Interactional integration of talk and note-taking

Abstract

This paper contributes to the current line of research that examines how participants interactionally engage in simultaneous multiple courses of actions. It looks into how institutional interactants jointly integrate two concurrent engagements: talk and note-taking. It builds upon video recordings of naturally occurring monitoring visits in Denmark, where social supervision representatives interview foster parents and facility leaders and simultaneously take notes on their laptop computers. Data suggest that talk and note-taking concur very commonly, that is, representatives take notes extensively while the other party talks. The paper investigates three factors that advance our knowledge about interactional reasons why this dual engagement can take place so commonly. First, when initiating concurring writing or talk, both parties orient towards simultaneous engagement in the two activities as appropriate. Second, whilst writing, representatives verbally display recipiency to talk, which prompt speakers to continue. Third, representatives frequently suspend the act of writing in order to briefly face the speakers, which they similarly treat as an encouragement to continue.

Keywords

• conversation analysis
• multiactivity
• institutional interaction