Narrative Analysis: The Personal Experience Narrative
ASEE 2014 Zone I Conference, April 3-5, 2014, University of Bridgeport, Bridgpeort, CT, USA.Narrative analysis: ThePersonal Experience Narrative approachAdedamola AkinsanyaProf. Christian BachTechnology Management DepartmentUniversity of BridgeportBridgeport, USAaakinsan@my.bridgeport.eduTechnology Management DepartmentUniversity of BridgeportBridgeport, USAcbach@bridgeport.eduAbstract— this paper takes a more informed look into thepersonal experience aspect of narrative analysis. The researchmethod of narrative analysis would be analyzed along with anarrative from an engineering graduate student to betterdemonstrate its validity and show its practicality as a researchmethod in the engineering field.historical research to compare and unearth moreunderstanding of the importance and practicality of narrativesand narrative analysis in the field of research not onlyattributed to science but other important aspects of life e.g.social research.BACKGROUNDKeywords— narrative analysis,evaluation, orientation, abstract.personalexperience,INTRODUCTIONThe concepts of narrative and life story have become asignificant part of the repertoire of the social sciences sincethe mid-1950s. There have been several proponents [1-10] ofthe importance of narratives in qualitative research. Anarrative is a story that contains a sequence of events that takeplace over a time period. It mostly follows a chronologicalorder and usually contains a link to the present on the form ofa lesson learnt by the narrator. Narrative analysis seeks to findthe link by analyzing and evaluating various parts of thenarrative.RESEARCH METHODHistorical research [11-17] was carried out to find data andevidence correlating to the utilization of narrative analysis invarious real world issues. This yielded an impressive amountof data that showed the validity of narrative analysis in thequalitative field of research. Nevertheless, the author seeks touse this data to support and better understand the value ofnarrative analysis through the personal experience narrativeapproach. Narrative analysis, even though the topic of study,was used to evaluate some interesting narratives and sought toglean out the valuable insights and lessons that were beingshown and taught by these stories. There was also what theauthor calls “social interaction analysis” in which theinteraction between the author and people in his social circlewas scrutinized to find interesting evidence, opinions and factsthat could contribute toward the ongoing research. Reviewcentric research [18-22] was additionally applied in line withWe all love stories. They are easy on the mind and can bequite entertaining. According to Berger (1997:4) a narrative isa story, and stories tell about things that have happened or arehappening to people, animals, and aliens from outer space, etc.That is, a story contains a sequence of events, which meansthat narratives take place within or over, some kind of timeperiod. This time period can be very short, as in a nursery tale,or very long, as in some novels and epics. Narratives are veryimportant in the culture of human beings as they tend toshowcase the values being taught by our culture, and ourculture as a whole, in a less formal and more enjoyablemanner. Schank (1990) classifies narratives into:1) Official Stories: Stories we learn from officialsources e.g. church and school.2) Invented (Adapted) Stories: Stories created bypeople.3) Firsthand Stories: People’s own experiences. Theseare the stories we talk about the most.4) Secondhand Stories: Firsthand stories of others thatwe have heard or remembered.5) Culturally Common Stories: These are stories gottenfrom our environment.The narrative can be written or spoken. The spoken narrativeuses the oral language which is mostly used in daily life toestablish and maintain social relations while the writtennarrative employs the written language which is used todecipher and transfer information. Researchers have longsince tapped into this wealth of knowledge understanding theimportance of narratives [23-27] in the constantly ongoingresearch of an individual’s field of interests and the myriadissues that plague our world such as cancer, global warming,
financial meltdown etc. They have sought many differentways to gain insight from this wave of information. Narrativeanalysis comes forth as one of these methods. Narrativeanalysis is a research method that is applied to a narrative bymeans of breaking the narrative into constituent parts that eachhave an integral role to play in the narrative. These partswould be discussed in more detail later on in the paper. Asmuch as myths and tales by moonlight spark our imaginationand teaches us valuable lessons, it’s those experiences that weor someone close to us has that resonates the most with us.These are personal experiences and they stick mostly becausethey are that – personal. These stories have directly impactedour beings due to their visceral realism in our lives. A personalexperience narrative is a story which was experiencedfirsthand by the narrator i.e. the person telling the story. Theauthor has decided to expand upon the premise of personalexperience narratives and include secondhand stories i.e. otherpeople’s personal experiences as well.DISCUSSION OF MODEL1) Goal (Personal Experience