Assignment 4 Christina Caiozzo

Clark and Brennan (1991) make the claim that without assuming mutual knowledge, beliefs and assumptions- common ground, two people can not coordinate on content. They go on to assert that in order to update common ground while conversing, it is necessary to practice grounding- establishing that what has been said has been understood. Grounding can be accomplished in several ways.
In terms of texting, it is clear that two people have a shared meaning of a conversation when answers are relevant and appropriate to posed questions, and responses have continuity.
There are different costs for using different mediums and communicating with different people. In terms of texting, once a text has been sent, fixing the mistake is rather tedious and costly compared to face to face interaction.
Knowing this, it would be beneficial to rely heavily on existing shared knowledge only when you know the person you’re texting very well, and the conversation is trivial. When you can be positive that they will understand what you’re talking about, then it is safe to draw on common ground.
The conversation I had with one of my roommates went as follows:
Me: Lunch at Trill?
Luke: I have to im home and change I get coffee spilled on me
Me: AKA you peed your pants
Luke: Wow did you think of that all on your own? NO wrong again.
Me: You are the ultimate butthead.

In this trivial conversation, we drew heavily on common ground. We were not talking about anything important, so neither of us was worried about misunderstandings. Luke and I usually communicate about having lunch on Tuesdays and Thursdays because we have the same break, so I doubt he was surprised to receive my text. Since we usually make fun of each other all the time, neither one of us was worried about taking the jokes too seriously. Very little grounding was necessary. We could tell from one another’s responses that the previous message had been received and understood. Since we usually eat at Trillium, he understood my abbreviation. Since I am familiar with texting via the phone keyboard- I didn’t need clarification for Luke’s typos.
If I had been texting with someone I just met, it would be harder to tell what common ground we share and a greater chance for misunderstanding. More grounding might have to be done, and since texts can be tedious to write it is best to only draw upon common ground when you’re certain the other person will do the same.
Based on Fussell’s (2009) research, when an expert repairman gave directions to a non-expert, performance was actually hindered because more time had to be spent clarifying technical terms. Based on this information, it would seem that you should not draw on all existing knowledge you have if the person you’re communicating with may not know the same information. This was not an issue for my conversation since neither of us were instructing the other to do anything.