Who Does The Talking Here Deborah Tannen Analysis
Deborah Tannen’s “Who Does the Talking Here” first appeared in the July 15, 2007 edition of the Washington Post. Tannen is a professor of linguistics at Georgetown University and an author of many scholarly articles and books on subjects in her field. Tannen states that recent studies to determine who talks more, men or women, have not been helpful in determining that. She argues that these studies are focusing on the word count instead of how these words are being used and in which situation most of the talking is being done. Tannen goes on to state that the comfort with various social situations varies between both genders. She explains that men tend to use "report-talk" whereas women tend to use "rapport-talk." Most of the talking by men
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If something interests both male and female, then they both would probably talk, but if only one person finds it interesting then one would talk more than the other. Tannen speaks of an experience when she was addressing a small group. In this group one guy talked a lot, while his wife said nothing. Tannen goes on to describe a common complaint where women will tell the men they live with what has happened in their day but when women ask men how their day was they are disappointed by his reply. Men express themselves more in groups than when alone with their partner. Men will talk work, hobbies, and sports where women talk more when discussing personal things like kids, relationships, shopping, etc. As Tannen states, “for women and girls, talk is the glue that holds a relationship together. Their best friend is the one they tell everything to.” (357) With this example, Tannen uses logos to get her argument across. The logic in this example is the fact that certain situations, and your knowledge of that topic, will indeed prompt a person to talk more or be quite and just listen.
In “Who Does the Talking Here” Tannen makes her argument strong by including the example from the small group where the man talked constantly and the female not at all. This helps prove the point that a person will talk more depending upon the situation they are in and the subject being discussed. Tannen concludes that people are more observant of the amount others speak when they are not the ones doing the talking. It goes to show that the quality of words is a more reliable insight than the
If something interests both male and female, then they both would probably talk, but if only one person finds it interesting then one would talk more than the other. Tannen speaks of an experience when she was addressing a small group. In this group one guy talked a lot, while his wife said nothing. Tannen goes on to describe a common complaint where women will tell the men they live with what has happened in their day but when women ask men how their day was they are disappointed by his reply. Men express themselves more in groups than when alone with their partner. Men will talk work, hobbies, and sports where women talk more when discussing personal things like kids, relationships, shopping, etc. As Tannen states, “for women and girls, talk is the glue that holds a relationship together. Their best friend is the one they tell everything to.” (357) With this example, Tannen uses logos to get her argument across. The logic in this example is the fact that certain situations, and your knowledge of that topic, will indeed prompt a person to talk more or be quite and just listen.
In “Who Does the Talking Here” Tannen makes her argument strong by including the example from the small group where the man talked constantly and the female not at all. This helps prove the point that a person will talk more depending upon the situation they are in and the subject being discussed. Tannen concludes that people are more observant of the amount others speak when they are not the ones doing the talking. It goes to show that the quality of words is a more reliable insight than the