My basic interest centers around the dynamics of conversation which is explored by analyzing discourse. I was particularly influenced by the work of William Benoit and Michael Agar. How are the rhetorical patterns that show up across recurring situations created? When people go to a club, they have certain needs and expectations about the stylistic characteristics of those conversations. The characteristics of those conversations become situationally required and a rhetorical genre is created. One could show up to any club, anywhere in a particular region and there is a structure for conversations which allows participants to adopt particular personae, generate particular ideas, create emphasis on particular parts of speech (Benoit, 2016). What are the factors involved in this process?

New rhetorical genres are being created rapidly with the emergence of each new generation. How are new individual instances of meaning created during structured discourse? Inspired by the recent work of Jonathan Haidt, I’ve been focusing on the need to transform the field of mental healthcare for teens and young adults. I feel as though I need to spend time in the recent research to understand how I can contribute to that purpose. In Haidt’s book, The Anxious Generation, there is a rousing description of the social characteristics of children who have had a ‘screen-based childhood’ and are subsequently compared with children whose formative years were ‘play-based’. If we are to assume that ‘screen’ children are creating new structures for rhetorical situations that exist in virtual spaces, how can ‘play-based’ professionals provide mental healthcare with real connection? Mental healthcare is primarily accessed through language and there lies the challenge…….navigating the generation gap using language.