Fiction and Social Research

What can fiction add to our repertoire as communication teachers and researchers? Anna Banks' and Stephan Banks' Fiction and Social Research: By Ice or Fire is filled with answers...Firmly grounded in the new theories of ethnographic research writing discussed and illustrated in anthropology journals during the last ten years, Banks and Banks have produced a collection of essays that extend the communication scholars' research reporting options. Both beginning and more experienced investigators will find insightful narrative examples tucked away in nearly every chapter....The authors demonstrate practices often minimally reported in communcation journals. -- Reta A. Gilbert, Eastern Washington University * Review of Communication, (2002) *
The book's value as a resource for researchers and other writers is also magnified by the editors' logical, clearly explained organization of their material and by their erudite and sophisticated theoretical introduction. This is an important book on a topic whose significance is sure to keep growing in the years ahead. -- Paul Messaris, Univ of Pennsylvania * Communication Theory, Aug. 2000 *