Three forms of internal negotiation through the activity of private diary-writing

Abstract

This paper is focused on the practice of private diary-writing as an act of externalizing internal communication from the point of view of the theory of argumentation. It is demonstrated that through diary-writing, various forms of internal negotiation can be implemented. The paper sheds light on three ways internal negotiation is externalized through diary writing: reflective diary writing, crisis diary writing and self-encouraging diary writing. It is shown that these communicative practices occur with respect to specific exigencies of a diarist, and with respect to these specific exigencies, they differ in the type of argumentation that can be submitted in the writings. For the argumentative characterization of these practices, the concept of the communicative activity type introduced within a pragma-dialectical approach to argumentation is used. It is shown that distinguished diary-writing practices are differently conventionalized activity types that are preconditioned by implicit norms governing the conduct of argumentation.