appendix, simply provide a short 1-2 paragraph description of the scene and its placement in the movie or show. Do not provide the whole plot, just what is necessary to understand the clip. If you are doing observation, then provide the observation notes at this point, about 3 or more paragraphs if need be (remember the principles of thick description to understand just how much detail is necessary).
4. A couple of pages of analysis, in which you apply your previously mentioned concepts to the data.
5. One paragraph in which you summarize the findings of your analysis. 6. A concluding paragraph in which you tie your findings to your research question and the
overall bigger question. This typically mirrors your introduction to some extent but adds to what was covered in it.
Sticking somewhat closely to this structure is not simply a matter of mechanics, but will ensure that your writing is focused and your argument consistent and clear. Make sure to include your references, and if you are using a transcript, to include it in full as an appendix at the end (does not count towards your page limit). Remember that transcripts must be organized similarly to the way they are included in the readings you have seen (consult the transcription guide document). This may be a tedious process, so choose a very short segment (about 1-2 pages of transcript). I will not grade your transcript for absolute accuracy but for effort and relevance (if you mention pauses in the conversations, I have to see them clearly marked in the transcript though not necessarily timed). If you are transcribing a movie or TV show, you may search online for the script. HOWEVER, remember that scripts do NOT accurately reflect the way the conversation is delivered, but they can work as a draft for you to work on and adapt until they ‘look’ more like our transcripts.
Finally, here are some common mistakes / concerns from previous sessions of this and similar classes:
• Sources and Data are NOT the same thing. Data: You are expected to conduct your
own empirical analysis for your paper, hence the need for you to choose some data to analyze, be it a scene from a movie or TV drama or news or talk show, OR alternatively you can observe some real life interactions and take notes and then analyze them. Sources: by this, I mean references and academic materials that will be cited in your paper: a) they should ALL come from the readings in your syllabus or the Supplementary Articles folder, b) they should be between 4 and 5 at least, with all Tracy and Robles chapters counting as one source, c) they should NOT include slides and podcasts, but videos of academic scholars are fine, and d) they should be listed in a reference list at the end.
• You may use concepts and readings you have already discussed in reading responses or partner presentations, but not the same examples of interactions that you have already analyzed or provided.
• If you are having trouble coming up with ideas, try the following exercise: 1) write down 3-4 concepts that we covered that you are most comfortable with or most interested in (e.g., face- work, code-switching, narrative, etc.); 2) then think of 2-3 ideas for ideal data to analyze through
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one or more of them; and then 3) narrow that list down by what data is fairly easily accessible to you (e.g., a scene from a show or incident from a talk show that you have already seen that reminds you of this, or knowing you will have a shift at work, or a gathering of family and friends in the next couple of days that you could observe).
• Do not waste time trying to find data that is incredibly interesting, just think of something that is interesting to you. Some of the best papers are the ones that find interesting things in mundane data, such as a shift at a sandwich shop where regional identity is expressed by the owner in using certain names for the different sandwiches, or the different kinds of humor employed by kitchen staff to negotiate authority.
• Please do NOT use real names and identifiers for any people you observe, but provide generic words and pseudonyms or initials.
• You better READ the articles you will cite! It is very easy for me to tell when you just pull a quote you saw on the slides without its correct context.
• And finally, do not hesitate to email me with any additional questions or specific concerns!
