Are my words safe in your mouth?

 Billy – age 4 “When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.” 

 

I don’t know who Billy is, but I’m guessing he’s no longer 4. But he nailed it. I hope I can do him justice in the following, that his words are indeed safe in my writing. I was reminded of this quote, while I was polishing my literature review months back, think Forth Rail bridge ...  Then last week I had some work stolen and it’s upset me - possibly more than it should.  I received an email asking me to agree to corrections made to a training handout of mine. It is  a little ridiculous I know! Had I been approached first, I would have shared recent happily. But I was left feeling attacked.  Since then I have had a number of conversations about reference and citation, clearly some people struggle to see the wrong in paraphrasing or copying without mentioning authors’ names.  

 

When I am referencing I am foremost keen to demonstrate the privilege it is to quote someone’s hard work. I take care to articulate their understanding, to pass on their ideas, and to respect their words. I always feel a sense of trepidation. I just hope that my struggle with the written word never makes another’s ideas seem different to what they meant, that their work is safe under my 'pen'. The numbers involved fill me with fear, (678, p. 70), as getting them wrong would suggest carelessness - when in my case it could be ham-fistedness not ill intent. There’s an ocean of difference, I think, between misspelling or interposing numbers and wilfully denying where an idea was found. Who said it, when?

 

Ahmed talks about her library of female writers as a source of strength (Ahmed, 2017). Equally, I refer to a library in my own work. I purposely look for authors who identify, show an understanding of their field or have a perspective/sensitivity aligned to the topics they write about. Black writers, that identify as anti-racist and use a critical race perspective, for example. I do not always agree with every word written, but I’ll try and convey my understanding of the cultural context and the fight for certain ideas at the time of writing. In terms of disability rights, what disabled people fought for in the 1970s will not match today’s struggle, but I would still take care to understand their perspective, rather than dismiss ideas we have been able to build on since. Opposing professional power may seem less radical today than the nuanced conversations about ableism. But the departure from established narratives they have come to inform later was seismic, because it's harder to oppose established ideas that to add to an evolving way of thinking. 

 

Together writers on a topic tell of the development of an emerging story, not the right or wrong of any point within its storytelling.  Like Ahmed I find power in being able to refer to members of a tribe, my gang, particularly when trying to articulate where I found strength in shared direction. Over the years, reading the work of others, has been about adding depth and breadth to my own knowledge. So referencing comes with high degrees of care, I am mindful that the writers I quote have no doubt spent days choosing one word rather than another. I do not wish to paraphrase, or missquote, writing out of context in a way that would alter meaning. I’ve come across this, thankfully rarely- it stinks!

 

With practice I’ve become more able to think about the possible identity, perspective and  professional context in which writers write. What are they seeking to convey overall, what do they care about, and maybe what they are fighting for or against. The brackets, name, and numbers, are ultimately about celebrating another person’s hard  work. Respecting their vision, feelings and thoughts - motivation and passion that shines through text. Sometimes this means accepting idiosyncrasies that may be at odds with today’s culture, sensitivity and understanding. Yes, as academic conventions dictate, it is about the form, but it's about respect for knowledge and storytelling - a writer’s story with its unique narrative. 

 

More specifically for the researchers among us, the literature review I think has the purpose of setting the pieces of work we draw on in context. No study is going to be the first or last piece of work on the subject. The review is a map of past and present thinkers in your field of investigation. For me it’s been less straightforward that I expected, but I found important in the process was connecting past and present, setting a scene of change.