8/14/2019 Jane Speedy (2005) Writing as Inquiry

1/4

Speedy, J. 'Research methods: writing as Inquiry: some ideas, practices, opportunities and constraints', Counselling and psychotherapy research, 5/1, (pp. 63-64), 2005. ISSN: 1473-3145

Research methods: Writing as Inquiry: some ideas, practices, opportunitiesand constraints.

This paper extends the construct of writing as a methodological approach(employed within the accompanying text failing to come to terms with things )and suggests ways in which this form of scholarship might be particularlypertinent to counselling and psychotherapy research.

So this is part of my work. It is situated in the musical and silent environment ofthe text that produces effects inmy writing. It is because I hear

writing write.(Hlne Cixous, 1997: 67)

All research studies require some kind of representation to their audiences such as films, written texts, posters or other forms of visual portrayal or oralpresentation (live or taped). All texts, such as those in this journal, are edited,selected, pruned and spruced in order to draw the eyes of the reader towardscertain spaces. (Note the textboxes scattered throughout this journal, not unlikeCixouss experimental text above, that highlight what this study tells us andwhat this study is about. Whose voice is that? How and why does this voicedraw your attention towards and away from aspects of the text?)

Writing as a form of inquiry (as opposed to the writing up, a kind of moppingupprocess at the end of an otherwise apparently already completed study) makesthese representational practices as explicit and transparent as possible. It isaform of research that uses writing both as a research tool or craft in its own rightand/or as a method of re-presenting the words of participants. This is not new

either in the world of counselling or of research, wherein there is a history of experimental journal keeping (see: Johns, 1996) for both personal andprofessional purposes. Arts and humanities-based research has alwayssustained a tradition of messy texts, ranging from artists sketchbooks toexperimental performance, writing and film (see: Trinh, 1999).

Despite the multidisciplinary origins of its practitioners, counselling andpsychotherapy research for the most part remains captured by the discourses ofscientific report writing that have, for several centuries, set themselves apartfrom more literary or writerly texts. The report style of writing presents itself as ifthe worded world, the studied world and the lived world are more or lessThis is how I write: As

8/14/2019 Jane Speedy (2005) Writing as Inquiry

2/4

if the secret that is inme were before me.

accurate translations of each other. To this day the notable exceptions to this, such as Yaloms case studies (see: Yalom, 1991, for instance) or Miller Mairs(1989) seminal poetics of experience, are few and far between.

Ideas informing writing as Inquiry

Post-modernity has eaten away at the edges of authoritative traditions and hasgiven many of us a space in which to speak with less authority about smallerparcels of knowledge-in-context and to tell more local stories. Post-structuralism,post colonialism, feminism and queer studies are particular kinds of thinking thathave encouraged traditions of writing as inquiry. Post-structuralism (see: Belsey:

2002, for an overview) in particular, links and explores the relationships betweenhuman beings, their worlds and their practices of making or reproducingmeanings through language (whether spoken, written, performed or envisioned).All these ideas have influenced contemporary forms of counselling practice, such as narrative and discursive approaches and Lacanian analysis. Thus far,counselling research is still playing catch up with educational, sociological andanthropological and feminist studies in respect of producing creative,experimental research texts in progress.

Writing as inquiry is an attempt to capture the readers attention and engagethem in conversation. It assumes and articulates a reflexive, situated researcherstance, but does not necessarily dwell there. It assumes and expresses acuriosity or even a thirst for knowledge about the contents of the study, but hasno illusions that this might speak for itself. It leaves much unsaid, uncertain,

andincomplete. It is, at best, a balancing act between form and content. It is oftenplayful, often poetic, often experimental and often fictionalised. It tends towardsdistillation and description rather than explanation or analysis. It is bestperformed by those with a love of language and with the patience and resilienceto spend time a lot of time writing and re-writing and re-writing their work. Aboveall, it attempts to provide sufficient substance to contribute towards scholarship inthe field as well as sufficient space to engage the readers imagination.Richardson (2001:888), a performance poet, turned educational researcher,distilled hours of conversation with Louisa May, for example, into the lines:

It was purely chancethat I got a job hereand Robert didnt. I was mildly happy.

After 14 years of marriage, that was the break.

8/14/2019 Jane Speedy (2005) Writing as Inquiry

3/4

We divorced.

A normal sort of life

Various practices of writing as research

Poetic and experimental representation of research participants is by no meansthe only style of writing as research available to us (see: Richardson, 2000 for acomprehensive overview): experimentation with font, layout, spacing and voicesmay occur in a variety of different texts. Narrative researchers may tell the samestory from a range of different positions (see: Etherington, 2003). Performative ethnographers may produce plays giving voices to a range of characters bothreal and imagined (see: Gergen, 2001). Layered accounts may differentiatebetween different kinds of writing within the same text. In the text that follow

s thisis done by dividing different writing genres into parallel columns and invitingpeople to experiment with their reading. In Ronais work (1998) chunks of text aredifferentiated with spaces or lines across the page. These include layers ofpersonal narrative, vivid description and theoretical discussion.In Lather and Smithies (1997) award winning book Troubling the Angels thewords of women with HIV/aids appear across the top two thirds of the pages.Pertinent literature from the field appears in text boxes throughout the book andcommentaries from the researchers appear across the bottom third of the page.Similarly Helene Cixouss (1997) account of her family history and the impact of the holocaust, includes extracts from interviews with her co-author, interspersedwith key phrases written in different fonts and placed in boxes throughout thetext, as well as photographic images, poetry, time lines, short stories and more traditional academic prose. Experiments in hypertext form a recent addition tothis repertoire. In Wanda Pillows (2000) text, for example, writing is dividedintoa series of separate windows connected with hypertext links. This allows thereader to rearrange and move through the text in any order, whenever they want.

Opportunities and constraints for counselling researchers

This kind of work disrupts assumptions about written forms and about linearity.Ittakes us by surprise as readers and writers and shapes our experience indifferent ways than we might have expected. Lather (1997:41) described herexperience as a writer, as one of being immersed in a a text that is as muchtrying to write me as the other way round. At best this work forms a writtenequivalent to contemporary arts installations that surprise; that stay in our mindseyes and make a difference to how we see the world and maybe even to ourfuture actions within it. These pieces are attempting to trouble and/or to delight,to tell incomplete and/or non commensurate stories, to provoke more questionsthan answers and to have the audience reaching towards a place whereknowing and not-knowing touch (Cixous, 1993, p38)

8/14/2019 Jane Speedy (2005) Writing as Inquiry

4/4