The Work of Conversation

By Anne Curzan. I am teaching an undergraduate course called “How Conversations Work.” Taking this course is a great way to become so self-conscious about how you talk that it becomes hard to have a normal conversation at all. “It wears off,” I promise the students, knowing that this statement is half-true. This week I put on the table an argument about conversations that will inform our discussions for the rest of the term: Conversations are work. Read more...