In this essay, the author considers the goals and uses of ethnography and qualitative inquiry in higher educational research as they are limited by commitments to verifying data and representing the "real" and argue for broader understandings of the practice and uses of such research. In particular, the author is concerned that the field's practical orientation creates pressures for verification of data, presuming that research can represent a "real" and that this "real" is essential to useful research. She then examines elements of verifying a "real," including member checks, triangulation, and transferability, and relates them to research purposes. She argues that if people limit themselves to foreseeable utility and to representing a "real," they limit their research to repeating itself and to repeating the status quo. Finally, the author advocates the creation of speculative research that concerns itself less with verifying the "real" it represents and more with opening new paths for thought.