Narrative analysis: An analysis of oral and written strategies in personal experience narratives

Abstract

This study aims at discovering variation in personal experience narratives of Turkish university students in terms of the narrative structure and evaluative language used in oral and written narratives. For this purpose, 60 fright narratives of Turkish university students are analyzed. 30 Personal narratives were collected orally. The other 30 narratives were elicited in a written task. In the first part of the analysis, all 60 personal narratives are examined in terms of Labov's (1972) narrative categories, and are compared and contrasted in terms of written and oral versions. In the second part of the analysis, evaluative language used in both narrative types is examined using the evaluative categories presented by Shiro (2003). Written and oral versions are also compared regarding the evaluative categories conveyed by the narratives. The findings of the study suggest that although there are some differences due to the narrative medium, the personal experience narratives of Turkish university students exhibit a similar organizational pattern in both versions.