Gornick, Vivian. Approaching Eye Level. (Boston: Beacon Press, 1996).
Starting in the 1980s, narrative began to be seen as a way of knowing and, in turn, a legitimate form of inquiry. Scholar-Practitioners found narrative well suited to investigations of issues embedded in the contexts of their practice. At that time, few examples of scholarly narrative writing were available for novices. Fortunately, that has changed over the years and criteria for judging the quality of narrative inquiry have emerged. Jerome Bruner, an early proponent of narrative inquiry, used the term “verisimilitude” to describe one criterion—i.e., the portrayal of experience from which the narrative emerges. Verisimilitude means the experience is described so vividly that readers can picture a scene and even imagine themselves being present when it occurred. Contributing to the quality of verisimilitude is insight into what the author is thinking and feeling during the experience and by reflecting on it at a later date. Although Approaching Eye Level is a compilation of short essays, it offers an example of writing imbued with the quality of verisimilitude. This book relates to the Scholar-Practitioner quality of Ethical Stewardship (Commitment to Inquiry).