On writing qualitative research

The intent of this article is to extend a conversation we began several months ago in response to issues we identified in our own work as writers of qualitative research and in the work of others that we read. If in considering how writing up your own work is influenced by these or similar issues you are moved to enter the discussion, our purpose in writing this article will have been achieved. More importantly, however, by joining the conversation literacy researchers stand to enrich their own and others' understandings of how writing as a method of inquiry - as a way of knowing the human experience in all its complex and diverse representations -constantly creates and recreates that experience. This point is not lost on Richardson (1990) who reminds us, therefore, that "how we write lives is important, theoretically and practically" (p. 63).