Creativity
vs. “Cramability”
In this class
there has been an assignment where students just had to create their own story
and put it on a blog and there has been the ongoing assignment of an analytical
research paper. There have been noted differences between these two assignments,
with the main one being that the blog project was a lot more creative and
thusly a lot more fun. The blog was a multi-page story that was created one
page at a time by different groups of students. The only prompt that had to be
followed was to continue the story where the last group left off. The only rule
was to include hyperlinks. This left so much room for the students to be
creative. The students could brainstorm and write about anything they wanted.
This was a lot more fun than the research paper. The analytical research paper
did let the students pick their own book, movie, etc. which was nice. However,
the research paper needs an analysis of the student’s text, a main argument about
the text, secondary sources to support the argument, and to put all the
previous things into six or seven pages worth of information. Translation-
boring. Boring may be a strong word to use but when the research paper is compared
to the blog project, then it is definitely appropriate. The fact that the
students got to choose their own text did lessen the boringness of the project
though, by a large factor. The goal of this research project, from a student’s
perspective, is to cram as much information as they can in order to fill the
page requirement, but the goal of the blog project is to be as creative and fun
as possible. With the blog project, the students find it very easy to be
creative and fun, whereas in the research, there is room for creativity, but it
is a lot harder to accomplish then in the blog project. The research project
does help with writing procedures and tips and can improve the student’s
ability to write a paper. With the blog project, the students learned how to
hyperlink, and maybe a few other minor things. Thusly the research paper is a
lot more substantial to the student’s learning of important paper-writing
concepts. However, this can be compared to spoon feeding a baby a protein
supplement. No matter what, even if a train or an airplane sound is used, or if
presents are promised at the end, the baby will not eat that supplement, at
least not with willingness. The blog project, on the other hand, can be likened
to a personal sized chocolate birthday cake that you let that baby demolish.
The baby will shove its hands in the cake, eat the cake like a dog, and even
throw the cake around the room. The end product is an overjoyed, chocolate-covered
baby. The cake wasn’t the healthiest thing, but it made a definite improvement
in that baby’s day. The protein
supplement was better for the baby, but the cake was a lot more enjoyable.
I found your blog very funny, but it still had great examples! I also usually think formal research papers are very boring. However, this one is different because of which sources we need and the fact that most of our papers are based off of movies, shows, or songs. Most research papers that I have always done are persuasive essays, so we pick a topic, do extensive research, then try to persuade the readers to believe the way we do. I like that this paper is different. I do wish, though, that we could write it like the digital storytelling project! It would make it more fun and lighten everybody’s stress levels. Plus, I’m sure they would be more interesting to grade, as well.
ReplyDeleteThat was an awesome analogy about the chocolate cake - perfect way to end your argument. I agree that the digital story project was more fun to write because groups got to make things up instead of having strict facts to stick to and "cramming" them into a paper. I personally think a research paper style of writing is easier because it is all fact, but that is because I'm not all that creative. For me, it is easier to take statements that are all true and real and put them together in a somewhat comprehensive format than it is to start with nothing and create a story. Overall I loved this post though.
ReplyDeleteThe title was great and definitely got my attention right away. As stated in both comments above, I loved the analogies that you used and the lighthearted approach you took. Although I have to agree with Megan in that I think research papers are easier to write also due to my lack of creativity, I think that your point was very interesting and easy to relate to. I feel that through this post I was not only able to get your perspective on things but I was also able to somewhat get a sense of who you are, which I always like when I read a paper. Great job.
ReplyDeleteThe title of this blog definitely grabbed my attention. That being said, I agree that writing creatively is a lot better than writing a research paper. A research paper is very forced and is mostly something you are being forced to write for some class or company. Creative writing is writing what you want to write. From my experiences, my best writing, in my opinion, is that that I have done creatively. The only downside is that creative writing does not usually hold any academic value. Research papers help develop writing skills that people need to learn. I agree with your preference of creative writing over research writing and enjoyed your post.
ReplyDeleteI like the title and the usage of the metaphor in your blog. It made the blog a lot easier and more interesting to read. However, I do not necessarily agree with the analogy. According to your metaphor, the analytic research paper is boring. While this could be absolutely true for you and other people, I do not believe that this boring quality is an intrinsic quality of the assignment, and the key factor to determining the level of interest is the topic chosen. I personally am not bored by my paper because I chose a topic that interests me, yet also has widespread social implications and presents a very real issue. Unfortunately, it is a lot more difficult to find such a topic for this research assignment than it is to write an interesting story for a creative assignment.
ReplyDeleteOverall, I found your blog very amusing to read. The use of metaphors and analogies made it very easy to follow what your argument was. The main difference between the two assignments is how much freedom you have. With the research assignment, yes, you can choose to write about whatever you want but then you can only write about that topic and write fact after fact after face, but with the digital story, there are endless storylines and you can be as creative as you want. I’m sure anyone would rather do the digital story because it is stress free and more fun to read.
ReplyDeleteLike other people who commented said, your title definitely caught my attention. I agree that with the digital storytelling project, you had few guidelines. This made completing the project a lot easier and allowed writing to flow easier. I found your post to be very entertaining. It was truthful and hilarious. I agree that writing analytical research papers is not very pleasing but it will be useful in the future. The research paper is a lot more work than the digital storytelling project, which is another reason why is not as enjoyable. The part of the research paper that makes it enjoyable is the fact we picked our sources and the stance we are taking.
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ReplyDeleteI like what you think about creative writing. However, I feel as though for the digital story project, although it was nice to have the prompt wide open, it was very hard to make things flow. As was the case in our class’s final product, the story had many plot diversions and it did not seem to have the flow and consistency a novel or short story would have. So yes, the digital story was great for creative writing and open interpretation but this sort of writing, in my opinion is not realistically smooth. If there were more specific prompts for the digital story, I feel as though the final product would work.
ReplyDeleteYour title really caught my eye, probably because I tend to be a 'crammer.' You made some interesting points about the differences between writing the digital story project and the analytical research paper. I picked a book I knew I liked to write about for the research paper, but that has not made it much easier for me. The blog project was way more fun than I thought it would be. I do think it would have been better with more direction because there was just a little too much going on. Even without much direction I thought it was a fun way for the class to get experience with writing in different mediums.
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree with you that the digital story telling left a lot of room for freedom, “some people” don’t always feel like the ideas of one member of the group are that good. Maybe the ideas dive a little too deep into the cruel or unusual but that’s what is great about free writing and fiction and yet “certain people” oppress the ideas of the “few”. I am not particularly speaking from personal experience but I am sure that you have an idea of what I am talking about. Also protein supplements aren’t good for anyone and can lead to bone loss, unhealthy weight gain, and kidney damage. I’ll take the cake.
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