Writing out on a limb: integrating the creative and academic writing identity

Academic writing in higher education research is commonly perceived as the process of ‘writing up’ knowledge rather than exploring ideas. As a result, the potential to use creative writing approaches to develop and relay meaning has often been overlooked. This article investigates creative writing as a rich and meaningful mode of representation in academia. It argues how dominant institutional discourses inhibit personal voice by favouring objectivity, and further affirms that researchers need to oppose the pressures of academic writing by ‘coming into’ one’s creative writing voice and consciousness. It is anticipated that using literary and poetic devices to relay the writer’s personal and creative voice can generate research that encompasses the full richness of human experience.