This article discusses the conceptual and methodological origins of the Conversational Argument Coding Scheme (CACS). The article first reviews the impulse for development of this content analysis scheme as part of structuration theory work in communication during the late 1970s and early 1980s, especially within the structuration approach to argument in group deliberations. We also position those conceptual efforts in the context of other scholarship at that time on argument in varied forms of social interaction. We next treat three theoretical perspectives on argument that undergird the CACS, including why and how they are integrated in it. Moreover, we note operational developments that occurred after initial formulation of the CACS and outcomes that are offered in the other articles in this issue. More precisely, we discuss and elaborate on various argument structures (i.e., different forms of completed arguments) and argument sequences (i.e., act-to-act patterns of argument behaviors). Finally, we conclude with observations regarding the origins, development, and possible future development of the CACS.
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