The Academic Presentation: Situated Talk in Action

Is giving a presentation an easy task? In this book, the author unpacks this seemingly simple task to show the complexity that underlies it. Examining the academic presentation as a case in point, the author details when things go according to plan from the perspective of the listening audience and shows how seminar presenters interact with the audience and objects around them to produce a coherent whole that is the academic presentation. Through detailed examination of talk-in-interaction the book throws light on one instance of talk as situated practice, demonstrating the ordinariness of the academic presentation; and its intricate complexity of moment-by-moment talk. While audience members recognise that a seminar is underway, this book shows how this recognition comes about. Starting with a discussion of talk-in-interaction and conversation analysis, and the academic presentation as an instance of institutional talk, it assesses interaction within monologic talk, from both a non-CA perspective, and CA perspective. The analysis demonstrates the orderliness of the academic presentation and how to describe such order as an instance of situated talk. The book is of interest to academics interested in the analysis of talk and interaction, situated talk, ethnomethodology and conversation analysis.