Show and Tell: A Practice-Led Methodological Solution for Researchers in Creative Writing

Dodd explores the challenge facing students transitioning from the role of creative practitioner to practice-led researcher of creative practice. This chapter sets out to resolve the dichotomy between the creative writing style, based on the premise of ‘Show, don’t tell’, and the conflicting academic writing style, where the main purpose is to ‘tell’. Through a case study of strategic risk taking in the journey as creative practitioner/researcher, Dodd maneuvers between the two methods to cultivate creative engagement between the two components of the thesis. The aim of this approach is to offer a methodology which will produce synergized research outcomes for practice-led researchers that satisfy the accepted conventions of scholarship and the creative practitioner’s desire to produce enhanced work not mitigated by the exegetical component.