Readings Sept. 26

Rapley, T. (2007). Doing conversation, discourse and document analysis. London: Sage. 

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    After reading chapters 6-10, I thought another table was in order...

Chapter	Summary	Of Note
6: Exploring conversations	·  Conversation analysis examines how language is action and what those actions do. ·  This chapter includes specific actions that can happen in text including: o  Perspective-display sequence o turn-taking organization o  question-answer sequence o agreement or disagreement (preferred or dispreferred response) ·  Word choice is action. ·  Placement of words or utterances within a narrative is action. (This can be simple or complex.)	The words people choose are actions and examining what people do can lead to practical applications. Example: saying no to sexual advances is anti-social. Often we don’t say no, but others understand and infer the word no.
7: Exploring conversations about and with documents	·  Documents and other texts are discourses that are situated and used to do actions. “…documents…and related technologies...both constrain and enable our actions and interactions” p. 89 ·  Having a range of documents can help researchers to understand discourse in more depth (example: the diagnosis of Anna-Lize’s psychiatric condition.) ·  Discourse can transform the content of documents as people use the documents (example: the pharmacist reading a research report on drugs and adding contextual information as the document is read aloud.) ·  Documents are “spoken for” (p. 95) (example: video in the Rodney King trial is made sense of collaboratively between witness and defense lawyer.)	Things can be part of everyday, taken-for-granted, social occurrences. The author asks questions about how I read his book and take notes. In order to interact with the information, I buy hard copies of textbooks instead of kindle ebook versions. I find that I highlight, take notes, and draw diagrams when I have paper to write on (the margins and text lines.) If I have the e-book version of a text, I just read and do not grasp the information because I do not interact in the same ways. (Side note: interesting that the author called the case on pg 95 the Rodney King trial when the officers were on trial.)
8: Exploring conversations and discourse: some debates and dilemmas	·  Analysis of discourse and conversation as outlined in Rapley’s book has been critiqued for not being critical of power structures. Rapley’s solution to the problem of when and what power structures to attend to in discourse is to pay attention to how the participants orient to power and use his own judgment, as well as, relevant literature to guide how he handles power structures in context. ·  Other possible critiques of analysis: o  the hidden role of the analyst- sometimes understanding can only come with insider knowledge, researchers have taken-for-granted knowledge and unique perspectives, and researchers should be reflexive of the role of their own knowledge. o  focus on brief moments of interaction- use next-turn proof procedure and provide excerpts so readers can see for themselves. o  working with local contexts of focus group and interview data- include interview questions as well as answers and realize that participants may not believe or behave what they say. o  working with power- “power can work as much by encouraging persons to speak, as by silencing them” (p.109)	Loved this quote from Harvey Sacks: “I have a bunch of stuff and I want to see whether an order for it exists. Not that I want to try to order it, but I want to try to see whether there’s some order to it” p. 109.
9:Exploring documents	·  What is said is as important as what is not said. To see the whole picture, examine both.] ·  Text is rhetorical, just like talk. They also are action- they do things. ·  Approach talk and text with skepticism. ·  Where talk and text came from (or how they evolved) can be important to understanding how talk and text is historically and socially situated now.	Ugh- See below.
10: Studying discourse: some closing comments	·  Analyzing discourse begins before you collect data. It occurs when an idea/interest is formed, when ROLs are collected, and while RQs are formed and revised. ·  There is not “a truth”, but being credible and plausible is the researcher’s job. o  Look for patterns and variation. o  Be transparent with process. o  Compare your work to other work. o  Work with participants. o  Be reflexive. ·  The author summarizes key points of analyzing conversations, discourse and documents (p. 130-131).	Rapley talks about new literary forms of sharing research- like poetry and dramas. I’ve seen this referenced in some of our other readings. I’m guessing that this is not happening in journals, but maybe in book form? Any examples of this I could look at?

            Overall, I enjoyed this book. I actually read it all in one day so I could get the flow of the book. The only chapter I did not like was Chapter 9. I agree with Rapley that we should treat documents as rhetorical objects (texts) and be skeptical of the assumptions within the content, as well as, the context of the document (who created it, what does it do, what is it’s history.) However, I got lost with the “histories of the present” section and the case study that followed. I didn’t get the point, and I bulled my way through those pages.

            Mostly, this book put my mind at ease. It was a very straightforward description of CA/DA, and I do not feel intimidated to do this kind of research work. I actually can believe that “this work is deeply fascinating and, above all, fun” p. 131.