Conversational styles and gender differences in dialogue

¶ … communication and the differences that there are in the communication trends between men and women. They both highlight the significance of understanding the point-of-view of the other person within the conversation and allowing the other person to speak as you listen. Both essays also highlight the possibility and cases of misinterpretation of communications and the cues therein. One outstanding one is the married couple who get into argument because the wife asked the husband if he wanted to stop for coffee and the husband turned the offer down, she misinterpreted this gesture for refusal by the husband to let her stop for coffee (Tannen D., nd).

The other aspect that is central to both the essays is that the writer fondly uses examples or anecdotes to drive home her points within the essay. She ensures the reader has a practical daily experience that she witnessed or was told in order to have a clearer picture of the situation that emanated from the communication or conversational situation. Apparently, in a manner that seems to characterize her writings, the anecdotes are short in both essays and humorous in a manner that it makes it easy for the reader to develop interest and remember too.

There are however some significant differences that are visible between the two essays. First the "Sex, Lies, and Conversation" has been brought out more as an essay that tries to show how the two different genders communicate, the verbal and non-verbal cues that they use, the varying manners in which they interpret the words or communication that the other person is passing on to the partner. It displays how gender and social interaction influence the communication process or trends between the two genders. She states that "systematic differences in childhood socialization make talk between women and men like cross-cultural communication…" (Tannen D., 1990). Its main focus is to show how the boys are more inclusive in their conversations as compared and talk less than the girls and that they are more action oriented. The writer refers to this mismatch between the way the boys communicate and would like to see communication go on and that of girls a "misalignments in the mechanics of conversation." She also points out another major difference which is pronounced between the two genders as boys would keep skipping from one topic to another, yet the girls would prefer to talk about one topic in details. She winds up by indicating that the conversation of men is as frustrating to women just as that of women to men and a clear understanding of the pivotal point is significant in bringing harmony to the conversation.