Spoken Word Conventions/Key

Transcripts are usually accompanied by a key that indicates, to the reader, what has taken place during the exchange. Please see below for symbols. Please also note that we refer to each participant's contribution as a 'turn'. This is because of the phenomenon of turn-taking. In conversation, we apparently abide by this. Although some people do this to a lesser or greater degree than others. 

So, for example, in your response, you could write something like the following:
'In turns 3 and 5, Steve and Mary use vocabulary that is consistent with a Northern  dialect. Clearly they have done this unconsciously because of their cultural ties. They are both from... It is apparent that audience is the strongest influence on language choice because the transcript is peppered with other dialectal terms.  


(.)= pause

(3)=timed pause 

//=interruption