The first of the two chapters in this section – “Notes on Methodology” by the late Harvey Sacks – consists of a series of programmatic and methodological observations taken largely from Sacks's transcribed lectures given between 1965 and 1971 and edited into a continuous discussion by Gail Jefferson. These observations vividly convey the pioneering quality of his work, some of his motives for undertaking it, and the “lateral thinking” that was such a characteristic feature of his lectures. They also outline some revolutionary methodological orientations that have since become standard both within the field of conversation analysis and beyond it. In particular, Sacks insists (1) that ordinary talk is systematically and strongly organized; (2) that its analysis should be based upon naturally occurring data; and (3) that analytic interests should not be constrained by external considerations. These three recommendations are closely interconnected.

Sacks's initial remarks tackle head on what has arguably been the major factor inhibiting studies of interaction: the assumption that talk is not sufficiently orderly to bear formal description. This assumption is shared by those linguists who have treated empirically occurring talk as a degenerate realization of linguistic competence and by sociologists (including anthropologists) who, doubting that social organization reaches “downward” to the details of interaction, have tended to regard the data of talk as idiosyncratic or random. One consequence of this assumption is that many linguists and social scientists have been content to develop idealized models of language and action, respectively.