Initiate

Initiation intends to cause a response. Basically, initiations are questions. Initiations can also include any statement, command or unfinished statement, which intends to elicit a reply. Initiations have considerable influence on the direction of your conversation because they begin a sequence.

Type 1 – The old-fashioned question

Tutor: How has your statistics class been going?
Tutee: I’ve been having problems with my spreadsheet.

Type 2 – The Prompt

Tutor: Alright, the best way to define your color using HTML is…
Tutee: Ummm (pause) using hexadecimal values.

Here, the pause signals to the tutee that they should finish the sentence.

Type 3 – A Command

A command statement is looking for a specific response from the tutee. The tutor issues to the tutee what is basically a command.

Tutor: Could you tell me again what the characteristics of a Limerick poem are?
Tutee: The main characteristics of a Limerick poem are …

See how the tutor’s question directly asked the tutee for a response?

Type 4 – A Problem Statement

Tutee: I don’t understand. When I was looking at this and I got more confused.
Tutor: Ok, if oil prices rise… (pause..)
Tutee: Then consumers have to pay more for their gas. Ok, in other words…

Here, the tutee is not specifically asked to do anything but the PAUSE initiates a response from the tutee.

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