The term paper is about “The Importance of Creative Writing”. It is designed with various perspectives and all of them are designed gradually. Firstly, it shows the definition of writing and creative writing, then purpose of writing, benefits of writing, tools and materials of writing, writing method, teaching method, how to begin creative writing etc. The purpose of this paper is to show the real feature of creative writing and why it is very important for the learners, how it helps them in their practical and professional life.
- INTRODUCTION
Writing is a medium of communication that represents language through the impression of signs and symbols. In most languages, writing is an enhancement to speech or spoken language. Writing is not a language but a form of technology. Within a language system, writing relies on many of the same structures as speech, such as vocabulary, grammar and semantics, with the added dependency of a system of signs or symbols, usually in the form of a formal alphabet. The result of writing is generally called text, and the recipient of text is called a reader. Motivations for writing include publication, storytelling, correspondence and diary. Writing has been instrumental in keeping history, dissemination of knowledge through the media and the formation of legal systems.
As human societies emerged, the development of writing was driven by pragmatic exigencies such as exchanging information, maintaining financial accounts, codifying laws and recording history. Around the 4th millennium BCE, the complexity of trade and administration in Mesopotamia outgrew human memory, and writing became a more dependable method of recording and presenting transactions in a permanent form. In both Ancient Egypt and Meso america writing may have evolved through calender and a political necessity for recording historical and environmental events.
2. Creative Writing: Creative writing is the style of writing that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, or technical forms of literature, typically identified by an emphasis on narrative craft, character development, and the use of literary tropes or with various traditions of poetry and poetic. Due to the looseness of the definition, it is possible for writing such as feature stories to be considered creative writing, even though they fall under journalism, because the content of features is specifically focused on narrative and character development. Both fictional and non-fictional works fall into this category, including such forms as novels, biographies, short stories, and poems. In the academic setting, creative writing is typically separated into fiction and poetry classes, with a focus on writing in an original style, as opposed to imitating pre-existing genres such as crime or horror. Writing for the screen and stage—screenwriting and play writing—are often taught separately, but fit under the creative writing category as well.
Creative writing can technically be considered any writing of original composition. In this sense, creative writing is a more contemporary and process-oriented name for what has been traditionally called literature, including the variety of its genres.
3. Purpose of Creative Writing:
i) Expressing yourself
Share the best of yourself. Cut through the small talk and the chatter to what’s important; express the secret feelings and perceptions that don’t fit into polite conversation. Show your personal vision of the world, which is unique.
- ii) Entertaining yourself
Writing is a challenge, an adventure. When you’re in the thick of it, you can feel thoroughly absorbed. Write to add color, excitement, and meaning to your days.
iii) Keeping yourself company
You never have to feel lonely as long as you can write. Writing is a conversation — with yourself, with your future reader, with the books that have inspired you. You can also create characters of the persons who come alive in your imagination.
- iv) Living other lives
In real life, there are limits. In your writing, you can be anyone or anything. You can try on different lives, become a different person for a while, and transport yourself to another place or time.
- v) Touching other people
Offer your writing as a gift to others. Your writing can move people, make them feel intense emotions, keep them up all night passionately turning pages. You can create characters to keep them company. You can make their lives richer and more beautiful.
- vi) Exploring the functions and values of writing: It offers the writer to explore the knowledge from various sections. For doing this, the writer has to read and explore different things.
vii) Motivating imagination: Imagination can only be motivated by writing creative things. If the writer wants to create a new thing he has to imagine the matter from various sections and then he can decide from which perspective he can start and present.
viii) Clarifying thinking: Writing is the only object that can clarify the thinking of the writer. Our thinking will never clear without composing it in our paper.
- Benefits of Creative Writing:
Creative writing forces you to use your imagination in ways that make you more aware of, and also question, your surroundings. By encouraging the students to write from different narratives, it forces them to examine all sides of a story, not just one perspective.
Another benefit of teaching creative writing in public high schools is the gift of giving students a new way to look at themselves. Writing creatively helps inform people of who they really are and what they’re capable of in a way that most pedagogical courses, don’t. It is in creative writing courses where students unearth who they are. It is in creative writing courses where students look anew at the world around them, aware of the sacred little details that eluded them before. It is in creative writing courses where a student is forced to question and to seek.
It’s wrong to disenfranchise our youth by staving off creativity and imagination, we must embrace it. Teaching creative writing courses in public high schools can open a new door for the hopeless, for the misfits, for the adolescents who have yet to discover who they are, and for the adolescents who want to grow in who they are. To teach creative writing in high schools, in my eyes, is not frivolous, but the best gift you can give to the fledgling youth of this nation.
- Tools and materials for the Creative Writers:
The many tools and writing materials used throughout history include stone tablets, clay tablets, bamboo slats, wax tablets,vellum, parchment, paper, copperplate, styluses, quills, pencils, pens, and many styles of lithography. The typewriter and various forms of word processors have subsequently become widespread writing tools, and various studies have compared the ways in which writers have framed the experience of writing with such tools as compared with the pen or pencil.
