Transcript Essay

Throughout this dialogue, there are three main participants that present different aspects of the conversation. For the purpose of this essay and the transcript, I have titled the speaker’s person one, two and three. This dialogue is taken place within school and is between three people having a conversation during their free period.

For the duration of this transcript, it is evident that person 2 is the most frequent speaker, insinuating that this is the most dominant person within this conversation. I can see this as person 2 is the person that is asking the most questions and is the instigator of all the pairs of adjency’s; for example at the very beginning of the conversation; person 2 questions ‘’what?’’, demanding person 3 to explain themselves. Person 2 also asks ‘’ what time we leaving later?’’, this is directed to person 1 in which they reply ‘’erm I dunno; like twenty to six”. Both of these parts of the dialogue show that person 2 is the most dominant speaker within this conversation, this is because the questioner has the power to control and shape the topics within the conversation. It complements the fact that person 2 is the most dominant speaker, as person 2 is male. Male dominance is known to be common within a conversation with both males and females; male’s tone of conversation is normally very competitive and hyped up. Men are known to try and all gain the power within the conversation, and be the ones that are able to shape where the conversation goes. This shines through within my transcript as person 2, the male, is the one that is majority of the time the main questioner and instigator of different conversation topics. However, an issue with power within a conversation is that it is negotiable. An example of this throughout the transcript is when the power of conversation is juggled between person 1 and 3; person 3 (female) instigates an adjancy pair when she says ‘’what lesson have you got next’’, however this question isn’t satisfied with an answer as person 1(male) overrules person three’s question and interrupts by stating ‘’ I’ve only got one lesson today”. The power within the conversation is negotiated at one segment of the conversation, however the power in this transcript always escalates back to person two, showing they are the most confident and outgoing within that circle of people.

Within this transcript, there is a lot of turn taking between the speakers. This illustrates the relationship between the speakers and how they converse with each other. Turn taking allows for the conversation to run smoothly therefore includes only one person talking at the same time and no silence. At one point, this wasn’t carried out within the transcript as person 1 does interrupt person 3’s question, however for the rest of the dialogue, turn taking does run smoothly and only one person talks at the same time. If the turn taking is appointed by one speaker to the other this illustrates that the tone of conversation is very formal and professional (e.g teacher and a student), however if the speaker takes it on themselves to continue the conversation, or move on from that topic, then it implies the relationship between the speakers are relaxed and of a friendly manner.

This transcript also includes many elipses. This is when parts of words or phrases are missed out. An example of this is when person 2 says ‘’ what time we leaving later ‘’ as a pose to      “what time are we leaving later”. This is also done when person 3 replies ‘’erm I dunno like twenny to six’’, instead of “erm, im not sure, twenty to six”. This will depend on a person’s accent or the area you are from, but from this it illustrates the fact that the conversation is informal and relaxed, therefore no one is worrying what impressions they are giving to other people. The register of this transcript is very informal as it is between three friends therefore there is no position of authority demanding a formal tone of speech and structure.