ABSTRACT
Chapter 3 explores narrative inquiry by telling several fictive stories about a poorly written narrative account entitled “The Brew.” The stories, each assessing “The Brew,” feature different characters, including an English teacher working with a student; a couple discussing the merits of “The Brew”; a qualitative methods professor who contrasts the narrator of “The Brew” with a personal narrative of a field worker; a promotion and tenure committee debating whether personal stories can be considered research; the author’s confession about the origins and history of “The Brew"; and a second-person narrative speculation about where the reader might be after reading all these tales about “The Brew.” Next, the chapter examines several claims about narratives before it turns to writing prompts and to two narrative examples, “On Playing Cowboys and Indians: Early Lessons in Ethical Sense-making” and “Skipping.”
