Keywords

Creative writing, creative writers, composition, empirical research, workshop, pedagogy, genre theory, expertise, peer review, resources, writing process, invention, revision

Abstract

Current approaches to teaching creative writers the ways to success in creative writing courses consist largely of workshop style classes. While workshops often vary from class to class in style, generally a workshop will consist of a group of writers, led by a mentor/instructor, who exchange drafts and provide reader and writer focused feedback to the author. Yet because the workshop approach has not been the subject of close empirical study, it is unclear whether it is an effective pedagogy. This thesis serves two purposes. First, it presents an argument for new research into creative writing pedagogy and creative writers' processes and suggests that any future research should take an empirical turn. However, because creative writing has developed few theories or methods useful for the empirical study of creative writing, I suggest adopting theories and methods from the field of rhetoric and composition. The second part of this thesis is an empirical study of three creative writing undergraduate students in an introductory creative writing course over one semester. This study uses qualitative methods: semi-structured retrospective interviews, close textual analysis, and in-class observations to understand how creative writers are enculturated into the creative writing community using Christine Tardy's theories of acquiring genre expertise as a framework for analysis. Based on this research this study concludes that while creative writers enculturate in different ways, based on several factors, all creative writers develop greater awareness of genre complexity, authorial identity, and intermodal influences on their writing. Furthermore, this study recommends further case studies into creative writers writing processes and the effectiveness of various workshop models on student enculturation. ?

Notes

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Graduation Date

2015

Semester

Spring

Advisor

Marinara, Martha

Degree

Master of Arts (M.A.)

College

College of Arts and Humanities

Department

Writing and Rhetoric

Degree Program

English; Rhetoric and Composition

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0005589

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0005589

Language

English

Release Date

May 2015

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Masters Thesis (Open Access)

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