Hi I am
going to address a question Alicia asked on her blog “when quoting my interviewees, how do
I do it..?”
The idea of a citation for a book etc... is so that when we
read your work we can then go and find the book (journal etc...) you had in
your hand that you cited from. But the interviews are data you collected and we
cannot go and find them somewhere. You are using quotes form interviewees as
examples of something you are writing about, so it is a bit different from a
citation for book (etc...) which is pointing us towards further reading or
bringing to mind a theorised idea by someone else. So assuming you have given an
outline of what you research looked like. [ie you interviewed six professional
dancers. Billy works in UK, Jamie in Mexico etc... and any other relevant
information we need to know about them while respecting their anonymity.] Then
when you write about something they said you can write
'it's a long way to go to go to an audition' - Billy
So now a notes about quoting people in terms of the above:
First: the decision to give them names – many people say
participant (1) or participant B. This is ok but think about the topic of your
research. If it about people's experiences or feelings etc… then it is ok to
present them as real people. Not labelled like test-tubes. If it’s a test-tube based data collection process then naming them A, B or C makes more sense. If
you use names think about the implication of gender and cultural background a
name can give.
Second, as I mention above take a moment in the overview of the research project in your account to
let us know who and where and how you collected the data so we can see any
comments in the context of the inquiry. For instance some of my interviewee might be college students and other professional dancers and other teachers.
Third, DO NOT
use the quote to make your point. Make the point and then use the quote to give
an example of what you are talking about.
'I try to make going to auditions only part of what i do in a day. That way I feel less pressure in the audition. Otherwise I'm like thinking if I don't get this I've wasted the fare down here and what-not.' - Sam (professional dancer).
Smith (2009) has said that professional dancers start to see auditions as away of socialisation. It seemed that the professional dancers who lived outside of major cities.....
(Sensitivity to the whole process not just an account of past.)
Thank you so much for this post Adesola, it has helped a lot. As I move to write up my inquiry I will definitely take on the point of using names instead of labels. I had intended to code them e.g. I3 for interview 3, but totally agree with giving them names to help the reader build a sense of personality.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the advice!
Hannah
Great help, thank you,
ReplyDeletesarah
Thank you Adesola your examples make it even clearer.
ReplyDeleteThanks Adesola, even though I am familiar to this it's always good to refresh the reasoning behind it. I like to think of it as the recipe book to my ideas.
ReplyDeleteAhmet
Super useful - THANK YOU!!!
ReplyDelete