Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Writing as a method of inquiry refers to a research practice of foregrounding and investigating how researchers construct knowledge about people, themselves, and the world by writing. This concept, introduced by Laurel Richardson (2000 [1994]) and developed by Elizabeth St. Pierre ( Richardson & St. Pierre 2005 ) and others, brings the idea that writing is thinking from the humanities to the social sciences. Writers have always used writing to help them think about their lives and their work, but that function of writing has seldom been taken advantage of in that area of social science research that mimics research in the natural sciences by assuming that language can describe reality. However, after the linguistic turn, the crisis of legitimation, and the crisis of representation, many social science researchers no longer assume that language is transparent and can simply mirror or represent reality; rather, they understand that language helps to create reality. Writing is therefore not an objectifying practice or a mopping-up activity at the end of a research project but a creative practice used throughout to make sense of lives and culture, to theorize, and to produce knowledge. Since the Enlightenment, writing has been divided into two kinds: literary and scientific. Literature has traditionally been associated with personal expression, rhetoric, physicality, emotions, ... log in or subscribe to read full text