Assignment #1 - Tuesday Jan 31

Assignment #1 is concerned with chapters 3 and 4 in Clark (1996). Your 350-450 word post must be online before class (11.40) Tuesday Jan 31. Your comments on the posts must be online by Thursday, Feb 2.

Remember that posts will be evaluated on three dimensions: how well you describe the relevant theoretical concepts, how well you integrate your personal observations with theory, and your writing. Comments will be evaluated on the degree to which they add new or critical insights to the post to which they refer. Amy will evaluate everyone on assignment 1 to give you some feedback on how you’re doing.

Good luck!

Choose one of the three options:

A. Describe a language convention, as discussed by Clark. Identify a convention that you have observed in a technologically based setting (e.g., IM, videoconferencing, mobile telephone, text messaging, etc.) and discuss how or why the convention evolved. Be sure to discuss whether your observation supports Clark's model or raise questions about it.

B. Clark discusses how joint actions involve an entry, a body, and an exit. This kind of coordination is critical for any joint action, but mediated language use may need involve extra work to coordinate entries and exits. Discuss the notion of entry, body, exit and how a specific mediated communication space deals with this issue (e.g., online status and away messages in IM, ringing vs. vibrating phones, etc.).

C. Describe the concept of common ground, as outlined by Clark (don't worry about differentiating the different representations of common ground). Discuss how communication technologies, such as Facebook, play a role in how common ground is shared between people. Will it affect language use between people according to Clark's model?