I had to write a paper for interpersonal communication. I had some interesting thoughts when I sat down to write it, and thought you guys might be interested in reading it. :-)

Paul Nurkkala

Recursive Conversation

In the paper Understanding Composing by Sondra Perl, a professor of Lehman College, she explains how composition occurs as a “recursive process.” (Perl, 1980, 336) This recursive process, she claims, is the basis for all composition. When writing, she says that one will write a little bit, take a step back, look at what they have written, and then keep going based on what they learned. She also points out that writing does not follow the “strict plan-write-revise sequence” that teachers and professors have claimed as holy. (Perl, 1980, 336) In this way, she spends the remainder of the paper describing how recursive process takes place and how it is continually used in composition.

While the ideas behind using recursion to write do not seem to immediately relate to interpersonal communication, if you look at them from the right perspective, it will become clear that interpersonal communication and the practice of recursion are intricately connected.

As we write, we re-read short sections of our papers, study what we have written, and use the information remembered to create a better paper. This process deviates from the traditional linear view of composition: planning, writing, and revising, towards this newer concept: recursive writing. In order to understand how recursive writing relates to interpersonal communication, it is best to have a good idea of what recursive writing actually is.

When I take time to review my writing, it reveals a story. A story not of sitting down, intentionally thinking out a plan, writing an entire essay, and then going back to revise, but instead, I seem to follow a quite different pattern: a pattern of recursion. This process of recursion is defined by Sondra Perl. “In [the linear view of writing's] stead, we have advocated the idea that writing is a recursive process, that throughout the process of writing, writers return to substrands of the overall process, or subroutines (short successions of steps that yield results on which the writer draws in taking the next set of steps); writers use these to keep the process moving forward.” (Perl, 1980, 364) When I write, I simply begin. I sit down and start to write. Through this process, I re-read what I have already written as a basis for what I am about to write by using it as blinders to keep me on the right track.

Obviously recursion is involved in writing, but how is it involved in the spoken word? There are two main ways that recursive writing relates to interpersonal communication: context and collaboration. Context refers to the necessity for conversation to be based on previous or present content involved in the current interaction, and collaboration is the use of each others’ verbal and non-verbal cues to push the conversation forward.

When conversing, one must continually be examining all possible context of the different ideas surrounding the interaction in order to keep the conversation moving. In talks that I have taken part in and trying to decide what to say next, I am continually “recursing” back to the context of what has been said, what has been done, and the actual physical location of the conversation. (ie home, store, class, etc..) I take what I learn from my quick reflection, and prepare my next “tid-bit” of conversation based on the reviewed context.

Much in the same way, two individuals will use context in the feedback they provide for one another. According to Joseph A. DeVito, author of The Interpersonal Communication Book, there are five stages to a conversation: “It’s convenient to divide up conversation into chunks or stages and view each stage as requiring a choice as to what you’ll say and how you’ll say it. Here we divide the sequence into five steps: opening, feedforward, business, feedback, and closing.” (DeVito, 2007, 194) The three steps that lead to feedback certainly require context to be appropriate, but none are as devastatingly involved as the feedback stage. This is because collaboration takes place mostly in the feedback stage of a conversation. “[In the Feedback Stage] you reflect back on the conversation to signal that, as far as you’re concerned, the business is completed.” (DeVito, 2007, 196) In the fourth stage of conversation, we have to be actively listening to what the other person is saying so that we can appropriately nudge, respond, and affirm the person with which we are in conversation. Using recursion back and forth to build on what has already been said greatly benefits the quality of the conversation. While the “business” of the conversation may not always be complete at this point in each conversation, feedback is still necessary to advance further information sharing.

In these two, small examples of recursion in conversational context and collaboration, it is clear that re-examination of what has been said is necessary when talking. Taking context into consideration allows us to communicate in more sensible and accurate ways. Collaborating with the other person during the feedback stage will improve and further conversation.

In review, I believe that, yes, recursive writing is a fantastic angle to view the way that writing works, but in addition, I also believe that recursion has an amazing benefit and use in the world of interpersonal communication through not just the written word, but also the spoken, immediately communicated word. Sondra Perl’s research on the topic of recursion is clearly shown to be true, and can also be intersected with spoken conversation.

Through both the examples and the implications of this idea behind interpersonal communication, it is clear, not only in concept, but in practice that these aspects of conversation are used in my life. Daily I find myself in conversation, and every second of every conversation I review, revise, and “recurse” that which I say. It is with the process of recursion that not only I, but all of us use to accurately and appropriately interpersonally communicate. Bringing light to the ideas behind recursive communication has allowed me to take a step back, look at what I have written, and apply it to the context and collaboration of my life as a communicator.

Bibliography

DeVito, Joseph A. (2007) The interpersonal commuication book. Pearson Education, Inc: Boston, MA

Perl, Songra. (1980). Understanding composition.College

Composition and Communication, 31(4), Retrieved from

http://www.jstor.org/stable/356586