Discourse Management in Three Modalities

Abstract

The strategies adopted by dyads engaged in decision-making interactions are compared in face-to-face, synchronous computer mediated, and asynchronous computer mediated (email) communication environments. The results show that the decisions required to plan an awards ceremony were encoded in similar, routine sequences of discourse functions in all three modalities, but the sequences were packaged very differently in the synchronous and asynchronous environments. In face-to-face interaction, short turns rarely encoded more than one or two functions and did not combine decision-making functions and other discourse management functions in the same turn. Many messages in the synchronous computer-mediated environment had the same structure, although some dyads in the synchronous computer-mediated environment interacted using long messages that encoded several functions and combined decision-making functions with other managerial functions. In the email interactions, in contrast, messages were routinely structured so that decision-making functions were preceded and followed by other discourse management functions. Turn-taking is found to be impacted by decision management, transmission management, interpersonal management, and modality. Moreover, the language behaviors that emerged in the asynchronous environment suggest that many features associated with use of the written word are more appropriately understood as characteristic of asynchronous communication.