In last
Thursday’s class, Kerry let us do an exercise to use both quotes and story
approaches to make an argument to support your propositions. It was fun and I
learnt a lot from it. The data used is from the interview about the experience
of ANU-CBE students.
Quotes
Proposition:
Positive feelings will be resulted if the current experience
is more satisfying than the previous one.
Quotes:
“ANU is a good
uni(veristy). It’s more challenging than the first year uni(versity) I go to
back home.”
“The coursework is a bit more challenging and also there is
(are) more test…(More assignments) make you understand things more.”
“more group assignment(s) and group work(s) between the
classmates” and “more opportunit(ies) to talk with the lecturer.”
Argument:
Without any hints to compare their previous experiences, interviewees
unconsciously evaluate their current experience in relation to their previous
ones using comparative words like “more”. For example, this is well-evidenced
in the first quote. These are the first two sentences the interviewee said when
been asked about their experience in ANU. Apparently, being more challenging
constitutes one of the main reasons why she had a positive experience at ANU
and this is in relation to her
university experience back home.
Story
Claim:
Negative feelings result from dissatisfactions as the
current one underperforms the previous one.
Story:
Student B is doing Master of Business who finished his
Bachelor degree in the University of Adelaide. When he talked about his
experience in ANU, he was so angry and speaking with a strong tone to complain
about some of his lecturers. Basically, what he said is that the lecturers
failed his presentation and essays without giving convincing and sense-making
reasons. He also carried on and told us two
similar stories about his friends to express his dissatisfaction and emphasis
that he was not the only case. When asked if these things had happened before,
he answered:” Definitely not happened! At least, I got the lower lower mark
(the lowest mark I got), on (in) my undergraduate (in University of Adelaide)
is 50… So I am really confused with ANU’s teacher… how do they think about the
marking criteria… it’s very strange!”
Agrument:
It is clear that his past experience of lecturers of always
giving pass mark is set as a reference point of his current experience. Because
the current experience does not meet his benchmark, he feels very disappointed
and frustrated about his experience at ANU. This dissatisfaction is expressed
through the tones and attitudes during the talking and he also tried to
emphasis on his point by making people feel he is not a single/only case to
make his accusation believable.
I found that comparing the
two approaches, story approach is better in expressing a point of view. By
providing the backgrounds and contexts of the person and the interview process,
it can help readers to understand your intention and think along the line of
your arguments. Whereas, using a single or multiple quote may be a bit hard to
follow as readers might not understand why the interviewee will have such
opinion/attitude at the time. Also, by providing only one line allows more discretion
for readers to have different interpretation as you do. However, we need to be
cautious when we use story as if there is too much information provided, the story
can be messy and redundant and readers might not be able to catch the kick in
your story.
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