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Tips Sheets: Business, Law & Econ | Culture & Living | Medical Science & Health | Science & Technology Book explores how to make conversation more creative, effective and enjoyable Media assistance: Neil Schoenherr - (314) 935-5235 Source: Keith Sawyer's Web page Related: Read more about Keith Sawyer's other publications [St. Louis, Mo., 3-1-02] - Conversations. We have them every day. We say hello to the employee behind the counter when we get our morning coffee. We grunt good morning to our co-workers. We pontificate to friends over the price of gasoline or the latest political or sports story. We have personal discussions with our loved ones about issues of health, job security and our financial future. Jacket cover of Creating Conversations But for all the talking we do during the average day, how many of us give those conversations a second thought? Keith Sawyer certainly has. Sawyer is an assistant professor of education in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. His new book, Creating Conversations: Improvisation in Everyday Discourse, brings together two major areas of research -- creativity and conversation -- into a groundbreaking study about how closely the two are related. Sawyer's research indicates that everyday conversation is an exercise in creativity, even when it's seemingly boring or mundane. Every conversation we have is creative because conversations are not scripted or rehearsed. Conversation is one of those everyday, common sense abilities that we all can do without thinking. But paradoxically, understanding how conversation works is one of the most difficult problems for scientists. Everyday conversation skills are much more difficult to understand than scientists originally thought. So much of the skill that goes into conversation is subconscious and difficult to pin down. And even after decades of research, computers are still miserable conversationalists. Computers have great success with very complicated tasks like building cars or solving complex mathematical equations. But getting a computer to carry on a conversation, a simple human trait, is a nearly impossible task. So difficult, yet so natural In Creating Conversations, Sawyer explores this paradox: How can conversation be so difficult, and at the same time come to us so naturally? The answer to the paradox is found in the creativity of everyday conversation. Sawyer, a jazz pianist and an expert in the sciences of creativity and conversation, shows that the same basic creativity -- improvisational creativity -- is found in conversation, jazz music, children's play, and theater. Using performance as the central theme, each chapter takes a different perspective on conversational creativity. The chapters are filled with examples of conversation from cartoons, television sitcoms, theater, movies and everyday life. Representative topics include: What jazz musicians really mean when they say their performances are like a conversation; How the Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day is like a Grateful Dead concert tour; The intriguing perspective on everyday conversation that improvisational actors have developed; How David Letterman's offbeat sense of humor is based on a turn-of-the-century Italian playwright; and What sports-team victory cheers have in common with the way boys talk while playing with blocks. Sawyer weaves these examples together around one or two common themes, and provides insights from recent research in psychology, anthropology and linguistics. His central message is that something that we all take for granted -- the ability to participate in everyday conversation -- is, in fact, a complex, creative ability. By presenting the latest findings from conversation research, Sawyer ensures that every reader will gain insights that will make conversation more creative, more effective and more enjoyable. For example, Sawyer discusses the implications of the Yes/And Rule, which improvisational actors are taught in their classes. The basic premise is not to reject what is proposed in a dialogue. The rule teaches actors to be accepting of their fellow actors, to elaborate on what is said, and to create new ideas. The Yes/And Rule can be a very effective way for all us of to improve upon our conversational techniques, says Sawyer. "Those who read this book will notice their conversations becoming more collaborative and balanced, less likely to have one person dominating the conversation," he adds. In Creating Conversations, Sawyer draws on his own extensive academic research on conversation and creativity. In addition to this book, Sawyer also has published several books of scholarly study, including 1997's Pretend Play as Improvisation: Conversation in the Preschool Classroom and 1998's Creativity in Conversation, as well as the forthcoming Creativity and Development and Improvised Dialogues.
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