Ex‐citing Writing: re‐evaluating some practices in writing about drama and its research

Abstract

This article is a plea for a more varied, direct, confident, artistically structured and aesthetically pleasing approach to writing about drama research, formal and informal. It is my (no, not ‘the author's’), perception that a great deal of writing in this field is constrained inappropriately and sometimes ruthlessly by scholastic conventions which are not appropriate for writings beyond the genre ‘university thesis’. I briefly canvass the reasons for this. Further, I contend that subjugation to those constraints frequently provides misleading subtexts or indicates subtextual irrelevancies, such as a residual insecurity in our craft as researchers and communicators, or a thinly concealed egotism. A list of bad habits, and practices that can easily slip into excess, is provided, with explanations and examples. There are a few riddles and paradoxes in the text for the sharp reader, and some slightly inflated rhetoric‐it is a plea, after all.