Texts-in-interaction: collaborative problem-solving in quasi-synchronous computer-mediated communication

Quasi-synchronous chat consists of the production and posting of text messages in an online environment. It differs from face-to-face talk-in-interaction in a number of important ways that are significant for participants in the chats and methodologically in terms of the way analysis can be conducted and the kinds of analytical claims that can be made. The perspective adopted in this paper is that chat interaction can be considered the computer-mediated production and reading of texts-in-interaction. However, since the production of a posted text is usually not available to anyone but the author of that text, I am not concerned with the production of posted texts. Rather, I am concerned with the way texts, as produced artifacts, are organized to be read by recipients. In particular, I consider ways in which quasi-synchronous chat postings provide instruction in their design for how they are to be read by recipients of these postings.