Break conversation into micro-units to study the structure of interaction¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

Goffman suggested studying conversational phenomena in "micro-units," which the essay lists as naturally bounded units, basic interaction units, concrete units of interaction, natural units of social organization, and members of a single natural class. He believed conversations need to be broken into small units before they are studied, and that similarities in the structure of these fragments matter more than the content of each individual message. He developed these concepts through repeated application to real-world conversations, not deductive logic.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Tedious application and reapplication of the classification to conversations in the real world

Constraints¶

Target Learners¶

• rhetoric and communication scholars

Target Learning Goals¶

• analyzing the structure of everyday conversation

Affordances¶

• Ethnomethodology Serious Ethnography Framework

Related Strategies¶

• Break Tasks Into Pieces

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Corder, Lloyd E. (1988). The Utility of Erving Goffman's Theoretical Perspective, Metaphorical Models, and "Serious Ethnography" for the Rhetoric and Communication Scholar. ERIC. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED299654