Communication

Introduction to transcript and communication text

In this transcript there are two characters named Steph an Natalya, Natalya is instructing Steph to draw the same image on her piece of paper that she drew herself on her own paper. The conversation lasted 3 minutes and took place in a class room. The image contained pictures of 3 shapes with faces each in different corners of the page. 

Transcript

Natalya: So in the middle section, of like (.) the right hand side-
Steph: Okay..?
Natalya: draw a smiley face (brief laugh) closer to the top
(Pause.)
like-a..lika biggish, sort of, smiley face
(Both laugh)
Steph: Okaaay....↓
Natalya: Draw a circle around it. Wait - I'm not suppose to see this am i ?!
Steph: Okay.. art is not my.. uhh... strong point..
Natalya: (Laugh) And now you got to do loads of little, litt'l leggies underneath the .. (muffled laughter) smiley face
Steph: Little legs?
Natalya: Little leggies, lika (.) perpendicular sort of lines .. under smiley -
(Steph laughs)
Natalya: 'nd then you gotta do li'le arms coming off the smiley face
(Both laugh)
Steph: i bet mine looks nothing like yours.
Natalya: Okaaay now in the left top hand corner, that's more slightly in the middle (.) like the same size as the smiley face-
Step: Okay↓
Natalya: You've gotta draw a triangle (long pause)
and now now in the middle of the triangle, but like closer to the top, draw two little dots for eyes (brief laugh)
Steph: it's got one eye bigger than the other
(both Natalya and steph laugh)
Natalya: Aaand now .... do like a little, little leggies but like right angle leggies beneath the triangle (Long pause)
And now between the triangle and the smiley face-
(Both laugh)
But more like closer to the bottom half (.) of the page
Steph: Right...
Natalya: You got to do a square
Steph: More rectangular than a square but (.) you know
Natalya: You gotta do the same li'le leggies↓
(Both laugh)
Then you gotta do the same little arms coming off the middle coming off the middle, but they go at 45 degrees
Steph: Okay..
Natalya: Then you gotta do the exact same dots in the middle for eyes (3)
Yeah that's it↓ 
Steph: Yeah that looks goood..?
(Both Natalya and Steph laugh)

Analysis of transcript

Firstly we notice the colloquial language spoken by Natalya, she uses the conjunction 'so' as a starter, this shows that she is trying to get to the point of giving instructions to Steph. Moreover, Natalya uses many non-standard pronunciations: for the words little she says 'li'le' and for the word legs she says 'leggies'. By using the typical convention of fillers this extenuates her bristolian accent and the developed laziness in her speech.

Secondly,  Steph and Natalya both use frequent interruptions in the form of laughter or questions. One example is 'between the triangle and the smiley face- (Steph laughs)', in this quote it is clear by the use of the dash that Natalya has been interrupted by Steph's involuntary laughter. 

One of the basic conventions of a transcript are the uses of stage directions; they contain the interruptions of Natalya and Steph laughing and the pauses. An example f this is '(3)', here the use of the brackets show that the current speaker paused for three seconds, this then shows that they are thinking about what to say. They are presented in the transcript in parenthesis to show that they are stage directions and have not been spoken. 

Throughout the transcript, many fillers are being repeated, such as: like, lika, uh and okay; The fillers in the text show the casual language being spoken and that Natalya and Steph unsure of what to draw. By using the fillers, the audience can see that they are finding this difficult and are struggling about what to say.

Lastly, another one of the conventions used is utterances, which have mainly been used in the small phrases which Steph repeats, for example 'okaaay... ↓', I added this in here so it didn't seem so final and so it doesn't sound like a queiry, more of a statement. Furthermore, in the transcript I repeated these phrases as I wanted the transcript to sound continuous and more like a conversation.