This study investigates whether creative, expressive, and reflective writing contributes to the formation of a work-life narrative that offers both meaning and direction among students in higher education. The content of writing done by students who participated in a two-day writing course at the start (or in preparation) of their work placements and of a control group who did not take part in the course were compared. Writing samples were analysed using the Linguistic Index Word Count program (Pennebaker, Booth, & Francis, 2007) and an instrument based on Dialogical Self Theory (Hermans & Hermans-Konopka, 2010). Results show writing promotes the development of career narratives.
This study investigates whether creative, expressive, and reflective writing contributes to the formation of a work-life narrative that offers both meaning and direction among students in higher education. The content of writing done by students who participated in a two-day writing course at the start (or in preparation) of their work placements and of a control group who did not take part in the course were compared. Writing samples were analysed using the Linguistic Index Word Count program (Pennebaker, Booth, & Francis, 2007) and an instrument based on Dialogical Self Theory (Hermans & Hermans-Konopka, 2010). Results show writing promotes the development of career narratives.
In this chapter we propose that writing dialogues in creative, expressive, and reflective ways can foster more awareness and self-direction among those who aim to start, build, or rescue their careers. In the first section of the chapter we sketch the societal issues for which narrative counselling is a response; we subsequently argue that more independent methods, like career writing (Lengelle, 2014) are needed as they are more time and cost effective as compared with one-on-one narrative counseling approaches. We explain what dialogue writing entails, explain the learning theory that underlies its use in career learning, and provide case studies and personal stories to show its potential. We close with several practical exercises and suggestions for those who would add it to their practice.