Narrative)Goal: A look at the personal experience narrative andelements of the narrative structure and evaluative languageused in oral and written narratives. (Ozyıldırım, 2006)p.1209” [28-32] Narrative analysis in this form is readilyexplored to view the various parts (i.e. factors) merging togather to form the narrative which, in this case, is of thepersonal experience form.2) Factor 1 (Abstract)F1: “The abstract summarizes the whole story and consists ofone or two clauses at the beginning of a narrative. (Ozyıldırım,2006) p. 1211” [33-37] An overview of the narrative, whilenot overly necessary, is very instructive in giving the reader orintended audience a fore-glance at what the narrative is allabout.3) Factor 2 (Orientation)F2: “Orientation gives information about the time, place,characters, and their activity or the situation in what willfollow (Ozyıldırım, 2006) p. 1211”. [38-42] The orientationprovides the necessary information regarding the time frame,location and characters involved in the narrative. Afterall,readers should know the cast of characters performing in aplay.4) Factor 3 (Complicating action)F3: “Complicating action clauses are narrative clauses thatinform the audience about what happened (Ozyıldırım, 2006)p. 1211”. [43-47] This is the nitty-gritty of the narrative as itgoes into detail about the content of the narrative i.e. whatactually happened. This forms the body of the narrative.5) Factor 4 (Resolution)F4: “Resolution informs the audience about how thecomplicating action was resolved. This section indicates thetermination of a series of events by releasing the tension(Ozyıldırım, 2006) p. 1211”. [48-52] There can never be aFig. 1 Path Diagram Showing Factors That Affect the PersonalExperience Narrativebeginning without an end. The resolution ties in the narrative,effectively concluding the story as told.Factor 5 (Evaluation)F5:“Evaluation forms the emotional side of the narrative andexplains why the story is worth telling (Ozyıldırım, 2006) p.1211.” [53-57] This is where it gets pretty interesting as thenarrator uses the evaluation phase to communicate how he/shefelt during the time the narrative took place. More light wouldbe shed on the evaluation phase later.Factor 6 (coda)F6: “Coda clauses are located at the end of narratives andindicate that the story is over, bridging the gap between thenarrative proper and the present, or sometimes providing ashort summary of the narrative (Ozyıldırım, 2006) p. 1211”.[58-62] This contains what can be referred to as the “lessonlearnt” from the narrative. Every narrative is in the past. Thisquestion is “how did it affect your present?”The factors in Fig. 1 will now be applied to a narrativedescribed by a participant of the interviews and socialinteraction analysis. This is a secondhand experience narrativebut as revealed earlier, the author has included secondhandexperience narratives into the personal narrative approach.Afterall, the experience is still factual and personal to theparticipant. The narrative goes thus: “I had an interestingcomputer lab experience this semester. It happened in the 3rdweek of the semester; I participated in a computer lab classwhere my class was taught how to use a sound recognizablecontrol system. The program needed to operate the system wasnot functioning on my computer. Fortunately, the Indian ladybeside me offered to assist me by showing how the programworked on her system. I was relieved and quite pleasantlysurprised to be offered help. We got to talking and exchangedcontacts. She was the first foreign lady friend I made and
despite our racial background, we found it easy tocommunicate and help each other.”For a personal narrative to be properly analyzed, the followingfactors outlined in the model above must be in place. Allfactors come together to describe the surroundings, charactersand circumstances in the story. The evaluation, as notedconveys the emotional reflection of the narrator and producesthe reason the story is being told. The factors are explainedbelow with their varying parts in the sample narrative shown:1) Abstract: This serves to show the overview of the narrative.Ask the question: “What was the experience about?” In thiscase, the abstract was: “I had an interesting computer labexperience this semester.” This gives the intended audience apreconceived notion of what the narrative is all about.Therefore, the audience will know that the narrative had to dowith an interesting experience that occurred in a computer lab.2) Orientation: This shows information about the time, place,characters and their activity or the situation in what willfollow. Asks the questions: “Who was the person or personsinvolved in the experience?”, “When did the events takeplace?”, and “What were the events?” and “Where did theevents take place?” Orientation: “It happened in the thirdweek of the semester; I participated in a computer labwhere my class was taught how to use a soundrecognizable system.” Now, we know the participants of thenarrative, where the narrative occurred, when it occurred andthe events that took place.3) Complicating Action: This informs the audience about whathappened. Obligatory for the narrative and contains the climaxor high point of the story. It asks the question: “Whathappened?” In the sample narrative: “The program neededto operate the system was not functioning