Improving Teamwork Through Awareness of Conversational Styles (Innovative Assignments‪)‬

CONVERSATIONAL STYLES can sometimes cause conflicts on problem-solving writing teams. When such teams encounter difficulties, some familiar complaints are heard: These and other communication roadblocks often occur as students struggle to adapt their conversational styles to an unfamiliar format: outside the familiar structure of family and friends and focused particularly on problem solving related to writing. Magnifying the difficulty of this transition are individuals' tendencies to default to a favored conversational style, typically one influenced by family, culture, and gender.