Hello all,

How 'brave' are you when it comes to academic writing? This is perhaps not aimed at the scientists out there as I imagine (in my ignorance) that a third person stance is required. In arts and humanities it's quite common for an author to talk about their own experiences and how they fit in within their research project- anecdotes, personal motivation etc. When it's done well I really like this style of writing and I feel its gives a richness to the work. But I'm scared to use it in my own! For example, I'm planning to submit to a journal on Monday and there's a 'personal' example I could use which I think would illuminate the subject matter I'm discussing (not personal as in intimate, just something I've personally experienced). I've not written in this kind of style before and I'm scared to try but I want to at the same time!

Any thoughts?

I'm keen on this style of writing too, but like you am unsure as to how to do it. I've spoken to my supervisor about this and I've used personal stories/anecdotes in my thesis but have put them in footnotes. That way there is a personal aspect, just not in the main text. Is this something that could work with yours?

Like you, I love reading it but I am less confident at writing it - I haven't yet got to the stage to be writing papers but I have had to be reflexive about how my personal standpoint has affected the way I have carried out some research and the findings (discourse analysis) and I really enjoy it. I don't generally use anecdotes or mention specific experiences very much, but more a general feeling about the topic area, what attracted me to it and how that increased my sensitivity to specific matters. I've also said how the research had made me feel, ie. what I had personally gained from it. I think personal experiences are good, if you see a clear link between your experience and the subject matter then go for it, would you feel better if you anonymised (sp?) it in some way?

lovely topic :)

My sup recently made me omit the personal narrative from a specific paper submission for that particular place demands a different social science style ( i have a personal intellectual narrative for my phd that slowly merges into a collective European agenda)

however, yes of course, my thesis opens with a paragraph on specifically this where I list the first three texts I read in myfield and in what ways they profoundly continue to inspire my intellectual agenda in a very diferent moment of mediated communication...

For journal article I write out of this I omit this, but for my thesis, and if ever it is to become a book, there is no way I'd leave this out...it helps me make sense of what I do, why I do it in the way I do, and why at all this agenda might be important...

:)

Thanks all for your thoughts,

I think I'll explain what I was considering doing as on reflection its even more of an odd strategy than I realised : D I was making notes for the paper and I noticed that I'd just scribbled 'from the internet' for some general information I'd come across. I'm writing about place, space etc at the moment and thought how interesting it was that I'd unconsciously designated the internet as a 'non-space' so I didn't have to worry about what came from it. (Sorry if this is all sounding unbearably flouncy but I do study literature : p) I guess if I was a scientist I could count that as reflecting on my methodology?! But as it is, I shied away from putting it in. I might yet go for it, who knows. Interesting (the general subject of 'personal writing') though, isn't it?

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KC - put it in, for sure. You are reflecting on space and place, and of course space and place are mediated, and mediated intensely. It is hardly flouncy and as a social science communications researcher who uses literary theory (amongst other stuff) to understand internet use, I am fascinated by what I think you are thinking of writing...

go on you, put in a para or half of reflections on this, as appropriate.

:)