Effects of creative writing on adolescent students’ literary response

This chapter examines whether creative writing prior to reading influences students’ reading process and appreciation of short stories. Participants were 53 fifteen year old students, assigned to two conditions. In the writing condition students composed their own stories, and then read the authors᾽ stories while thinking aloud. In the non-writing condition they responded to the stories without writing. Think aloud responses were analyzed for the (meta)cognitive and affective reading activities students displayed. Story appreciation was measured by a questionnaire. Results indicate that the creative writing group showed more emotional engagement during reading than the non-writing group. Moreover, the creative writing group appreciated the stories more after reading than did the non-writing group. This suggests that writing as a pre-reading activity may positively influence students’ reading engagement.