Voice and writing

This week, I hosted a writing group with a colleague. The writing group begins by ‘setting an intention’ for our writing. I set the intention of writing a second blog post to explain how my idea for this research project came about.

As I started to write, I felt conflicted. Who was I writing for? What voice was I speaking with? What was appropriate to disclose and to whom? 

So, as the writing session moved into a break, I shared my internal tussles with my fellow writers. I was surprised to hear that many of them had experienced similar thoughts and feelings and what followed was a fascinating discussion about the ‘voices’ we take on when we write about research, depending upon the context for the writing. 

One member of the group suggested that she adopts a metaphorical ‘accent’ that is tailored towards the different audiences for writing. This prompted others in the group, for whom English was not their first language, to talk about how using different languages called on different aspects of their identities shaped by when and where they acquired a language. This had implications for how they perceived themselves in different contexts, taking on the feeling of being a different age, class or relation to those they are writing for and with. 

Other colleagues remarked on how, because they have been studying in English for so long, they were finding it increasingly challenging to write formally in their native language. A multilingual colleague who had lived in multiple locations, reflected on how sometimes the different languages she heard in her mind sometimes prevented her from being able to easily articulate her thoughts either to herself or others. It was a fascinating discussion, and not one I had intended to write about as the second post for this blog. On reflection it is an essential discussion when we think about the role of voice in research.

Generating new knowledge and engaging in dialogue about it with others is the point of research. The identities that researchers develop, or consolidate, or construct provides the platform from which a distinctive voice can be heard.

So, to bring these reflections back to this specific research project. In this project researchers will be using collage-making to articulate research problems. Collage in this context is a medium for articulating that which is a challenge to articulate using writing alone. Collage sorts and sifts and organises, reflecting back ideas and  themes and those things that sit at the edge of awareness (Richmond, 2022).

Alongside collage, I will be using a method called 'artography'. This method generates data from a researcher-as-artist in response to a research phenomenon. The method invites conversation between visual ways of knowing (through artmaking) and writing through reflective writing. Artography has been described as a ‘border' methodology’ (Wright, 2023) because it implies positional fluidity in the doing of research, between artist, researcher, and researcher as participant. It also implies fluidity in different forms of knowing, drawing upon both visual and written texts. The process of ‘border crossing’ holds the potential to humanize, rather than abstract and classify, human experience (Wright, 2023). I recently finished a painting which is about finding one’s voice (see the end of this post). This now takes on a greater significance following the discussion today.

The writing group concluded that adopting different accents (whether literally or metaphorically) summoned up different aspects of who we are in the world. So, this blog plays an important role in giving voice to the stories that emerge through this research project, as well as am opportunity for me to find a voice in a forum that is also new to me.

Richmond, H. (2022). Use of Collage in Autoethnography. Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal, 10(1), 145–154. https://doi.org/10.31273/eirj.v10i1.1218

Springgay, S., Irwin, R. L., & Kind, S. W. (2005). A/r/tography as living inquiry through art and text. Qualitative Inquiry, 11(6), 897–912. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800405280696

Wright, L. C. (2023). Reintegration as Border Pedagogy: A Female Text. Qualitative Inquiry. https://doi.org/10.1177/10778004231176087

To follow along with the artography, go to my Instagram page.