Final Research Paper

Valerie Jozef

Dr. Chandler

12/18/12

Research Paper

Research Question: Does academic writing influence creative writing?

Introduction:

            As a current student and someone who has taken several English classes in college I wanted to focus on the writing aspect of English. Throughout my years of being in school I have been required to write both academic and creative pieces. There has been numerous times where I sat at my desk and was frustrated by the papers I had to write. These papers seemed to focus so heavily on the academic aspect that I felt as if my creative side wasn’t able to shine through. Any student who is taking as class wants the best possible grade. Some will settle for anything above a C and others truly wanted the best. The pressure to write a superb piece of paper for any institution is intense. Being able to realize this, I wanted to know if anyone else felt the same way as I did. Did students believe academic writing was valued more than creative writing and did students through academic writing have a way to still express their own thoughts.  To begin this research essay I will show early stages of education and how important reading and writing was to my participants as well as their first exposures to reading and writings. Next, I will discuss their current classes, papers they have written, and how they feel when they have to write papers either academically or creatively. Through both my interviews I found a lot of useful information however I thought I would find different answers. I was expecting both of my participants to say they disliked academic writing. However, what I found was that they liked having the guidelines given in an academic paper but they wanted some freedom as well to be creative with it.

Literature Review:

            Other studies have shown similar ideas that relate to this topic. In Jeff Park’s Writing on the Edge book he included a topic on expressive writing as the performance of the self. Park’s talks about a writer named Thomas Newkirk who states that writing is a performance and used as a form of expression. Newkirk claims that “ key features of these presentations is their selectivity; every act of self-presentation involves withholding information that might undermine the idealized impression the performer wants to convey” (p.137). Can we assume that certain students are being selective with their writing because of whom they are presenting their writing pieces to? Does academic or creative writing make students withhold certain pieces of their writing? How does academic or creative writing effect the way we write? Through my investigation with my participant’s interviews I’ve found that depending on the professor, guidelines, and if their work is being shared or not that students will watch how they write. In contrast, another theory I have looked at is by Maria Antonioua and Jessica Moriarty: What can academic writers learn from creative writers? They stated that: Academic writing is, in public academic discourse, seen as a straightforward, intellectually driven and logically ordered process. Hence, traditionally, where guidance and support on academic writing has existed, the focus has been on technical issues, e.g. structuring journal articles, and procedures and protocols for publishing. Little attention has been paid to the more holistic aspects, such as the lecturer-writer’s sense of self and identity, their emotional orientation to their writing and their creative process. I found very similar ideas when looking back at the interviews that were conducted. They felt that academic papers played a very big role in their education while little focus was placed on their creative writing.

Methods:

            For this paper I interviewed two people who had experience with not only high school but also college. I chose these two participants because they also had experience with several English classes, which of course writing had been involved in them. They were both females, ages 20 and 22. Alex, 20, is a communications major who had to take several English classes at her community college as well as Kean. Amy, 22, had to take English classes for requirement, not for her major. Before interviewing I had made up several questions and placed them into groups such as, general questions and in-depth questions. I interviewed each of the participants in our dorm room, in a quiet setting. Each interview took thirty minutes. I recorded them on my cell phone and then went back after the interviews were finished and transcribed both interviews. This helped me analyze what was discussed. I looked at the entire interview again, made notes, and highlighted important sections.

Presentations of Data:

                  Once all my work was organized I was able to break my findings into three categories. These three categories included views about writing academic and creatively, the way classes are set up and the effects on the writing, and the ability to write dependently. The following will show parts of the interview that was conducted. A1 is Amy. V will represent I, the interviewer and A is for Alex.

Views about writing academically and creatively:

V: Do you remember how you felt after you wrote your first piece of creative writing?

A:  I mean it was pretty cool because the piece was about anything I wanted it to be.

V: Which do you think is harder and why? Academic writing or creative writing?

A: Academic just because your told to do something and you have to do it that way. Creative writing is just like whatever comes to your mind or interests you.

V: Do you remember any writing that stood our to you? It could be creative or academic.

A: Um. An informative speech.

V: What your speech about?

A: Healthy eating. I was really passionate about it.

V: Would you say that paper was academic and creative?

A: Yes

Academic writing in her opinion was viewed as something that you were just supposed to do. You didn’t have any freedom because you are writing for a grade and have guidelines. Nevertheless, her thoughts on creative writing were that you have freedom and can focus on your own ideas. However, she had a speech that was able to merge these two types of writing together. She believe this is how all papers should be set up because even though you have to write academically you can still be creative by the way you write and your style.

The way classes are set up affects writing styles:

V: What is your opinion on how English classes are set up?

A1: I feel that they are set up in the basic way to explain to you how to write. I feel like teachers explain to you what you to do sometimes and you either get it or you don’t.

V: Do you believe that these classes meet the needs of the student?

A1: In a sense yes and in a sense no because depending on what you write about depends on what the teacher asks.

V: Do you think these classes allow the students to be creative?

A1: Yes if its creative writing and no if its for academic writing.

V: Have you ever felt restrained when writing a paper?

A1: Yes because I wanted to be creative with it but then I had to write it the way the teacher wanted.

V: Do you think academic writing is used more frequently then creative writing?

A1: Yes

V: Why do you think that is?

A1: Because when you’re in college there is so much more academic papers.

V:  Would you say that every student who’s in college should take creative writing?

A1: I think everyone should so they can express themselves.

         Through interviews I found that depending on the way a class is set up it affects the writing of a student. If a teacher presents material to a student in a way that is unfamiliar or unclear it poses a challenge. Also if the paper is strictly for academic purposes and doesn’t allow the student to express anything creatively, then the student begins to lose interest.

Influence on Writing Academically and Creatively

V: Do you think that being able to write creatively could help you write academically or the other way around?

A1: I think that maybe academic writing helps creative writing since your writing about all different topics.

V: What is the easiest part of academic writing?

A1: Figuring out the information first. I feel better once I write it out on paper.

V: Do you think creative writing helps academic writing or the other way around?

A: That’s interesting. I think that maybe academic writing helps creative writing just because it shows you structure and how to compose a correct piece of writing.

V: What is the easiest part of academic writing?

A: The fact that you have guidelines.

V: What is the hardest part?

A: That you might not write the way the teacher wants and they will effect your grade.

Both participants agreed that academic writing helped them write creatively. By being able to have a structure and guideline it shows you how to correctly write an essay, paper, etc. By having guidelines and a format it allows the writer to follow exactly what is required of them and know what expectations they need to meet in order to meet the goal of not only the teacher, but themselves.

Conclusion:

            Thomas Newkirk in his research claimed that writing is used as a performance and certain writers are selective about their pieces. This held true in my research because depending on whom they were writing for their writing style changed. They felt that if they were just writing or putting on a “performance” for themselves then they didn’t worry about their grammar, form, or style. However, once these pieces of writing became academic they had added pressure to produce a solid piece of writing. Maria Antonioua and Jessica Moriarty stated in their research that more focus was on academic writing because of its order and form where as creative writing was overlooked. This has similar qualities to the research I found. Both participants liked the guidelines and structure of their academic papers how they wanted their creative side to also shine through. They didn’t agree with how neglected the creative aspect of writing was. They both came to the conclusion that academic writing inspires creative writing. Academic writing allows you to learn steps and a process of writing a paper, which then can help with your creative piece. With more subjects as well as questions I might have been able to conclude more information about my research make this question much stronger. Overall, I had a lot of information which helped me answer this research question.