"Brilliant. Next Question. ..": High-Grade Assessment Sequences in the Completion of Interactional Units

Abstract We note interviewers' use, after an answer receipt, of markedly positive assessments (such as "brilliant," "excellent," etc.). They occur in a (permissive) sequence of answer receipt + right/ok token + high-grade assessment + move to next item which, we argue, are task-oriented, rather than content-oriented, devices. They signal movement through a series of interactional units: the completion of individual question-answer pairs, interview schedule sections, and the whole series of questions. We discuss the possibility that such high-grade assessment sequences are hearably "institutional" talk and that troublesome conduct of an interview may occasion their use to mark successful completion of institutional objectives (here, inter-view progress). We speculate on what it means to find that the use of these high-grade assessments seems to be more prominent in interviews with people with a learning disability but note that their use might signal an episode of "institution-al" exchange in any talk.