The Writing Conference as Performance

This study uses the performative theory of Erving Goffman to understand the conversational roles taken on by students and teachers during college-level writing conferences. According to Goffman, both teacher and student are engaged in the performance of roles, and they cooperate so that discrepant information (revelations that might undermine these roles) are not revealed. Some of that information can come out, however, in what Goffmanc alls “backstage” areas. This study creates two “backstage” areas where both an instructor and the two students involved can listen to tapes of their conferences and provide commentary about tensions and miscommunications in the conferences. The study particularly examines confusions about terminology concerning unity in writing and the negotiation of roles in the conference. The perspective taken in this study illuminates the specific performative demands of a writing conference, suggesting that because these demands are new to some students, their teachers may need to engage in considerable role-shifting to ease the conversational burden and help the students “save face.”