on mycomputer. “4) Resolution: This informs the audience about the resolutionof the action. It indicates the termination of a series of events.It asks the question: “What finally happened?” The resolutionwas: “Fortunately, the Indian lady beside me offered toassist me by showing how the program worked on hersystem.” The climax has been resolved i.e. the intriguingaction in the narrative has been affected in one way or theother.5) Evaluation: This forms the emotional side of the narrativeand explains why the story is worth telling. It asks thequestion: “How did you feel during the experience?” In thenarrative: “I was relieved and quite pleasantly surprised tobe offered help.” Humans are emotional beings and arestrongly motivated by their emotion during certainexperiences. Joy, anger, sadness and fulfillment are just someof the reasons why people’s personal experiences are narratedto others. This is very important in qualitative researchbecause a person’s emotional state can dictate how whether anarrative is told well or not during an interview or socialinteraction.6) Coda: Located at the end of the narrative. The codaindicates that the story is over, bridging the gap between thenarrative proper and the present. It asks the question: “Whatdid learn from this experience.” The coda in the narrative:“She was the first foreign lady friend I made and despiteour racial background, we found it easy to communicateand help each other.” A good story should always convey alesson to be learnt. How else do we as humans develop fromour experiences?IMPORTANCE OF MODEL/NEW INSGHTThe model has shown the author the importance of narrativeanalysis in qualitative research. The narrative was brokendown into coherent and easily understandable parts that can befully utilized when carrying out research using this researchmethod. The fact that all the independent factors have apositive effect on the personal experience narrative only helpsto cement and validate this form of academic inquiry. I believethat narrative analysis will gain much more prominence in thiscurrently and rapidly expanding intermingled world of globalteams. To further elaborate, searching for a set of data andanalyzing or comparing that set to another set of dataconcerning a particular phenomenon is a goal of research. Inthe engineering, as with other technical fields, it has beendiscovered that the level of communication between fellowengineers during a given project contributes highly to thesuccess of that given project. As [63] illustrated, lack ofproper communication that fosters a better understanding of ateam member’s role and the importance of his task in aproject can lead to unfulfilled targets regarding the project oroutright failure. In a multinational environment such as theenvironment the author is in, I believe that narrative analysiscan better gives us clues into solving many interracial issuesthat are inherent in a multinational community.CONCLUSIONNarratives are a way of life and I think it’s a very hugeadvantage for all parties interested in a particular phenomenonthat it is fully utilized for research. I stress interviews andsocial interactions because these tend to be informal and, assuch, enable the participants to readily reveal moreinformation regarding a particular issue. This is already ineffect at the University of Bridgeport with the courseevaluation form which seeks to find out student’s impressionabout a particular course at the end of the semester. Asalways, things can be improved and those willing to beparticipants can be interviewed about their experiencesregarding graduate education in the university. Narrativeanalysis can then be used to review these stories and revealredeeming and positive patterns which can be put to good usein a future endeavor of the research area concerned. Of course,this can be applied to all other areas of the academicexperience. No other form of information disseminationspreads a required message like a good story. It can beintriguing, entertaining and very easy to comprehend. Whydon’t we utilize this universal carrier of information to gatherdata on creating solutions that lead to a better humanexperience? I’m sure that there is a trove of untapped insightsand information that can be gleaned from narratives with theuse of narrative analysis in more future research.
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The concepts of narrative and life story have become a significant part of the repertoire of the social sciences since the mid-1950s. There have been several proponents [1-10] of the importance of narratives in qualitative research. A narrative is a story that conta
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Le genou de Lucy. Odile Jacob. 1999. Coppens Y. Pré-textes. L’homme préhistorique en morceaux. Eds Odile Jacob. 2011. Costentin J., Delaveau P. Café, thé, chocolat, les bons effets sur le cerveau et pour le corps. Editions Odile Jacob. 2010. Crawford M., Marsh D. The driving force : food in human evolution and the future.
Le genou de Lucy. Odile Jacob. 1999. Coppens Y. Pré-textes. L’homme préhistorique en morceaux. Eds Odile Jacob. 2011. Costentin J., Delaveau P. Café, thé, chocolat, les bons effets sur le cerveau et pour le corps. Editions Odile Jacob. 2010. 3 Crawford M., Marsh D. The driving force : food in human evolution and the future.
