Successful learning in a discursive interaction demands that participants be able to follow the interaction from its beginning to its end; instruction on Asynchronous Learning Networks (ALNs) poses challenges because, unlike in face-to-face interaction, not all messages are serial. This paper offers strategies and techniques to help ALN teachers and students keep the thread of a prolonged, asynchronous discussion. Ways in which face-to-face conversational practice works to ensure the shared understanding of all the interactions are described, including turn taking, repair, overlap, and formulations. How asynchronous interactions may violate these practices and inhibit the construction of shared understanding is then addressed, including the loss of conversational practice in turn taking and overlap, turn taking and indexical repairs, and turn taking and formulations. The following two methods for communicating in asynchronous interactions in order to preserve face-to-face conversational practices and permit students to engage in discursive learning are proposed: using strategic snipping to simulate conversational overlaps, and using formulations and indexical repairs to emulate conversational practice. Two figures illustrate the graphical conversation network and the threaded topic listing. (DLS)