(i) Defining interpersonal communication from an ethnographic/social constructionist perspective.
Ask yourself what this class is teaching. What are its general objectives? What basic philosophies about language, communication, and interaction are discussed? Can you summarize these in order to bring a clear lens to any communication phenomena you wish to analyze?
(ii) Single out your communication phenomena to be discussed.
What communication phenomena would you like to examine? Presented in this class are theories of face, speech acts, person-referring forms, relational dialectics, cultural terms for talk, norms and rules, and narrative. In your paper discuss, at a theoretical level, what these theories of communication phenomena are.
(iii) Examine this communication phenomena as it plays into interaction at the interpersonal level.
Generate some data. This maybe just a short transcript of a conversation (it need not be any more than 3-4 exchanges in an ongoing piece of interaction). Use the orientation you have developed in (i) to make a systematic analysis of this data (descriptive analyses). How do your chosen phenomena play into interpersonal communication. This is the interpretive part of your analysis. Ask yourself how this phenomena plays into relational dynamics (e.g, senses of power, intimacy, distance, solidarity, etc.)? How might it play into a sense of conflict, or breakdowns in communication?