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14 Facts About Gail Jefferson

1.

Gail Jefferson was an American sociologist with an emphasis in sociolinguistics.

2.

Gail Jefferson was, along with Harvey Sacks and Emanuel Schegloff, one of the founders of the area of research known as conversation analysis.

3.

Gail Jefferson is remembered for the methods and notational conventions she developed for transcribing speech, the latter forming the Jefferson Transcription System.

4.

Gail Jefferson would go on to complete a PhD in Social Sciences at UC Irvine in 1972.

5.

Gail Jefferson had temporary appointments at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Massachusetts Amherst and several University of California campuses.

6.

Gail Jefferson moved back to the Netherlands in 1987 and married Albert Stuulen.

7.

Gail Jefferson remained there until she died in Rinsumageest, The Netherlands, in 2008 at the age of 69.

8.

Gail Jefferson enrolled in the class to fulfill her graduation requirement for her dance major.

9.

Gail Jefferson had learned basic transcription skills through her work as a clerk typist at the UCLA Department of Public Health and her experience and work there in transcribing sensitivity-training sessions for prison guards.

10.

Gail Jefferson transcribed many of his lectures on the topic and edited and released them after his death.

11.

Gail Jefferson directed her main focus toward two key foundational aspects of interaction which were moment-by-moment shaping interaction, and re-shaping interaction.

12.

Gail Jefferson produced all of these transcripts in MS Word Format and transcribed four of them using a typewriter.

13.

Additionally, one of Gail Jefferson's specific focuses within sociolinguistics was laughter.

14.

Gail Jefferson's work has greatly influenced the sociological study of interaction, but disciplines beyond, especially linguistics, communication, and anthropology.