Representation of Self among Chinese College Jobhunters.docx
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RepresentationofSelfamongChineseCollegeJobhunters
RepresentationofSelfamongChineseCollegeJob-hunters
Introduction:
Someoftheirresearches(Booher,1988;SmithandBernhardt,1996;Munter,2006)havebeenconcentratedonteachingstudentswritingskills.Ontheotherhand,someoftheirresearches(Lakoff,1975;Labov,1990;Coates,1998)havebeencarriedonaboutidentifyingandinstantiatingpossibledifferencesinlinguisticstylesbetweenmalesandfemales.However,littleworkhasbeenundertakenoninvestigatinggenderdifferencesreflectedinbusinessletterswriting,especiallyjob-applicationletter,byanalyzingthegenrecomponentsandpolitenessstrategies.Inthisproject,byprovidingacontentanalysisof20jobapplicationletterswrittenbyChinesecollegejobapplicants,ItrytoexplorethedifferencesbetweenChinesemaleandfemalecollegejobhunterspresentedintheirjobapplicationletters.
Literaturereview:
SmeltzerandWelbal(1986)werethefirsttoattempttoanswerthequestionofwhetherornotmalesandfemalesdifferintheirmanagerialwrittencommunicationstyle.Theyreviewedandevaluated16dimensions,theyfoundthatthereisnosignificantdifferencebetweenmalesandfemalesonthese16dimensions.However,theirresearchisalsoconstrainedwithmanylimitations;forinstance,theresearchersaskedninefemaleMBAstudentswhowerenotenrolledinthecourseinwhichthesampleswereselectedtojoinintheirresearchstudy.Therefore,thesampleswerenottotallyrandom-selected.
Therearemanydifferentwaystoanalyzewrittenstructures.However,Bhatia’sseven-movestructuralmodel(1993)isthemostpopularandwidelyusedone.Here,accordingtoNwogu(1997),“move”meansa“textsegment”madeupofabundleoflinguisticfeaturesthatgivethesegmentauniformorientationandsignalthecontentofdiscourseinit.SoBhatia’sseven-movestructuralmodel(1993)isaveryimportantstartingpointtoanalyzethejobapplicationletter.
Meanwhile,Icannotcompletelyemploytheseven-movemodel(Bhatia,1993)intoanalyzingChinesecollegejobhunters’applicationletters.TakethemoveUsingPressureTacticsforexample,itisrarelyseeninChinesecollegejobhunters’jobapplicationletters;onthecontrary,Chineseemployersoftengiveprioritytotheapplicantswithpoliticalaffiliation,suchasCommunistPartyMember,whichneveroccurredinWesterners’jobapplicationletters.Therefore,Ihaveadapteditinto10specificmovesusuallyappearedinChinesecollegejobhunters’jobapplicationletterswitheachdefinitionasfollows:
AdaptedMoves
DefinitionandExample
1.Opening
DearSirorMadam;Towhomitmayconcern,
2.Sourceofinformation
IgettheinformationfromwebsiteofthePersonalSectionofyouruniversity.
3.Introducingcandidature
Iwishtomakeapplicationforlectureshipin…
4.Establishingcredentials
IwillgraduateinJulywithMAdegree.
5.Essentialdetailingofthecandidature
Ihavebeendoingpart-timejobasanEnglishteachersince2008.
6.Indicatingvalueofthecandidature
IamgoodatWORD,EXCEL,andIamfluentinEnglishandCantonese.
7.Offeringincentives
Iamalsoquitequalifiedtoteachavarietyofcoursesatundergraduatelevels,suchasgrammar,readingandlistening.
8.Enclosingdocuments
MycompletedCVisenclosed.
9.Solicitingresponse
Feelfreetocontactme,myphonenumberis…
10.Politeending
Lookingforwardtohearingfromyousoon.
Anothertheoreticalmodelusedinmyprojectismodelofpoliteness(BrownandLevinson,1987).Itprovidesagoodframeworkforidentifyingthedifferentstrategiesmaleorfemalecollegejobhuntersprefertousewhentheyintendtocommunicateproperlyandefficientlyinwrittenforms.Allthetwentyapplicationlettersusedinmyprojectarewrittentexts.ThankstoGregMyers(1989),heextendedthemodelproposedbyBrownandLevinsontothescopeofwrittentextthatcanbeunderstoodasaformofinteractionbetweenauthorandreaderinthiscertaincircumstance.
ResearchMethods:
1.Participants:
Amongtwentyletters,five(3males’and2females’letters)weretakenforanalysisfromapplicantfilesatEnglishProgram,GraduateSchoolatShenzhen,HarbinInstituteofTechnologythisyear,anyinformationgivenwouldbetotallyanonymous.Asfortheremainingfifteenpostgraduatejobapplicationletters(7frommalestudentsand8fromfemalestudents),theyaregainedfromthefirstyearpostgraduateChinesestudents,majoringinScienceandEngineeringatHITSGSfromwhichtheywillgraduatewithMScdegreeinJune2011.
