This paper contains three parts. Part 1 consists of a poem, "An Apology for Performative Writing." Part 2, "The Traditional Scholar's Game--An Argument," discusses the arguments regarding performative writing. It identifies several key arguments both for and against the works that cluster around such labels as performative writing, autoethnography, performative essay, ethnodrama, personal ethnography, autoperformance, and ethnographic poetics; and uses the term "performative writing" to stand in for the many ongoing efforts for alternative modes of scholarly presentation. Part 3, "Performative Writing: A Personal Anecdote," gives the authors musings on performative writing. (Contains 4 notes and 25 references.) (CR)