Conversational Styles Essay Sample

In the essay, “Conversational Styles” by Deborah Tannen, she argues that men and women generally differ in terms of conversational styles (315). The author presents several evidences to prove her point. Being a professor, she is able to design experiments which could either prove or disprove her claims. In a graduate class that she handles, Tannnen decided to divide her class into different groups during different sessions of her class. She divides them according to their degree program, their gender and their conversational style. Her class is composed of 20 students both men and women some of whom are foreigners.
Through Tannen’s experiment, she presented evidence that women are more comfortable to talk in small groups than big groups, unlike men, who participate more in big classroom discussions. When the women in her class were grouped together, even those who seldom participated in class discussions became talkative.
On the whole her, experiment reveals that both men and women find small group discussions more interesting than a big classroom discussion. Moreover, through Tannen’s experience with her students, she confirms that there is no one particular conversational style. Styles change depending on the other people’s style in a group.
One agrees with Tannen that men tend to be active participants in big group discussions. From one’s observation, men seem to have more confidence than women in this aspect. It may be because some women still feel inferior to men. One is also in agreement with the author that conversational styles change depending on who one is conversing with. People, both men and women, adapt their conversational style depending on their listeners. It is one’s belief that one will first observe the reaction of his listener to his style of conversing and eventually change it if he sees a negative feedback from them.

Works Cited

Tannen, Deborah. "Conversational styles." 1991. 315-320. 20 March 2015.