2.Approachofdatacollection:
Fivepostgraduates’jobapplicationletterswerechosenrandomlyintheapplicantfilesofYear2010.AlloftheapplicantswereseekingalectureshipinEnglishProgram,HITSGS.Inaddition,eachofthe15postgraduatejobhunterswasaskedtowriteajobapplicationletterasifheorshewereactuallyhuntingajob.Thesestudentsmoreorlesshavesomeknowledgeofbusinessletterwritingskills.Sothistimethereisnofixedmodelforthemtofollow.Theycomposeitonlyasthewaytheythinkthejobapplicationlettershouldbe.
DataAnalysis:
1.Analysisofmovestructure:
IfoundthattenmovesaregenerallyappliedinbothChinesemaleandfemalecollegejobhunters’applicationletters.Differentmovesarepreferredtousebymalecollegejobhuntersandfemalecollegejobhuntersrespectively.Thereisnosalientdifferenceinusingmoveoneandthree,becausethosearethebasicinformationapplicantsshouldprovide.Moreover,amongthejobapplicationletterswrittenbymalecollegejobhunters,theymainlyfocusonmovethree,eightandnineoften,however,femalejobapplicantsusemoremovesthanmalecounterparts.Figure1makesthepointgraphically.
Figure1:
Comparisonofthemovesinmaleandfemalecollegejobhunters’jobapplicationletters:
2.Analysisofpolitenessstrategies
Chinesepeoplehaveitsownconventiontoexpresstheirpoliteness,onlyafewpolitenessstrategiescanbeusedtoanalyzethegenderdifferencespresentedinjobapplicationletterswrittenbyChinesecollegejobhunters,takepositivepolitenessforexample,thereareshowinginterest,offeringacontributionorabenefit,showingdirectness,beingoptimisticandglorifyingtheaddressee.Asforthenegativestrategies,onlytwostrategiesareusedofteninjobapplicationletters:
givingdeferenceandself-degradation.
Bydoingstatisticalanalysis(Figure2),IfindthatthereisnotmuchgenderdifferenceinShowingInterest,whichbothmaleandfemalestudentsalwaysuseasleading-insentence.However,someslightvariationsstillcouldbefound:
malecollegejobhuntersusemorebold-typedintensifier(e.g.verymuch)andlexicalterms(e.g.promisingorhonored)toexpresstheirpassiontowardsthefuturejob.Femalecollegejobhuntersonlyuseplacidwordstoexpresstheirinterestinthejobandtheymaythinkitisquiteabrupttostatestrongfeelingatthebeginning.
Inaddition,whenwearelookingatotherpositivestrategies,itcanbeeasilyfoundthatmalecollegejobhuntersusemorethanfemalecollegejobhuntersinwritingjobapplicationletters.Bycomparingthewaymaleandfemalecollegejobhuntersusetodescribetheirqualificationsandcontributions,malecollegejobhuntersseemstobeoverconfidentwithoutgivingpertinentinformationthanfemalecollegejobhunterswhenapplyingforajob,whichiseasytoboretheaddresseewithirrelevantinformationandunnecessarysuperlatives.Andthewordsmalecollegejobhunterschoosearedeliberateandpurpose-orientedandsoundmoreaggressivethanthosewordsusedbyfemalecollegejobhunters.AndthischaracteristicissalientlyincarnatedinShowingDirectnesspolitenessstrategy,whichisrarelyseeninfemales’jobapplicationletters.Moreover,whenconsideringBeingOptimisticpolitenessstrategy,malecollegejobhunters(80%)stilloutperformnearlytwiceasmuchasfemalecollegejobhunters(50%).
GlorifyingtheAddresseeistheonlypolitenessstrategymodelthatisnotovertlystatedinBrownandLevinson’spolitenessmodel(1987).However,Chinesecollegejobhuntersliketousethisstrategynotonlytoexpresstheirappreciation,butalsotrytogainmorefavorableimpressionfromtheperspectiveemployer.Likewise,maleapplicantsmakefulluseofthisstrategy(80%)twiceasmuchasfemaleapplicants(40%).
BasedontheBrownandLevinson’smodel(1987),itisquitelogicaltogettheconclusionthatjobhuntersshoulduseasmorenegativestrategiesaspossibletoshowtheirrespecttotheaddressee.Onthecontrary,theanalysisIexaminedshowsthatthereareonlytwonegativestrategiesusedbybothmaleandfemalecollegejobhunterscomparedwiththatofpositivestrategies.
Moreinterestingly,femalejobapplicantsuseoverwhelminglymorenegativestrategiesthanmaleapplicants.Takethefirstnegativestrategyforexample:
thecommonstructureusedbyfemalegraduatesis“Iwouldbegratefulifyougivemyapplicationletteracarefulconsideration.”or“Idoappreciateyourconsiderationofmyapplication.”Incontrast,onlymale4and7usethisformulaicstructureattheendoftheirapplicationletters.Moreover,onlyahandfuloffemalejobapplicantsuseself-degradationstrategy,whichishardlyseeninmales’.
Figure2:
Comparisonofpolitenessstrategiesinmaleandfemalecollegejobhunters’jobapplicationletters:
Discussion:
FindingsaboutgenderdifferencesembodiedinthejobapplicationletterswrittenbyChinesemaleandfemalecollegejobhuntersrevealmanyinterestingre