Tamar 3/27

In writing/teaching fields, creative essay-like pieces such as "Lorraine's Story" are attractive in the way that the authors  can do what they say, practice what they preach, demonstrate through research and writing the very point they are trying to make.  It is all very meta.  I find these types of essays very useful in both validating practices and/or motivating me to reflect/change practices.  I don't have to stop to understand the stats, or re-read complex sentences in this type of work.  The readability allows me to simultaneously understand, appreciate, relate, and have an ongoing response in the background of my mind.

I find academic pieces, such as the Severino and Prim article much less readable, but not necessarily any less useful.   I approach these texts very differently as a reader.  I tend to read the abstract and then flip back to the references to see where the authors are coming from.  I like to read the motivation for the study and the discussion sections best, but often have to reread passages to understand them...the application/response part of my brain has to sit on hold for a bit until I can fully understand what I am reading.  So it is a slower process.  But I do really appreciate the diversity in methods that this type of work allows, which makes it more appealing/relevant to wider audiences (with different academic interests/agendas).

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