- Tips and tricks for the beginners
Do some short exercises to stretch your writing muscles – if you’re short of ideas, read the Daily Writing Tips article on “Writing Bursts”. Many new creative writers find that doing the washing up or weeding the garden suddenly looks appealing, compared to the effort of sitting down and putting words onto the page. Force yourself to get through these early doubts, and it really will get easier. Try to get into the habit of writing every day, even if it’s just for ten minutes.
If you’re stuck for ideas, carry a notebook everywhere and write down your observations. You’ll get some great lines of dialogue by keeping your ears open on the bus or in cafes, and an unusual phrase may be prompted by something you see or smell.
Work out the time of day when you’re at your most creative. For many writers, this is first thing in the morning – before all the demands of the day jostle for attention. Others write well late at night, after the rest of the family has gone to bed. Don’t be afraid to experiment!
Don’t agonize over getting it right. All writers have to revise and edit their work – it’s rare that a story, scene or even a sentence comes out perfectly the first time. Once you’ve completed the initial draft, leave the piece for a few days – then come back to it fresh, with a red pen in hand. If you know there are problems with your story but can’t pinpoint them, asks a fellow writer to read through it and give feedback.
Have Fun! Sometimes, we the writers can end up feeling that our writing is a chore, something that “must” be done, or something to procrastinate over for as long as possible. If your plot seems wildly far-fetched, your characters bore you to tears and you’re convinced that a five-year old with a crayon could write better prose … take a break. Start a completely new project, something which is purely for fun. Write a poem or a 60-word “mini saga”. Just completing a small finished piece can help if you’re bogged down in a longer story.
- Teaching Method of the Course:
This course will be delivered in seminar format with heavy involvement of the participants in the discussion of relevant articles assigned to a given topic. The instructor will provide introduction to each topic and lead the discussion to encourage the students to critique and develop concepts, ideas, methods, and applications presented in the articles. The instructor will also ask the students to provide a written analysis and critique of three to four articles picked from the most recent design-oriented research work published in major journals. This will be done in order to assess the ability of students to apply the learned theoretical material projects.
- Evaluation
Class contribution 25%
Article analysis & critique 25%
Presentation & leading discussion 15%
Conceptual paper 35%
8.1. Class Contribution
Students are expected to read all the required material for the assigned day of the class. They are also encouraged to familiarize themselves with the suggested readings. These complementary readings would help the students to better understand the subject and to make quality contribution to class discussions. Students are expected to be actively involved in the discussions. The analytic and critical insights that the students will provide during the discussion will help the instructor to assess the width and the depth of the students’ understanding of the assigned topic.
8.2. Presentation & Leading Discussion
Students will be asked to pick an example article for oral presentation in class. They are expected to present the problem addressed, the methodology, the solution, and the findings, similar to making a conference presentation. They must underline the strengths and weaknesses of the presented work. They should also be able to answer questions raised by the other participants and the instructor and lead discussions concerning the possible improvements, as well as future research in a given direction.
8.3. Conceptual Paper
One of the major components of the course is the preparation of conceptual papers, which could be done individually, or in groups of two people. The purpose of this exercise is to assess the students’ synthetic or constructive abilities in addition to the analytic ones. The paper will be a proposal for conducting a research project. To this end, the students will be asked to pick a relevant business problem area for conceptualizing a generic solution approach. The students will do a literature survey about existing work in that area in order to identify gaps or improvement opportunities. When the students will write their term papers, they have to explore a range of issues in different ways – creatively, imaginatively, and playfully. Writing can raise self-awareness and self-knowledge leading to greater confidence. Similarly, participants can also develop a greater understanding of their strengths. Writing in a group can be very powerful as it leads to a sharing which can create strong bonds, a team spirit, philosophy, purpose and focus.
Recommendation: I think the system of our course designing is totally process oriented and it is totally different from our traditional course designing. Similarly, it is career and innovation based. After completing the course the learners will be able to be:
Good thinker
Innovative learner
Smart learner
Advanced learner
Realistic learner
Conceptual learner
Thoughtful learner
Critical learner
Analytical learner
Conclusion: It is clear that creative writing makes a learner totally confidential and imaginative. Similarly, it can explore the hidden concept of the learners and help and inspire them to creative new world. The purpose of the course is to find out the creativity and to create the students totally good thinker, conceptual and realistic.
References:
Adamson, S. J., Doherty, N., & Viney, C. (1998). The meanings of career revisited: Implications for theory and practice. British Journal of Management, 9, 251-259.
Al-Issa, A. S. (2005). An Ideological Discussion of the Impact of the NNESTs’ English Language Knowledge on ESL Policy Implementation “A Special Reference to the Omani Context”. Asian EFL Journal, 7(3).
Bell, J. (1999). Doing Your Research Project (3rd ed.). Buckinghamshire: Open.
Brown, D. (2002). The role of work and cultural values in occupational choice, satisfaction, and success: A theoretical statement. Journal of Counseling and Development, 80, 48-56.
Pacific Grove, CA: Critical Thinking Press & Software.
Perkins, D.N. (September 1985). ‘What Creative Thinking Is’. Educational Leadership. Vol. 42, No. 1, pp. 18–24.
Ramsden, P. (1992). Learning to Teach in Higher Education. London: Routledge
Swartz, R.J. & Parks, S. (1994). Infusing Critical and Creative Thinking into Content Instruction.
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