Question

Conversation1:

Erin motions Jessica over to her desk. They discuss how Jessica’s date with Tom went last night. Erin is excited when Jessica tells her that Tom’s cousin is interested in Erin. They end their conversation when their teacher walks into the classroom by agreeing to call each other after school.
Conversation 2:
Paul walks up to the counter and yells at Pat to get over here. Paul demands that Pat apologize for insulting him yesterday. Pat tries to calm Paul down explaining that he was just joking around. Paul tells Pat to shut up and just apologize. Pat tells Paul to calm down. Paul storms out of the coffee shop.

While both conversations include the five essentials of conversation, which one has an ineffective feedforward and closing?
a. Neither
b. Both
c. 1
d. 2

Answer 1

I would say the second story has the ineffective feed forward as it just leaves the reader hanging with no knowledge of how the strife between the two will end. The question is, will Pat apologize to Paul for insulting him or will Paul even give him a chance to do so and when Paul takes off then we are left in the lurch.

Answer 2

Answer: d. 2.

Step-by-step explanation: the five essentials of conversation are the opening (how the conversation starts), feedforward (the introduction of the topic), business (the purpose of the conversation), feedback (the communication of the understanding of the participants) and closing (how the conversation ends). From the given conversations, the one that has an ineffective feedforward and closing is the conversation 2, because Paul demands and apology from Pat in a rude way (feedforward) and the conversation ends with Paul storming out of the coffee shop (closing).