July 27, 2009 – Silence and Voice

Jeffrey’s Twitter Updates for 2009-07-27

Ordered a pepperoni calzone at Two Boots. That and a little wine, and a nice, quiet evening home with the pugs. #
Horrible storms in Manhattan. Drove through severe rain. Saw lightning strikes and 3 rainbows. #
Correcting some papers. Drizzle outside, so no lawn mowing this weekend. #

Writing: A Method of Inquiry

I am reading Laurel Richardson’s (2000) article Writing: A Method of Inquiry, in the 2nd Edition of the Denzin and Lincoln Handbook of Qualitative Research.

It has been some time since I read this, and is the first reread since I met her when she facilitated a session at the 5th International Qualitative Congress. Her words are so powerful:

I consider writing as a method of inquiry, a way of finding out about yourself and your topic . . . . Writing is also a way of ‘knowing’–a method of discovery and analysis (p. 923).

I will certainly need to include this as I explain my reasons for using narrative inquiry in my research.

Research Design Outline Approved

The fundamental ideas in my outline for my Autoethnographer Communities of Practice research design was approved yesterday from my faculty tutor at Lancaster University. Next steps for this week include:

Specifying the interview questions
Writing the consent form
Submitting them both (with a tweaked overview) for ethical approval (I was told this should be a quick process as my research design is low risk)

I am still excited about this research outline, as I have not seen much research in this area.