Abstract
There is increasing attention to writing in the social work debate. However, in social work practice writing is often perceived as a bureaucratic burden that distracts from the ‘real work,’ and even social work education has dedicated little attention to the matter. This paper argues that critical report writing can play a crucial role in linking the theoretical and ethical dimensions of social work with its practical domain. According to a constructionist perspective, written texts both reflect and shape reality through the performative power of language. This makes writing a privileged tool for reflexively linking theory and practice, for supporting alternative discourses about situations and people’s stories, and, thus, for shaping reality. Based on the author’s experience as both a practitioner and a lecturer in Italy, this article reflects on the implementation of critical report writing in social work practice and education. By analyzing two experiences that involved both service users and social work students, the findings highlight the potential and challenges of critical writing underlining the importance of writing as an element of professional identity that needs to be nurtured and addressed more consistently in social work education.