ABSTRACT
Conversation analysis emerged from a specific approach to interaction, and it helps to go back to that approach and its aims to understand how its proponents approach data. This brief introduction takes one brief excerpt from a group interaction – a book club – and uses it to illustrate how the moment to moment development of talk can lead to insights into what is going on for the participants. I then discuss some of the practical issues in CA, such as the amount of data, the structure of arguments, and the form of transcription, and I mention some current issues in the field, such as the interest in embodied talk.
