In-class Exercise: Writing Up (16th May)

(1) Select three quotes to defend a point ("Quotes")
- Write a paragraph to position and another to analyse quotes
- claim → quotes → argument

While current literature suggests that gender remains a primary factor that affects a person’s perceived career choice(s), I suggest that owing to the evolvement of gender roles over the past few decades, social capital has replaced gender to be the most influential demographic factor that determines the level of self-efficacy a person possesses, and subsequently his or her perceived career options.

For example, one of the female interviewees stated:

… from a young age, I knew about my parents’ careers and I think this contributed to the scope of careers that I wanted and knew I was able to achieve. The range of careers which I considered is somewhat similar to theirs, in that they were mostly middle- to upper-class occupations, mainly because I was exposed to my parents’ jobs, and because my parents sought to ensure that my siblings and I have the same level of education (or higher) as what they achieved and enjoyed.

Additionally, another male interviewee responded:

… if your mom is an accountant, you’ll be more confident about being an accounting (parental occupation).

Clearly, from both of the above responses, it can be seen that parental occupation plays a highly influential role in a person’s perceived career choice(s). There was no mention of race/ethnicity and gender affecting their perceived career choices. Hence, among race/ethnicity, gender, and social capital, social capital is shown to influence a person’s perceived career option(s) to the largest extent.

(2) Select an individual to defend a point ("Story")
- Structure narrative of individual – highlight key issues 
- Prepare an analysis of the narrative 
- claim → quotes → argument

Mark*, the male interviewee whose views differed slightly from the rest, stressed that in addition to social capital, a person’s self-efficacy beliefs, personality, and other personal motivations would also affect his or her perceived career options. He opined that:

(because) I’m quite risk-averse, I am not that keen to start my own business or become an entrepreneur […] I have a friend (a Hong Konger) who is relatively wealthy and whose parents are business people, he started his own real estate business in Australia after he graduated from an Australian university. I think that one’s own career choice is related to one’s family background and exposure. For my friend, because his family owns a business and is naturally more risk-taking than the average family, he is thus more risk-taking that others like myself. Coupled with the network of contacts that his family has, there are more opportunities for him to establish a business than others.

While many interviews did mention personality as one other factor that may affect a person’s perceived career options, Mark* went into detail by suggesting that the level of risk a person is willing to take on will also influence his or her perceived career choice greatly. The distinction he drew between his friend (risk-loving) and himself (risk-averse) is one other area that is worth exploring, since prior research has shown that personality is another influential factor that shapes a person’s perceived career choice(s).

Mark*’s parents were not highly-educated – in fact, both of his parents did not complete secondary education. However, because his father had a skill that was in demand, he was able to set up his own electrical engineering business, which gave him a decent income that was enough to support Mark*’s and his siblings’ overseas tertiary education. Note that to send all three siblings overseas for an education is quite a hefty sum even for a typical Hong Konger family by today’s standards.

Mark* also stated that:

No, I don’t think (my social capital) affected my career choices. I think even if I came from a lower-class or upper-class family, I will still choose the same career choice.

 But he did acknowledge that:

… my social class (as someone from a middle-class family) has given me a lot of exposure and opportunities. Most importantly, because my parents were able to pay for my tertiary education both in Hong Kong and Australia, this gave me more choices than a lot of my peers back in Hong Kong.

Mark* provided a more complete picture of a person’s self-efficacy beliefs and how they influence his or her perceived career options, which are both subjected to a person’s social capital, personality, and personal motivations. Hence, from Mark's story, we are able to understand the various factors (in addition to a person's social capital and demographic background) that influence a person's perceived career options. Essentially, it is not just about a person's social capital and demographic background.

What works best - tell a story or get straight to the point by using quotes? 

Personally, I found writing up using quotes much faster and easier than telling a story. At the same time, I also realised that while telling a story requires far more details and takes up a longer period of time, it essentially converts knowing into telling. Initially, I preferred using quotes because I could easily mobilise the quotes to either support or defend my claims. Because I was clear with the end goal in mind, I knew which particular quote I wanted to be included in the write-up and was able to utlise the quotes to back-up my argument and dismiss other claims. With stories, mobilisation became much harder. First, within the story alone, I had to consider the introduction, the background, the views and actions, and lastly the interpretation of the story. I then had to position the story in such a way that it is relevant to and supports my claim.

It was only after I've produced two versions of the write-up that I realised that story-telling manages to capture the emotions, goals, and decision-making thought processes that quotes tend to miss out on. When using quotes to defend my claim, I did feel as though I had more control of how I went about managing and using the data, but I felt that I was putting too much of myself into the write-up. Instead of letting the stories speak for themselves, I was making assumptions and operating them in a way that fits my write-up. On the other hand, story-telling was a detailed approach which enabled me to decipher what exactly the interviewee meant, with his/her careful choice of words which brought out different emotions, meanings, attitudes, and experiences. With quotes, my write up was straight-to-the-point, they represented the outcomes and conclusion. But herein lies the issue, in research (especially qualitative research), we are not only interested in the outcomes, we are also interested in the processes that led to the outcomes. How did the researcher arrive at this conclusion? Why did he interpret it in this manner? It is only through story-telling that we are able to answer these crucial questions, and thus developing a story for the purpose of research is definitely worth the extra effort and time. 

Table 1. Qualitative Data Collection and Analysis Methods (Kendall & Kendall, 2012)


For my research project, I will be using a mix of quotes and stories to defend my argument(s). I think quotes and stories are particularly appropriate for interpreting interviews, since they do not attempt to alter the underlying meanings of the interviewees' responses and are able to complement one another well. Given the limited time-frame for this course, a research write-up filled with stories will be overwhelming on the part of the researcher. Essentially, while the researcher aims to represent the data as accurately as possible, he or she doesn't need to include everything that's being said and recorded. Throughout this exercise, Kerry provided us with constructive feedback and comments which I found to be extremely useful in not just honing my writing skills, but informing me what a proper qualitative research write-up entails. With this, I feel more confident and prepared for the actual write-up of my research project.

References

Kendall, J. E., & Kendall, K. E. (2012). Storytelling as a qualitative method for IS research: Heralding the heroic and echoing the mythic. Australasian Journal of Information Systems, Vol. 17, No. 2, pp. 161-187.