📽️ Writing as method
- Writing is a process which positions the writer “in conversation with the world, with other writing, and, reflexively, with itself” ( Gibbs, 2007, p. 224), making it “a mode of inquiry in its own right” (p. 222)
- Note-taking has always been a research method
- And networked note-taking encourages reflection on 📖 how we bring ideas into relation to produce knowledge in our writng
Transcript
This brings Anna Gibbs (2007) to consider how writing is a process which positions the writer “in conversation with the world, with other writing, and, reflexively, with itself” (p. 224), making it “a mode of inquiry in its own right” (p. 222). By focusing on writing as not just a tool but a method which always involves the writer as a part of what is written, Gibbs emphasizes research as a constructive rather than descriptive process attuned to feminist values of knowledge production. Writing, then, does not just support feminist research methods but can actually be framed as a feminist method in itself—a method I argue includes the process of writing notes.
My previous note-taking strategy was treating notes as static, representational, and purely practical: I would write something down, return to it only within the context I had originally intended it to be used, and then place it in my milk crate archive. A networked note-taking system, however, encourages this revisitation while retaining context—and, with revisitation, an opportunity to reflect on, add to, and adjust the note through the introduction of new positions and contexts and to build something from these intersections—a practice which can usefully support feminist research and knowledge production.